Waiting: A Novel

Average customer rating:

"No wonder people say marriage is the death of love."

Welcome to China

character driven, not plot driven book

Empty Story

reall good book

Waiting: A Novel
Ha Jin
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0375706410
Release Date: 2000-09-19

Amazon.com

"Every summer Lin Kong returned to Goose Village to divorce his wife, Shuyu." Like a fairy tale, Ha Jin's masterful novel of love and politics begins with a formula--and like a fairy tale, Waiting uses its slight, deceptively simple framework to encompass a wide range of truths about the human heart. Lin Kong is a Chinese army doctor trapped in an arranged marriage that embarrasses and repels him. (Shuyu has country ways, a withered face, and most humiliating of all, bound feet.) Nevertheless, he's content with his tidy military life, at least until he falls in love with Manna, a nurse at his hospital. Regulations forbid an army officer to divorce without his wife's consent--until 18 years have passed, that is, after which he is free to marry again. So, year after year Lin asks his wife for his freedom, and year after year he returns from the provincial courthouse: still married, still unable to consummate his relationship with Manna. Nothing feeds love like obstacles placed in its way--right? But Jin's novel answers the question of what might have happened to Romeo and Juliet had their romance been stretched out for several decades. In the initial confusion of his chaste love affair, Lin longs for the peace and quiet of his "old rut." Then killing time becomes its own kind of rut, and in the end, he is forced to conclude that he "waited eighteen years just for the sake of waiting."

There's a political allegory here, of course, but it grows naturally from these characters' hearts. Neither Lin nor Manna is especially ideological, and the tumultuous events occurring around them go mostly unnoticed. They meet during a forced military march, and have their first tender moment during an opera about a naval battle. (While the audience shouts, "Down with Japanese Imperialism!" the couple holds hands and gazes dreamily into each other's eyes.) When Lin is in Goose Village one summer, a mutual acquaintance rapes Manna; years later, the rapist appears on a TV report titled "To Get Rich Is Glorious," after having made thousands in construction. Jin resists hammering ideological ironies like these home, but totalitarianism's effects on Lin are clear:

Let me tell you what really happened, the voice said. All those years you waited torpidly, like a sleepwalker, pulled and pushed about by others' opinions, by external pressure, by your illusions, by the official rules you internalized. You were misled by your own frustration and passivity, believing that what you were not allowed to have was what your heart was destined to embrace.

Ha Jin himself served in the People's Liberation Army, and in fact left his native country for the U.S. only in 1985. That a non-native speaker can produce English of such translucence and power is truly remarkable--but really, his prose is the least of the miracles here. Improbably, Jin makes an unconsummated 18-year love affair loom as urgent as political terror or war, while history-changing events gain the immediacy of a domestic dilemma. Gracefully phrased, impeccably paced, Waiting is the kind of realist novel you thought was no longer being written. --Mary Park

Book Description

"In Waiting, Ha Jin portrays the life of Lin Kong, a dedicated doctor torn by his love for two women: one who belongs to the New China of the Cultural Revolution, the other to the ancient traditions of his family's village. Ha Jin profoundly understands the conflict between the individual and society, between the timeless universality of the human heart and constantly shifting politics of the moment. With wisdom, restraint, and empathy for all his characters, he vividly reveals the complexities and subtleties of a world and a people we desperately need to know."--Judges' Citation, National Book Award

"Ha Jin's novel could hardly be less theatrical, yet we're immediately engaged by its narrative structure, by its wry humor and by the subtle, startling shifts it produces in our understanding of characters and their situation."--The New York Times Book Review

"Subtle and complex--his best work to date. A moving meditation on the effects of time upon love."--The Washington Post

"A high achievement indeed."--Ian Buruma, The New York Review of Books

"A portrait of Chinese provincial life that terrifies with its emptiness even more than with its all-pervasive vulgarity. The poet in [Jin] intersperses these human scenes with achingly beautiful vignettes of natural beauty."--Los Angeles Times

"A simple love story that transcends cultural barriers--. From the idyllic countryside to the small towns in northeast China, Jin's depictions are filled with an earthy poetic grace--. Jin's account of daily life in China is convincing and rich in detail."--The Chicago Tribune

"Compassionate, earthy, robust, and wise, Waiting blends provocative allegory with all-too-human comedy. The result touches and reveals, bringing to life a singular world in its spectacular intricacy."--Gish Jen, author of Who's Irish?

"A remarkable love story. Ha Jin's understanding of the human heart and the human condition transcends borders and time. Waiting is an outstanding literary achievement."--Lisa See, author of On Gold Mountain

Download Description

"Waiting" is the story of Lin Kong, a man living in two worlds, struggling with the conflicting claims of two utterly different women as he moves through the political minefields of a society designed to regulate his every move and stifle the promptings of his innermost heart. For more than seventeen years, the ambitious doctor has been in love with an educated, clever, modern woman, Manna Wu. But back in the traditional world of his home village lives the wife his family chose for him when he was young -- a humble and touchingly loyal woman, whom he visits every summer, year after year, in order to ask unsuccessfully for a divorce. Ha Jin draws on his intimate knowledge of contemporary China to create a novel of unexpected richness and feeling.

Customer Reviews:

"No wonder people say marriage is the death of love." .......2007-07-24

thinks the main character in this story about tradition, family, love and loyalty. Army Doctor Lin Kong, at the urging of his family, agrees to an arranged marriage with a footbound woman from the country. They have a child together, but little else in the way of a relationship. She remains at their home raising their daughter, caring for her ailing parents (and his), while he works at a hospital in the city. Eventually, he becomes interested in having a relationship with a nurse named Manna, and, in order not to jeopardize his standing at the hospital and to comply with the strict rules involving relationships between members of the staff, he decides to divorce his wife. Year after year, he returns home, discusses the situation with his her and cajoles her into going along with it in front of a judge. But invariably, although sometimes with the intervention of her loyal brother, she gets cold feet. He waits "torpidly," knowing that at the 18 years of separation mark, the divorce can be granted without his wife's consent.

Novel negatives: The writing is on the stiff side, a particularly graphic scene is included, and getting through the first two-thirds of it is about as insufferable as the wait of Lin and Manna. Positives: With only a handful of characters appearing in the novel, there is ample space to learn what makes them tick and (patience being a virtue) the virtuous will be rewarded with an entertaining resolution. The story's message may fall somewhere between: "The grass is greener on the other side of the fence," "If you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with," and, "You reap what you sow." Whichever, it provides a lesson about how an individual's choices can affect the lives of many. Was it worth the wait? For the reader, yes, for Lin Kong, read and find out. Better: Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth, Amy Tan's The Bonesetter's Daughter and The Kitchen God's Wife and Anchee Min's Red Azalea.

Welcome to China.......2007-06-06

Ha Jin's novel, "Waiting", resembles a more contemporary version of Pearl Buck's "The Good Earth." Like Wang Lung, Lin Kong never seems to be at peace. The love he wants is always beyond his grasp. Lin waits 18 years for his wife to consent to divorce before he can finally marry his love, Manna. But the ideal Lin has carried with him for 18 years is not what life presents. Often times I wanted to scream at Lin and Manna, but other times I could feel their frustration and wanted to reach out and comfort them.

All in all, I enjoyed "Waiting." It was a moving and sometimes comical tale full of recent Chinese history and great character development.

character driven, not plot driven book.......2007-03-02

This spare novel caught my eye since I had worked for many years for a company owned and mostly populated by Chinese. As such, I was an observer of the culture and the indirect way of communicating that permeated the company. "Waiting" was a novel that was familiar to me due to my experience, yet startling new in its exploration of the character of a man willing to wait, rather than to act. The character development of the major players is excellent and the emotions that each feels is described in a way concise, yet palpable way. I am not sure whether to give this 4 or 5 stars - I keep waffling so I wish there were a 4.5 designation. Nevertheless, highly recommended.

Empty Story.......2007-01-10

I admired the Professor's ability to write in English, whose first language is Chinese. I know how hard it's. But the book just described a plain story, too be honest, just by using plain words, nothing exciting to read, nothing to think about after finishes.

reall good book.......2007-01-06

This is one of those books that makes you think long afterward. About a Chinese doctor who just does not know how to be happy. Very expertly crafted.

Average customer rating:

Graphic SF Reader
Good Intro
Toleration of our Differences, with Excessive Backgrounds
very good moore/ha work...
Comics have never been this good

Top Ten: The Forty-Niners (Top Ten)
Alan Moore
Manufacturer: DC Comics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1401205739

Book Description

This is the tale of Neopolis, a modern metr-opolis with a citizenry made up exclusively of super beings. In this city where everyone is blessed with powers, it takes a unique and powerful police force to protect and serve.The officers of Precinct 10 encounter all manner of the super powered and the supernatural on a routine basis.The Eisner Award-winning TOP 10 team of writer Alan Moore and artist Gene Ha reunites for a graphic novel that delves into the past, revealing the origins of Neopolis and the first officers of Top Ten.Discover the original Top 10 officers who blazed the trail and made Neopolis the city it is today.

Customer Reviews:

Graphic SF Reader.......2007-09-03

There aren't a lot of comics that are good enough to bother with hardbacks, I think. Top 10 is one of them, though.

The story of Jetlad's arrival in Neopolis, his relationships, and how his first group had to deal with a lot of vampires.

The plot twist and cleverness here is very cool.

Good Intro.......2007-09-01

It would be cliché to say that only Alan Moore could have written this prequel to the amazing Top 10 comics, however, the high quality of the storytelling speaks for its self. The level of complexity in Forty Niners never reached the ridiculous level that it did in the other Top 10 books, but it was clear how everything in the original Top 10 books was directly related to what happened here. The world is shadier, and the artists did a wonderful job of capturing the post WWII feel. A bit of social commentary is included as one can see that several of the problems facing the characters in Forty Niners are still with them, at least in some form, in the other Top 10 books. Since I've already crossed the cliché border, if you liked Top 10, you'll love Top 10 Forty Niners.

Toleration of our Differences, with Excessive Backgrounds.......2007-04-03

The parts of the story which really shine for me are about human relationships -- the search for purpose, for community, and love. The real emotions expressed by the Steve Traynor and Leni Muller characters are what set Moore's writing apart from others.

There's a strong thread about the need for toleration and forgiveness. None of the characters are perfect, all express some form of racist feelings for one group or another.

But, once again, Moore's weakness is his vast knowledge of the comic medium. Just as in the "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" books, the backgrounds in this book are chock full of clever references to every 19th and 20th century cartoon character you could imagine. Glance at a billboard on a side of a building, and you'll find the name of a cartoon/comic book writer or artist.

A part of me likes the "Where's Wally" aspect of this, the fan-boy part of me. But I also find it rather childish, and off-putting for the great story that's going on in the foreground.

In the end though, the excessive citation rate can be ignored.

very good moore/ha work..........2007-01-18

first off the artwork is stupendous. the writing is very good in this as well. recommended

Comics have never been this good.......2006-05-03

Alan Moore is one of the most praised writer in comics and graphic storyteller. He deserves every good word written. This is a beautiful story full of characters that seem real (even if they ride a mechanical broomstick or look like a robot). The artwork is breathtaking. Every panel could be framed and admired. I'm so happy that there are smart comics for grown ups. Still, there is nothing pretentious or precious about the storytelling. "The Forty-Niners" reminds me why I fell in love with comics all those years ago. I hope to see more stories about these characters in the future.

Average customer rating:

Good description of human character
Not a haha, but a winner
Listened to it on ebook
Exposition Overload
Dave King's HA HA

The Ha-Ha : A Novel
Dave King
Manufacturer: Amazon Remainders Account
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: B000GRU1ME

Amazon.com

Peel back the made-for-TV-movie premise of Dave King's The Ha-Ha and you'll find a shrewd, engrossing, and occasionally gritty first novel in the tradition of Jane Smiley. Howard is a brain-damaged Vietnam vet who can't speak or write, but who has managed to establish a reasonably good life in his small Midwestern hometown. In fact, Howard's chief limitation isn't his silence but his lingering romantic attachment to his high school girlfriend, Sylvia, now the drug-addicted single mother of a nine-year-old boy named Ryan (not Howard's child). Accustomed to Howard's devotion--and equally accustomed to rejecting his love, like a campfire she pees on again and again--Sylvia more or less dumps Ryan on him when she is forced to enter rehab. Yes, the handicapped vet must forge a relationship with the sullen fatherless boy. With material as Hallmark-tinged like this, it's only through vivid, honest, and far from syrupy characterization that King keeps sentimentality at bay. You can predict what happens when the gruff Howard begins to coach Little League (aw, shucks), but not his ferocious reaction to Sylvia's eventual betrayal. A skillful debut with several surprises. --Regina Marler

Book Description

Peel back the made-for-TV-movie premise of Dave King's The Ha-Ha and you'll find a shrewd, engrossing, and occasionally gritty first novel in the tradition of Jane Smiley. Howard is a brain-damaged Vietnam vet who can't speak or write, but who has managed to establish a reasonably good life in his small Midwestern hometown. In fact, Howard's chief limitation isn't his silence but his lingering romantic attachment to his high school girlfriend, Sylvia, now the drug-addicted single mother of a nine-year-old boy named Ryan (not Howard's child). Accustomed to Howard's devotion--and equally accustomed to rejecting his love, like a campfire she pees on again and again--Sylvia more or less dumps Ryan on him when she is forced to enter rehab. Yes, the handicapped vet must forge a relationship with the sullen fatherless boy. With material as Hallmark-tinged like this, it's only through vivid, honest, and far from syrupy characterization that King keeps sentimentality at bay.You can predict what happens when the gruff Howard begins to coach Little League (aw, shucks), but not his ferocious reaction to Sylvia's eventual betrayal.A skillful debut with several surprises. --Regina Marler

Customer Reviews:

Good description of human character.......2007-10-02

I think the beauty of this book is that we can all find a little of ourselves in the Characters. I loved this book!

Not a haha, but a winner.......2007-07-21

This is an incredibly powerful story. I loved it! The irony of such a strong voice for a character without a voice!
At times I became so entwined with Howard's life that I felt as if I myself could not speak.
I was disappointed to find, after finishing The Ha-Ha, that this is a first. Now I have to wait for what Dave King comes up with next.

Listened to it on ebook.......2007-04-22

I listened to this book on ebooks from my library. There was a great depth to the main character and I enjoyed the story. It was paced well and ended to my satisfaction. For me this was a perfect read! I may have felt differently had I read it rather than listened to it.

Exposition Overload.......2007-01-15

This book never grabbed a hold of me. It's premise is a good one, but the writing style of exposition only bogged me down and forced me to skim a lot in the middle. I didn't miss a thing.

I think this book suffers from trying too hard to be meaningful, and so instead of being meaningful and engaging, it just grinds. This would have been a much much better book if we were shown the interesting beginning part of Howard's recovery, instead of only recieving hints and glimpses from where he now stands, embittered.

Dave King's HA HA.......2006-08-28

The novel is engrossing and finally moving. He writes with a very clear and sometimes beautiful prose style. However, I never was fully convinced by the narrative voice of the central character and this kept me from fully surrendering to the book.

Average customer rating:

Graphic SF Reader
A sort of "missing link" between traditional superhero comics and more artful fare
A wonderful followup to the first set.
review of top 10 book 1...
The single best comic story I've ever read is in this volume.

Top Ten (Book 2)
Alan Moore , Zander Cannon , and Gene Ha
Manufacturer: Wildstorm
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1563899663

Customer Reviews:

Graphic SF Reader.......2007-09-03

One of the fabulous things about the Top 10 series is the incredible amount of detail that Gene Ha put into the backgrounds. There are all sorts of cool things you can find there, while browsing.

Zatanna and Black Canary pulling in fish nets, for one.

Then as far as the main story goes, Ultra-Mice Crisis is just hilarious.

A sort of "missing link" between traditional superhero comics and more artful fare.......2007-07-24

Not much to add to the other reviews here, but just wanted to throw my own vote of confidence onto the pile. "Top Ten" is wonderfully inventive, updating both superhero stories and "NYPD Blue"-style cop shows with its central conceit of a city where everyone has a super power or ability, including the cops.

Book One of "Top Ten" collects the first seven issues of the original comic book series, and each story is a winner. I especially liked the one where the cops go to a bar freqented by immortal Norse Gods (featuring Alan Moore's versions of Marvel's Thor, Odin, Loki, etc.) and have to solve an apparent murder before the squabbling gods lose their tempers and decide to bring on Ragnarok, the end of the world. It's funny, funny stuff.

But there are also action scenes, and tight fixes, and exciting cliffhangers, too, demonstrating that one doesn't have to totally abandon those still enjoyable aspects of comic books even if the creative talent is leagues beyond that level of storytelling.

This is a fun book. Pick it up.

A wonderful followup to the first set........2007-01-12

Connecting more on the human level than any other comic series I have seen, Moore's Top 10 book two shows that even though the future may create new groups of people to stereotype, the stereotypes are no truer in the future than they have been in the past.

review of top 10 book 1..........2006-12-28

i was pretty disappointed with top ten book 1. it didn't do it for me at all. the characters were too shallow and formulaic. the story was unengaging. reading it felt like a big waste of time, and i love the author. this might be overly critical sounding, but its alan moore we are talking about. for a truly great recent moore work, try the league of extraordinary gentlemen instead.

i was really impressed with top ten book 2 however. maybe the series just needed some time to get going.

The single best comic story I've ever read is in this volume........2006-06-06

I'd read an article in Wizard, the comics magazine, about Top 10 #8 (the first issue in this trade paperback). It said that this issue was one of the best single stories in comic book history. Well, I've read thousands of comics and I couldn't agree more. I thoroughly enjoyed the first Top 10 TPB, which I bought thinking it contained issue #8; I don't regret that purchase at all, by the way, as it made me laugh out loud several times. Anyway, the first story in the second TPB tells of a trio of space-jumping characters who are fused together in a horrible accident and die by the end of the issue. Strange as it sounds, these 25 pages present a deep, moving account of how easily life can end and what living really means. Alan Moore is a genius and any true fiction fan should own this book.

Someone to Run With: A Novel (Sifriyah Ha-Hadashah Li-Menuyim, 2000 (1).)

Average customer rating:

An excellent book
Heart Filling
A thrilling, wonderful book
Definitely a book to run with all the way....
Some good moments, but don't think about it too much

Someone to Run With: A Novel (Sifriyah Ha-Hadashah Li-Menuyim, 2000 (1).)
David Grossman
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0374266573

Book Description

Earnest, awkward, and painfully shy, sixteen-year-old Assaf is having the worst summer of his life. With his big sister gone to America and his best friend suddenly the most popular kid in their class, Assaf worries away his days at a lowly summer job in Jerusalem city hall and spends his evenings alone, watching television and playing games on the Internet.

One morning, Assaf's routine is interrupted by an absurd assignment: to find the owner of a stray yellow lab. Meanwhile, on the other side of the city, Tamar, a talented young singer with a lonely, tempestuous soul, undertakes an equally unpromising mission: to rescue a teenage drug addict from the Jerusalem underworld . . . and, eventually, to find her dog.

Someone to Run With is the most popular work to date from "a writer who has been, for nearly two decades, one of the most original and talented . . . anywhere" (The New York Times Book Review), a bestseller hailed by the Israeli press (and reform politicians such as Shimon Peres) for its mixture of fairy-tale magic, emotional sensitivity, and gritty realism. The novel explores the life of Israeli street kids-whom Grossman interviewed extensively for the novel-and the anxieties of family life in a society racked by self-doubt. Most of all, it evokes the adventure of adolescence and the discovery of love, as Tamar and Assaf, pushed beyond the limits of childhood by their quests, find themselves, and each other.

Customer Reviews:

An excellent book.......2007-09-28

First of all, let's start out by discussing the translation - this is a translated book. In its original Hebrew, "Someone to Run With" has a very distinct style of long sentences and a strange, but perfect, flow. The English translation sort of breaks up this flow, but maintains the FEEL, maintains the overall impression, one that is entirely favorable.

The story is a fascinating and engaging one. It begins with 16-year old Assaf running with a dog. Or, rather, chasing a mad dog. Soon, Assaf's story begins to unfold and it becomes clear that he has no idea what he's getting into. Similarly, Tamar's story begins and the reader realizes that Assaf is being thrust into something far bigger than he expects.

This is a story about many things. It is a mystery story, an adventure tale, and in some respects just a perfect young adult book. It is appropriate for teens and above. The characters are perfectly real and enjoyable. The book sucks you in and captures you. There really is no way NOT to like this book. The constantly shifting views will keep you on your toes, not knowing what might happen next. The different times of the two overlapping stories will keep it interesting.

Assaf and Tamar's stories are two fascinating tales of teens forced to grow up, of friendship and of love, and of family. It is an incredible book that will hold you tight and is thoroughly satisfying. Well-written, emotional, and powerful in addition to simply interesting, "Someone to Run With" is an essential read for any true book lover.

Highly recommended!

Heart Filling.......2007-05-15

I did not know about David Grossman, maybe because as I understand it, he only writes in Hebrew (this book was written in 2000 and translated into English in 2004). I first heard of him when he was interviewed on TV regarding his son, who was killed recently in Lebanon. This is a beautiful, mature (as opposed to "adult") love story written with such purity that I would be happy to recommend it to my grandchildren. The kind of experience of young true love that some of us remember, where sex was just the icing on the cake; at the end of this book, the cake was not even iced yet. I was very sorry to see it end, but not for that reason. The character development was so well done that I felt I was beginning to have some new frienda that I wanted to know better. David Grossman must know a lot about music. As an intrumentalist and sometimes performer, his descriptions of feeling involved in the music performing process rang a lot of familiar bells. He, of course, knows a lot about writing too. His two main characters, the boy (think Koontz Odd Thomas) and the beautiful 16 year old runaway singing genius girl, were developed like two alternately played musical themes in a symphony, tied together by a third theme, the dog, who loved them both before they met. Grossman must know a lot about dogs too. Indeed he knows a lot about life, and how to express it in print. A lot of surprises too, with hints dropped along the way that something is coming up - the other shoe is going to drop. A great, heart-filling read - I hope to find some more Grossman in the future.

A thrilling, wonderful book.......2007-05-08

This book is bound to delight both teenagers and adults. A thrilling adventure, a tender love story, an honest look at the dark side of life, a study of what it means to be an artist, a story of commitment, dedication and courage - this book has them all. Grossman is a very talented writer, and this is his most accessible book. Having read it first in the original Hebrew, and realizing what a difficult task its translation would entail, I was curious to read the English version, and found that the translators had done an admirable work, solving remarkably well most of the problems which seemed insurmountable to me. The omissions and errors are negligible. Highly recommended.

Definitely a book to run with all the way...........2007-01-02

In his usual way, David Grossman weaves a marvelous tale of the lives of seemingly ordinary people and the extraordinary events that happen to them--or that they make happen.

In this wonderfully crafted novel, it's a teenage boy--the shy Assaf, somewhat of a loner who doesn't think much of his accomplishments as an amateur photographer, but who is also a devoted employee in his summer job as a municipality employee. So much so, that when he is assigned the task of finding the owner of a lost dog to slap him with a fine, Assaf runs after the dog for days until he finds that owner.

Woven into the story--and not less important--is the background story of Tamar, a teenage girl set to leave her home and live in the streets. She has a higher goal in this, but if I told you it would be a spoiler.

Set against the landscape of Jerusalem with its array of idiosyncratic characters that can only be gathered in this holy city, Assaf finally finds the dog's owner, Tamar, and together they discover something larger than both their lives apart.

Some good moments, but don't think about it too much.......2006-12-03

Because if you do, the story loses some plausibility and credibility. On the face of it, Grossman presents a very well crafted urban tale with some very touching characters. The themes of loyalty, courage and honesty are clearly presented for the reader--for the young reader especially. The action/story line is both the book's strength and weakness. Even with the frequent chronological switchbacks, the plot is effectively advanced. Where I had problems with the book was in accepting the absence and or disinterest of the parents of the protagonists. Unfortunately, those absences and disinterest were necessary to allow the teenage principals to move toward the story's climax. In retrospect, this device was hard to credit.
In general, an okay story, especially as a kind of coming of age tale for teenagers.

Average customer rating:

A social and also a coming of age novel
Subtle and Excellent
interesting, but...
You're crazed if you read it too
A fascinating commentary on the ills of Chinese society

The Crazed
Ha Jin
Manufacturer: Recorded Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette

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ASIN: 1402524986

Amazon.com

Set during the Tiananmen Square uprising of 1989, The Crazed, a novel from Ha Jin, the award-winning author of the bestseller Waiting, unites a prominent Chinese university professor who suffers a brain injury and Jien Wen, a favorite student and future son-in-law who becomes his caretaker. As Professor Yang rants about his earlier life, his bizarre outbursts begin to strike Jien as containing some truth and, considering the uncertain times, he puzzles over their meaning. When Jien realizes that his additional responsibilities make sitting for his Ph.D. exams impossible, Meimei, his fiancée, promptly discards him, branding him as unloving, since passing the exams would have ensured they would both have attended graduate school in Beijing. Unmoored from the university, and unconnected to anything else, Jien joins the student movement and as a result becomes a police suspect.

Problematic to the plot is that Meimei is hardly warm to Jien; their relationship never appears to be anything but doomed. The professor's hallucinatory diatribes comprise the bulk of the novel, and initially it seems unlikely that a story will ever evolve from these ramblings. But with Yang indisposed, minor characters from the university conspire to devise means to further their personal agendas. A mystery results, as university and literature department personnel plot to have someone other than Jien marry Meimei. Jin's prose is succinct, but the most interesting parts of Jien's life occur, unfortunately, at the end of the book, leaving readers who fell for Waiting wanting more. --Michael Ferch

Book Description

Since the appearance of his first book of stories in English, Ha Jin has won the National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award, and garnered comparisons to Dickens, Balzac, and Isaac Babel. “Like Babel,” wrote Francine Prose in The New York Times Book Review, “Ha Jin observes everything . . . yet he tells the reader only—and precisely—as much as is needed to make his deceptively simple fiction resonate on many levels.”

In his luminous new novel, the author of Waiting deepens his portrait of contemporary Chinese society while exploring the perennial conflicts between convention and individualism, integrity and pragmatism, loyalty and betrayal. Professor Yang, a respected teacher of literature at a provincial university, has had a stroke, and his student Jian Wan—who is also engaged to Yang’s daughter—has been assigned to care for him. What at first seems a simple if burdensome duty becomes treacherous when the professor begins to rave: pleading with invisible tormentors, denouncing his family, his colleagues, and a system in which a scholar is “just a piece of meat on a cutting board.”

Are these just manifestations of illness, or is Yang spewing up the truth? And can the dutiful Jian avoid being irretrievably compromised? For in a China convulsed by the Tiananmen uprising, those who hear the truth are as much at risk as those who speak it. At once nuanced and fierce, earthy and humane, The Crazed is further evidence of Ha Jin’s prodigious narrative gifts.

Customer Reviews:

A social and also a coming of age novel.......2007-10-06

"The Crazed" is a social novel depicting the stultifying impact of living under a corrupt Chinese regime at the time of Tiananmen Square. At the same time, it is a coming of age novel, with a protagonist, Jian Wan, who is a wonderfully human character. In a society which is so regimented, he does not comes of age until his twenties, as his blinders come off, and for the first time he must make decisions as to who he is. While many of Jian Wan's challenges result from the type of society he lives in, there is also a universality to various aspects of his predicament: what constitutes the "good" life; does the study of literature contribute as much to society as more "practical" endeavors; to what extent should one compromise one's own ambitions for the sake of a mate.

I have some problems with another important character, Jian Wan's Professor, who has varying degrees of lucidity as he lays in a hospital bed recovering from a stroke. The Professor is a complex character, and seeing him only through the utterances of a clouded mind makes it that much harder for the reader to become comfortable with him. Also, in Margot Livesey's "The Missing World", in which an important character suffers from amnesia, Livesey discusses the factual basis for her take on amnesia in an after word; I would have appreciated some after word on stroke as it relates to the Professor from Ha Jin.

While the prose is simple, Ha Jin does convey an appreciation of nature which provides a welcome counterpoint to the themes of the novel. There is also a bit of humor, such as: "It was common knowledge that after studying a foreign language for some years, some women tended to become effusive, romantic, and even warmhearted".

Subtle and Excellent.......2007-06-21

This is the first novel of Jin's that I've read. I was not disappointed and give this book a loud, standing ovation.

After his academic advisor and prospective father-in-law collapses from a stroke, Jian, a graduate student studying poetics, is assigned to care for the professor. As Professor Yang grows increasingly more neurotic with each passing day, Jian faces a devastating personal crisis within himself while pondering the mysteries and paradoxes pointed parroting from his old mentor uncorks.

This book is subtle and slow-moving, the words culled to bare essentials. The plot progression relies heavily upon psychological deconstruction of its characters, but unlike in Russian literature, it deconstructs characters through the seive of Jian, a fallible tool for such a job, and the reader is left knowing more of Jian from this perspective and less of of the peripheral minor characters shuffling forward to the bubbling finale of The Crazed.

I enjoyed reading Jin's use of the English language, as it is fresh and interesting, unfettered by certain colloquial ruts a native American English speaker tends to use. Whenever possible within the English language rules of word order he seems to place the verb as his core and bends his sentences and extremities around those verbs. The result is a certain fluidity that unlike some (say me, for example) doesn't get hung up on phonemes and fluff.

This book was excellent and masterful, like the stiff, bitter, and neutral taste of vodka. I'll be reading more of Ha Jin, you can be sure of it.

interesting, but..........2007-01-10

...as far as a good read goes, not great. Characters are not interesting, the ending does not work, the storyline is b-movie material.

You're crazed if you read it too.......2006-09-25

I picked up the book for ten dollars HK (that's 1.25 USD) at a charity book sale - I think I bought 17 books there, still have to get another bookshelf for all the extra books I have lying around now.

I've read Ha Jin's first novel, "In the Pond", and it was a quick and interesting read. In 1999 Jin won both the National Book Award and the PEN / Hemingway Award for his second novel "Waiting", which I've yet to read, but that was enough for me to remember the name and snap up "The Crazed" when I saw it for 10 dollars.

I was a bit leery of "The Crazed" - "In the Pond" didn't really have the ending I had hoped for, I felt that the main character settled for a compromise at the end when he had been spending the whole book fighting for justice. And probably two-thirds of the way through "The Crazed", I wasn't enjoying it. But stubbornness, or boredom, or who knows what, kept me going. And I was pleasantly surprised by the final plot twist at the end of the book. Not pleasant enough to recommend that anyone read it, unless they like the idea of slogging through two hundred pages of slow plot revolving around a character who is progressively less and less likable.

See, the plot revolves around the crumbling life of Jian, a PhD candidate. His professor, mentor, and future father-in-law, Mr. Yang, has suffered a debilitating stroke. As Yang's mind unravels on his death bed, his ramblings and despair at a wasted life in academia convince Jian that he should skip the upcoming PhD test and set out on a different career path. (That's basically a summary of the first two hundred pages; like I said, not very exciting.) As Jian begins to make irrevocable decisions, like removing himself from PhD candidacy and dumping his fiancée (Mr Yang's daughter Meimei), it's clear that Ha Jin has titled the book "The Crazed", in the plural, to refer to both Yang and Jian. No one intervenes to keep Jian from throwing his life away, and it's not a very uplifting book to read.

But the redeemable part I found in the novel comes in the twist that Ha Jin adds in the final fifty pages. The story is set in the spring & summer of 1989, during which student protests in Tiananmen Square overshadowed Gorbachev's historic visit to Beijing, culminating in the bloody June 4th Tiananmen Square crackdown. As it's clear to Jian that he has thrown away all his opportunities, in a moment of assumed confidence and bravado he joins a roommate and a group of undergraduate students and travels to Beijing to take part in the student protests. They arrive on June 3, just in time for Jian to witness an army officer walk up to a student leader and blast his brains into the crowd with a pistol. Having survived the long night of carnage, Jian is tipped off by a friend that his name has been put on the list of wanted protestors. He packs his bag with two days' worth of clothes, burns his identity card, pawns off his bicycle, and gets on an overnight train for Guangzhou, hoping to sneak across the border to Hong Kong and safety. Thus ends the novel.

A quote that stuck in my mind:

>>>
This realization made me see how essential personal motives were in political activities. Just as I rushed to Beijing to demonstrate my bravado to Meimei, in the name of revolution people acted on the basis of all kinds of personal interests and reasons. But our history books on the Communist revolution have always left out individuals' motives. I remembered that when talking about why they joined the Red Army or the Communist party, older revolutionaries had often said it was because they had wanted to escape an arranged marriage or to avoid debts or just to have enough food and clothes. It's personal interests that motivate the individual and therefore generate the dynamics of history.
-p 320
< <<

What remained in my head after I finished the novel was the connection between this passage and the title of the novel, "The Crazed". By developing a character who is self-admittedly losing control of his life, and having that character join the "noble" cause of the Tiananmen Square protests, Jin is making a very thought-provoking connection. Were there many other students like Jian, heading to Tiananmen not to fight for democracy, but simply to escape a crumbling life, with no opportunities and no escape? When the history books write about the Tiananmen Square protests, they will surely say that the evil Communist government massacred hundreds of innocent youth, martyrs for the cause of progress. But what was really going on? Can their protest truly be called noble?

I think Jin is trying to point to a fundamental tension in the discipline of history. The tension between the need to simplify and explain large watershed moments and the need to recognize that history is made up of individual actors with selfish reasons. A tension at the heart of the study of history. A tension that really has no resolution, a tension that makes history a fascinating area of study.

A book I find much more interesting, which illustrates the same tension in history, is "Underground" by Haruki Murakami. The book is simply a collection of interviews with survivors and perpetrators of the 1994 Sarin Gas Attacks in the Tokyo Subway, by the Aum Shinrikyo cult. Whereas Jin created a fictional story to illustrate this tension, Murakami went out and preserved in this book the actual words and motives and emotions that people experienced amidst a catastrophe. It's not an easy book to read as some of the narratives are confusing, but it's authentic. Snd Murakami's concluding essay in the book is focused and spot-on.

<> <> <>
Speaking frankly, if I were you, I wouldn't read "The Crazed" unless you're utterly fascinated by every single word I wrote about it. Two stars because Jin is a pretty darn good writer. But hey, I've got high standards. Not many books deserve five stars - Watership Down, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, or Dickens / Twain / Tolkien, authors like that. Maybe "Waiting" will be better. I'm going to stay skeptical. You save your money.

A fascinating commentary on the ills of Chinese society.......2006-05-19

This book is many things, but deep down, it is a commentary on the corruption endemic in Chinese society and how people use their positions of power to gain benefit for themselves and their family members.

Set in the spring of 1989 as China is in the chaos of a student revolution, Jien Wan's professor becomes hospitalized due to a stroke. Despite the fact that Wen is preparing for PhD entrance exams, the department assigns him to watch over his professor and father-in-law to be.

Over the course of his caring for Professor Yang, he witnesses rantings that he tries to piece together over the course of weeks. He thinks he has the rantings pretty much figured out by the time Yang's wife returns and arranges for care.

In the meantime, Wan, who is wrangling over his future, is sent to a far off county in order to secure a reference for a prospective party member. He comes to a harsh realization on his trip, that is how hard life is for the ordinary Chinese. He returns to Shanning with a new mission; to enter the policy department to try to right the wrongs of society.

However, he will find that events are out of his hands and that there is a grand conspiracy involving him, though far different from what he suspects from his interpretations of Professor Yang's rantings. The ultimate figuring this out and a ill conceived trip to Beijing changes his life forever.

The story is slow in developing, in typical Chinese style. The plot thickens with each ranting my Professor Yang, and all of the pieces are put in place with amazing skill and at just the right time. That makes the crushing end all the more difficult to take because one can't help but become extremely sympathetic with Jien. This is a great read that I very nearly gave a five.

Average customer rating:

interesting
Wonderful art, confusing story
a good yaoi
Jewelicious!!
Art and Depth a Perfect Gem

Les Bijoux, Vol. 5
Eun-Ha Jo , and Sang-Sun Park
Manufacturer: Adult
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1591826942

Book Description

Kicking the habit... After Lapis is rescued by Silica, he finds himself recuperating in Sable Mine, where a tyrannical ruler name Pyrope suppresses the people with a heavy water tax and threatens brutality and oppression if they don't pay up. To help the citizens who hunger for change, Lapis comes up with an ingenious plan to quench their thirst for justice.

Customer Reviews:

interesting.......2007-01-14

while i read alot of manga... really have to find that manga sugar-daddy... this one was okay... i get the gothic part... i get the change to a girl part... however when i get to the point were i cannot tell who is the good guy and who is the bad guy, i am confused... the art makes a lot of the characters look a lot alike... but other then that the story is not bad...

Wonderful art, confusing story.......2006-03-30

Let me start by saying that Park Sang-Sun is my favourite artist, and you can see her talent by flipping through the pages of Les Bijoux.

However, cramming such a detailed and immense world/story into five volumes was not a great idea.

This first volume does a decent job of introducing the world of Les Bijoux, though I would say that it's a bit overwhelming and unclear at times. For a first-time reader I'd suggest reading the first TWO volumes to get a grasp on whether you want to continue or not.

For fans of gorgeous men and a new style of fantasy, this series is for you. However, some might be put off by the sometimes intense violence and sexual themes. (Definitely NOT for younger readers!)

note: the pictures that Amazon provides are actually from vol. 4.

a good yaoi .......2006-02-12

I liked this series but do have one thing to critisize. Ok, the first book kina jumps into the plot and its a lot of stuff to handle at one time. Other than that, I thought the artwork is fantastic, the rest of the books (and this one) is great, and the I like the whole pretty boy love story. *sigh* The most emotional thing about this series is the changes the characters go through in the books. By the last one they are totally different people, which isn't always a bad thing.

Jewelicious!!.......2005-12-07

I have the whole collection and boy do I ever love it!! The first time I noticed the first volume while looking for another yaoi,I wasn't sure for the name threw me off but after I read one chapter I know it was a must buy, must have. The artwork totally rocks!!!!! I began to bond with the characters as the story prolonged. Lapis-Lazuli was my favorite but also Diamond. I know he was not all that bad but you gotta give it to him all he wanted was his jewel. The ending was oh boy I bawled through the whole 5th book man I didn't think I was going to buy it but I did. But it was an awesome the story itself was full many a meaning but I let you decide what they are.

Oh I have the Tarot Cafe and Ark Angel both done by Sang-sun Pak boy I love her artwaork I just can't get enough. I drew Diamond, Lapis, and Panther and placed them on my folder.

Art and Depth a Perfect Gem.......2004-08-02

I've read a lot of mixed reviews on this series and I'm surprised. I collect a lot of gothic and bishonen mangas and this one is at the top of my list. The art is truly breathtaking, and once you "get" the story the depth of characterization and plot is fascinating. The true test of a good manga is if you want to re-read the stories again, and if you can't wait for the next book. This one passes the test in spades. It is not a light read, though. You discover that even the worst-seeming villains, like real life, have a depth of humanity and even redemption. The quest for power, battle techniques and sad history truly allows you to feel for every character, even the minor ones. Instead of finding it confusing, I enjoyed the detailed plot set-up in the first and second book. Book four throws a few more sub-plots into the mix and I'm not sure how every detail will wrap up in the final book but I'm certainly looking forward to it. Get the first two books, and get caught up in the world of Les Bijoux...you won't regret it.

Average customer rating:

great story and artist preparation info

Comic Volume 2 (Comic)
SiHyun Ha
Manufacturer: Ice Kunion
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 895274702X

Book Description

Despite winning the contest and getting her piece published in the magazine, Alice still doesn't feel worthy of the title ''professional.'' So even after what happened the first time, she insists to continue working as an assistant to Patrick, just to learn more about being a professional manhwa-artist. But despite being treated like a maid by Patrick, Alice somehow ends up in his arms...

Customer Reviews:

great story and artist preparation info.......2007-04-09

This series is one of a kind! If you have a love for drawing, this series takes you step by step through all the processes of a high school student getting their work published comercially. It goes into detail about pens, paper, inks, and techniques needed to create your own comic. It is all visibly displayed at the same time being interspersed with a very interesting story. You don't even notice that you are being taught how to draw comic books!

Average customer rating:

a very tough 3, almost 4
Fiction That Reads Like a Memoir
Worthwhile
Educational and timely, but not the most engaging read
Devastating

War Trash: A novel
Ha Jin
Manufacturer: Pantheon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0375422765
Release Date: 2004-10-05

Book Description

War Trash, the extraordinary new novel by the National Book Award–winning author of Waiting, is Ha Jin’s most ambitious work to date: a powerful, unflinching story that opens a window on an unknown aspect of a little-known war—the experiences of Chinese POWs held by Americans during the Korean conflict—and paints an intimate portrait of conformity and dissent against a sweeping canvas of confrontation.

Set in 1951–53, War Trash takes the form of the memoir of Yu Yuan, a young Chinese army officer, one of a corps of “volunteers” sent by Mao to help shore up the Communist side in Korea. When Yu is captured, his command of English thrusts him into the role of unofficial interpreter in the psychological warfare that defines the POW camp.

Taking us behind the barbed wire, Ha Jin draws on true historical accounts to render the complex world the prisoners inhabit—a world of strict surveillance and complete allegiance to authority. Under the rules of war and the constraints of captivity, every human instinct is called into question, to the point that what it means to be human comes to occupy the foremost position in every prisoner’s mind.

As Yu and his fellow captives struggle to create some sense of community while remaining watchful of the deceptions inherent in every exchange, only the idea of home can begin to hold out the promise that they might return to their former selves. But by the end of this unforgettable novel—an astonishing addition to the literature of war that echoes classics like Dostoevsky’s Memoirs from the House of the Dead and the works of Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen—the very concept of home will be more profoundly altered than they can even begin to imagine.

Customer Reviews:

a very tough 3, almost 4.......2007-05-03

Ha Jin deserves more than 3 stars. His "Waiting" is absolutely beautiful. But three stars is what I decide to give "War Trash", and that is because of the documentary type approach Jin adopts. Its not that the novel is not moving, it definitely is. But I feel novels like Sebastian Barry`s "A Long Long Way" are more emotionally powerful, and I think thats gots lots to do with the poetry of Barry`s story. Ha Jin`s novel reads like impeccably written history - which is wonderful for its own sake. But only at the very end do we get the type of "this can't be happening" feeling that hurts us in the gut (lots), and make fiction in war settings so powerful. I look forward very much to the next time Ha Jin gives us a treat of pure heart-felt fiction and less fictionalized history

Fiction That Reads Like a Memoir.......2007-03-07

Ha Jin, War Trash: A Novel, New York: Pantheon Books, 2004.
352 pages
ISBN: 0-375-42276-5

"War trash" refers to the human detritus of war, the throwaways, the men still living but accorded no honor, in spite of their performance as soldiers. This is the story of one among a number of these men, a Chinese soldier imprisoned in an American prisoner-of-war camp in Korea during the Korean War. His rare English language skills and the opportunities they afford him to interact with a wide range of inmates and officers as interpreter elevate him to a position unlikely for an otherwise ordinary soldier required to fight for the Communists in the Chinese infantry. Though not a Party member, he is nevertheless driven to return to the mainland at the close of the war in order to re-join his mother and fiancée. Personally apolitical, he is caught between dissent and conformity, faced with the choice of repatriating in Red China where he will not be welcomed by the Party, or joining the Nationalists in Taiwan with no opportunity of seeing his mother and fiancée again.

The language is a bit stiff, but this helps the book read more like a memoir than a novel. Though most characters are fictional, events and specific details are not. Meticulous research and attention to detail in the descriptions of incidents of horror on the battlefield, in the camp hospital, and in the camp compounds, and a deep understanding of the political twists and deceptions that create the narrator's dilemma, lend the narrative a level of realism not frequently found in a work of fiction.

Ha Jin is a native of China, educated in the U.S. and currently an English professor at Boston University, and an author of several novels and books of poetry and short stories. War Trash won for its author the PEN/Faulkner Award; Ha Jin has also won the National Book Award, the Asian American Literary Award, the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction, and the PEN/Hemingway Award. This is the first of his books I've read; I look forward to more.

Worthwhile.......2007-02-26

It's likely that neither Ha Jin nor his publisher ever expected his novel, War Trash, to become a best seller or anything. It is, after all, the story of Chinese prisoners-of-war in American prison camps in South Korea during the Korean War. Not exactly the kind of thing most people think about first thing in the morning. But if the goal of a good novel is to entertain and to inform, then this one passes with flying colors.

It is narrated in the first person by Yu Yuan, one of the few captured Chinese with an education and one of the fewer still who was able to speak a smattering of English. Though not a communist, he nevertheless associated with them because he knew it was his only hope to return to mainland China, where both his ailing mother and fiancee resided. If he were to side with the Nationalists, he would be repatriated to Taiwan, with never a hope of visiting mainland China again. (This, by the way, was very interesting. Many Chinese looked upon their prisoner status as a way by which to escape the newly formed communist government in mainland China.)

And, as it turns out, it is the great conflict of the novel. Both Nationalist and communist forces struggled mightily with each other for the hearts and minds of those unallied prisoners, and often in the most brutal fashion. As one with an education and one who spoke English, the narrator himself was considered a prize, and therefore received a great deal of attention from both sides. Indeed, after being knocked unconscious one night, the words, "f*** communism," were tattooed in bold fashion across his belly by the Nationalists, who assumed he would have no choice but to side with them. This, it turns out, was a rather common tactic.

But the narrator refused to side with them--although occasionally pretending to do so out of fear or self-preservation--instead staying allied with his communist protectors only so that he could return to his girlfriend and mother. This is the plot. Both his and his fellow prisoner's struggle for survival in the prison, and the unwavering behind-the-barbed-wire war between the Nationalists and the communists with the narrator as the fulcrum point, are what comprise the bulk of the novel.

It should come as no surprise to anyone who has any knowledge of history at all to learn that the narrator's ultimate repatriation to mainland China was bitterly disappointing. Though not a communist, he was still a traitor, you see, for allowing himself to be captured. He found that his mother had died, and that his girlfriend could not afford to associate with him any more, in that he was a "disgraced captive." The narrator was assigned to a middle-school in the hinterlands as a teacher for the remainder of his career, a sentence not nearly so dreary as those given to the true communists he associated with in the camps.

No, this book is not a bestseller, but it is nevertheless an important book and a book that needs to be read by Americans, many of whom seem to be utterly unaware of the dangers posed by unwavering, tyrannical political ideologies, and the horrors that have been inflicted on mankind because of them.

Educational and timely, but not the most engaging read.......2007-01-12

I admire the way Ha Jin crafted this story - how much research it must've taken! I admit I've never known much about the Korean War and never even thought about China's role in it. The story, therefore, elucidated a period in time I hadn't known or thought much about. With this book Ha Jin definitely taught me something and made me think.

The great thing about Jin is that, even though the plot doesn't grab a hold of you like his other novel "Waiting," he creates characters that allow you to experience another person's tribulations so clearly and you are able to truly empathize. I think that hearing about POW's on the news will now impact me in a different way upon reading this book. POW's are not just a label for a group of captured soldiers, but rather individuals who struggle to make decisions, based on both loyalty and fear, who have families and dreams of their own. Quite a timely book in light of the state of affairs in the world now.

To me, well written and quite interesting and educational.

Devastating.......2006-09-28

War Trash is a devastating depiction of what happens when human beings are trapped in the political machinations of war. A Chinese soldier fighting in the Korean War hides his true motivations and must assign his desires political meaning in order to find his way home from Stripped of all moral compasses, he strategizes his allegiances in exchange for a piece of his soul.

War Trash shows what it's like when all choices are ambiguous both in terms of their outcome and their morality. The soldier is batted around prison camps and witnesses the horrors of war, not in the obscenity of the battlefield but in the grotesqueness of the power struggles for people's hearts and minds. Like in Kozinsky's Painted Bird, human ugliness surfaces when societal codes give way to codes of war, and are revealed to be everpresent and awaiting exploitation.

War Trash is riveting but painful to read, a starkly written cry against the human effects of wars, strident ideologies and unrelenting systems.

Average customer rating:

Queens Volume 2 (Queens)
Sung-hyen Ha
Manufacturer: TokyoPop
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 159816659X
Release Date: 2007-02-27

Book Description

Pained by unrequited love, Pil-Hyun dreams all day about swooning Song-Ah. Confronting his feelings leads him down tragedy's path. He finds out the handsome and irresistible Gyung-Ju Lee is seeking favor with Song-Ah! Does Pil-Hyun stand a chance against Gyung-Lee? Song-Ah is torn between the man she loves and the man in love with her. Will Pil-Hyun learn the true meaning of love? Rated: Must Read. "A fantastic romantic comedy about nice guys, bad boys and tempting women." â€"IGN.com

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