In the Pond [Hardcover]

Ha Jin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1998

Fiction. Asian Studies. Winner of the Hemingway/PEN Award for first fiction for his story collection OCEAN OF WORDS, and of the Flannery O'Connor Award for short fiction for UNDER THE RED FLAG, Ha Jin is a writer of stark power, simple beauty and poignant irony. IN THE POND is a close, unsentimental depiction of life in a small faCtory town; the manuevering, posturing, petty jealousies and injustices of an ordinary man, Shao Bin, who tangles with the party bosses. In this first novel, as in his short fiction,

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In the Pond is a slim little book about some very big issues: power, vanity, art, injustice, and politics. Where Tom Wolfe would find the makings for a doorstop, however, debut novelist Ha Jin has created a rough-cut comic gem. Set in Communist China, the book takes as its hero a small, unprepossessing man named Shao Bin, a maintenance employee at the Harvest Fertilizer Plant and also a self-taught artist. Together with his wife and 2-year-old daughter, Bin inhabits a tiny 12-by-20-foot room. Bin is desperate to move into the newly built workers' compound, and he places his name on the waiting list with high hopes. But when the plant managers pass him over, despite the fact that he's been working there for years, Bin finally cracks. "In brief, the true scholar's brush must encourage good and warn against evil," he reads in The Essence of Ancient Chinese Thought, and inspired, he publishes a satirical cartoon protesting official corruption. The consequences of this simple act snowball, and in self-defense, Bin finds himself aiming his attacks ever higher up the bureaucratic ladder. This is a book that works on multiple levels: as character study, as political allegory, as sly bureaucratic satire, even, at times, as the broadest kind of slapstick. (One memorable scene involves Bin biting his superior on the butt.) Bin himself is half persecuted artist, half self-righteous boor; readers both sympathize with him and wonder along with one of his coworkers, "Why do you enjoy fighting so much?" Even his putative victory is left in doubt. As the book ends, Shao Bin has become perhaps a bigger fish, but there's no doubt about it; he's in the very same small pond where he started. --Mary Park

From Publishers Weekly

Prize-winning short-story writer Ha Jin (Ocean of Words won the PEN/Hemingway Award for first fiction; Under the Red Flag won the Flannery O'Connor Award) offers a wise and funny first novel that gathers meticulously observed images into a seething yet restrained tale of social injustice in modern China. Talented artist Shao Bin has an unsatisfying job at a large fertilizer plant. After being denied a decent housing assignment, he begins a series of retaliatory satirical cartoons, which illustrate his employers' flaws and in turn earn their wrath?which in turn inspires more cartoons. When his superiors try to transfer him, they are chagrined to discover that Bin is much in demand?and that any new job he gets is likely to be a step up. So they decide to keep him on. After an occasionally monotonous sequence of attacks and counterattacks, Bin finally gets promoted to the propaganda office. He is ecstatic, although his family must still make do with the same uncomfortable apartment that started the conflict. Luckily, the characters' complexity saves the story from political overkill. The supervisors, through moments of vulnerability, come to seem like genuinely detestable human beings rather than one-dimensional villains. Bin, similarly, is both justifiably indignant and annoying in his self-absorption. Ha Jin's humor initially appears clownish but almost always has a double purpose: when Bin's supervisor sits on his face to silence him, Bin bites the boss' posterior?illustrating rather vividly his refusal to kiss ass. Through Ha Jin's gently ironic treatment, Bin's struggle both to achieve power in his community and retain his own dignity transcends its Communist Chinese setting, engagingly illustrating a universal conundrum.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 178 pages
• Publisher: Zoland Books; First Edition edition (June 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0944072925
• ISBN-13: 978-0944072929
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,098,147 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A comic and satirical view of Communist China, May 20, 2000

By 

Linda Linguvic (New York City) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: In the Pond (Paperback)

Deceptively simple, this slim book, set in Communist China, is the story of Shao Bin, a maintenance worker by day and an aspiring artist by night. When denied a larger apartment for his small family, he creates a political cartoon blaming his bosses for corruption. This begins of series of increasingly provocative attacks and counterattacks as the humble man outwits his superiors over and over again.

The author, Ha Jin, came to the United States at the age of 29 in 1985, having spent six years serving in the People's Liberation Army. His descriptions of daily life and typical frustrations are refreshing. This is not a book about prison camps or starvation. This is not a book about the tyranny of communism or of escape to freedom. This is simply a book about a man who wants a larger apartment.

Anyone who has ever felt frustration by being a little fish in a big pond can identify with Shao Bin who, in spite of setback after setback just keeps on going. There is satire in this book, and very funny slapstick comedy, and I felt myself laughing out loud at times.

Do not miss this delightful gem of a book.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read This Book, December 14, 1999

By 

Kim Shannon (St. Louis, MO) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In the Pond (Hardcover)

Normally I wouldn't take the time to do something like this, but this is one of the best books I've ever read. When I read, I tend to be aware of style--that an author is trying to convey something in a certain way. I was swept away by this book. In the book, the main character thinks about what it means to produce a masterpiece; he thinks it means to become one with the artistic piece. "In the Pond" must be a masterpiece. The story is so alive. You live the book as you read it. You feel as if you're there. If you'd like to get outside of yourself completely for awhile, this is the book for you.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A slim, sly and perceptive novel, July 23, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Florida & Kentucky) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In the Pond (Hardcover)

After first reading Ha Jin's short story collections, like Under the Red Flag, I was very interested in reading a novel. He did not disappoint. One might expect the gut punch his stories like "Emperor" throw at us, but rather Jin did what few can do well. He created a subtle satire that extends beyond Communist China to all the world, just imagine your corporate heirarchy instead of a communist regime. Using humor that is either sly or farcical, he reminded me of another cunning writer, Don Delillo. In studying what makes a hero, he gets closer to such a character, a more real person than any Odysseus could ever be. This is the best book that I have read in the past year, except maybe McCarthy's Cities of the Plain.