Customer Reviews

WAITING

5 star:		(92)
4 star:		(115)
3 star:		(59)
2 star:		(30)
1 star:		(29)

 

 

Reading this book one is reminded of the old Hemingway saw about how fiction should only give away the tip of the iceberg. The graceful, simple prose of this book reveals just the smallest portion of the complex emotional and politcal currents that run beneath this story. This is the kind of book that, once you have finished, you cannot get out of your head. The book jacket calls Ha Jin a "sturdy realist," but that's not really right; his prose has much more in common with a modernist minimalism. A must read for anyone who thinks that fiction writing in America is moribund.

I believe I can understand the negative comments this book has received, but I do not agree with them. Having several Asian friends, I was fascinated by the glimpse into Chinese culture--not only the political landscape, but family relations. I think people may be expecting something more grandiose from this book since it is an award winner. Rather, this book is like its main character, subtle. The narrative is straight forward, and the story is literally about "waiting," waiting for a period in your life to begin. I think what this book gives us, besides a wonderful peek into Chinese society, is a lesson to find what we love in life and revel in it. This is not a book to "polish off quickly." Rather it is one to read and think about each word, and the way those words are presented. I loved it. I finished the book several weeks ago, and I still think of Lin, and wonder if he will ever really know happiness.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book - as much for what it reveals of China as for the plot. The three people at the center of this novel --husband, wife and the 'girlfriend' (not mistress, that step is too dangerous for them to risk) who waits 18 years for him to get a divorce-- are in a state of limbo for much of their adult lives, constricted as they are by the laws of their society and by the limitations of their experience. This is a fast, easy book to read, but I don't mean this to sound negative, much is going on beneath the surface of an apparently straightforward story, and it left me contemplating how much we all take for granted about the laws of our society, how rarely we question the conventions we're brought up with. Well worth reading.

What many of the reviewers of this book seem to be missing about this work by Ha Jin is its allegorical nature, that draws more than one reminder in this reader's mind to Orwell's "Animal Farm." Yes, it is written in a simple manner both in style and in plot. Some would call this the story's strength and others, it's weakness. One thing is clear, however. The narrative that Ha has crafted is not simply one about lovers who through the constraints of their cultural and political situation cannot consummate their relationship. It is not simply about not being satisfied with what we have and waiting for what we want while life passes us by. Put simply, to classify this a love story is to do this work a disservice.

On a symbolic level, Ha is telling us the story of the China of the 20th century and the struggle of its people to come to terms with the convulsive transitions (e.g. Great Leap Forward, Cultural Revolution) that this nation has experienced over the past 100 years. To say that China is a land of complexities and contradictions is a vast understatement. One of the most basic dilemmas of the last century has been the struggle between old China, the land of emperors, Confucius, and bound feet, and new China, industrial and economic man-child, forcing its way into the modern world. This is the conflict around which this story unfolds. Every character is a symbolic representation of larger belief systems, ideas, and positions in modern Chinese society. In this context, it is not difficult to guess what Shuyu and Manna represent.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, because of the poignant statement it makes about the state of China, a land that, as a Chinese-American whose family has lived abroad for 50 years, I have a profound need to connect with. I recommend it wholeheartedly.

The author, Ha Jin (Xuefei Jin) left China in 1985. Illiterate until his mid-teens, he presently teachs English at Emory University and has published two books of poetry, two collections of short stories, and two novels.

"Waiting" is a simple fairy tale, a story in which much is being said underneath its surface. Based on an old ancient Chinese folktale (or a true story as defined by the author in an interview), Ha Jin recreates and sets the plot in a moder post-revolutionary China. There is a two-fold approach: the universal, in which Ha Jin deals with human nature, its virtues and frailties, the issues of loyalty, duty, friendship, betrayal, and love; and the strictly Chinese, the social/political system. Although the characters are not politically oriented and the plot evolves indifferent to the chaotic world outside the insular setting, there is a clear political allegory and ideological irony (the book has been banned in China). All the characters are directly or indirectly victims of a social/political system, of a collective society where the individual can never exist or act "per se."

The plot is a love triangle: Lin Kong, a Chinese physician, loyal officer of the Revolutionary Army, entangled in a loveless pre-arranged marriage, for 18 years desperately seeking a divorce; his wife, Shuyu, an illeterate village girl, bound feet, subservient, and with a moral superiority which the author does not explore; Manna Wu, a modern woman, hospital nurse, in love with Lin Kong. Lin Kong personifies the sleepwalker, a man who is pushed and pulled by others' opinions, by external pressures, and by internalized official rules. A fourth character (Gen Yang), although secondary, is the anti-thesis of Lin, being opportunistic and ruthless he holds to the belief that "character is fate," he defies and uses the system in his favor, and gets away with what he wishes.

The prose is concise, clear, with beautiful lyrical passages and imagery. It portrays a life perspective different from Western society, a reality much un-known outside China and sometimes difficult for the outsider to understand. It will much depend on the reader's sensitivity and cultural openness to get the most out of this novel.

Ha Jin does some things splendidly: his prose style is supple and evocative for all of its simplicity , especially his descriptions of nature, and he conveys a wonderful sense of the living conditions under which his characters labor and love (or try to). For the first third of the book, I was remarkably engaged. But I don't think Jin has quite escaped the trap of how to wrtie about waiting without becoming a little dull--sort of like trying to write about boredom without becoming boring. These characters never quite came to life for me, and the author's own unkindly dissection of his protagonist's shortcomings near the end undermine the book's ongoing critique of Communist China--yes, Communism bad, especially in the quasi-rabid forms it has taken in China, controlling almost every aspect of these charaters' lives (good thing capitalism doesn't do that)--but could this character have been happy in any society? Another pitfall is that Jin seems to set us up for some sort of slam-bang ending after all the waiting--yet the final 50 pages or so are surprisingly muted. I may have unconsciously docked the book one star for what seems to me the beginning writer's ploy of having characters ask themselves questions in sets of threes--obvious questions at that, and a bit too frequently. After my initial engagement, I was frankly a little disapointed, especially after following up "Waiting" with J.M. Coetzee's "Disgrace" which covers some of the same themes in a starker yet richer tone.

i am a chinese woman myself & find this to be a beautifully written book with a real story to tell about love & life in modern china.

admittedly the novel does sound strangely "translated" from the chinese. u can actually pick out many literal chinese phrases like "stupid egg" that a western reader would perhaps find weird, disjointed & possibly unintelligible.

believe me when i say that this book describes very truly how chinese people love & why.

not only has "waiting" magically captured the universal truths of love (in all it's fragility & forms)amidst the pressures of society, culture & enforced political climate, which would explain why it won a well-deserved national book award, it also serves as a very accurate behind-the-scenes look at why the chinese act & behave the way they behave.

there are different little character rhythms from lin kong, manna, shuyu, hua & her uncle sprinkled all over the book that are only too familiar to any chinese who have been brought up in strict households from infants to be ruthlessly filial, obediant & good to the point of being uptight & submissive.

i am not saying that western people are not brought up with the same good qualities but the almost-oppressive way that these virtues are drummed in from young are a totally chinese thing.

read this book with an open mind & heart to learn more about the chinese people & i believe u will not be disppointed.

"Waiting" shows the truth in the maxim that life is what happens when we wait for life to begin. Set in industrial Northeast China in the years before, during and just after the Cultural Revolution, the book is not overtly about politics, but rather about how individuals try to find their bit of happiness within the constraints imposed by society and character. On another level, the ambivalence the protagonist feels toward his traditional wife in the village, and the woman he loves in the city, is a proxy for China's own transition from a traditional culture to a modern, communist state -- which itself becomes weary and exhausted as the world changes around it. Ha Jin has a wonderful touch with evocative details, and brings to life a time and place that is already slipping into history.

Ha Jin has done it again! "Waiting" is absolutely wonderful. Ha Jin has a way of bring a character to life, and give even the most minor player in the story flesh and blood. The honesty in his work really touched me. Buy the book, you won't be disappointed.

WAITING by Ha Gin

Once in a great while, a work of art-a book, a play, a painting-reveals a truth so profound that you cannot believe that you were not previously aware of it. Waiting, the 1999 National Book Award for Fiction by the Chinese author Ha Gin, is such a book. "Your character is your fate" is such a truth.

The book is brief; it can be read in one sitting. The writing is spare, unadorned, and as natural as breathing. The subject is love: love as loyalty, love as hope, love as comfort, love as passion, love as endurance. It is as much about the absence of love as it is about its presence. In a dual setting of rural and urban China following the Cultural Revolution, there is much to learn of the history, the culture and the boundaries of the individuals who live the story. The individuals, like people everywhere, are a living kaleidoscope of their background and their environment. Like spinning silk, Gin develops their character, which, in turn, propels their fate.

From the metaphor of the single dark braid on the cover of the book, Gin laps and twists and binds his story. The opening sentence sets the repetitive structure in motion: "Every summer Lin Kong returned to Goose Village to divorce his wife, Shuyu." For eighteen years Lin Kong goes back and forth between his wife, Shuyu, and his unconsumated lover, Manna Wu; between the ancient culture of Goose Village and his life as a doctor in modern Muji City. His eventual marriage to Manna Wu is not a culmination; it is another loop in the braid. There is much more to come.

Waiting is not exceptional because of its adept English prose written by a Chinese author; it is exceptional because of its clarity, its honesty, its compassion and its universal humanity-appropriate values to honor with the last National Book Award of the twentieth century.