Rating: 
Summary: Vanity of Desires
Review: A man manages to get what he wanted, struggling through the inflexible Chinese social system disallowing freedom. The essence of this story, however, resides in man's nature of which the desire is endlessly unfulfilled regardless of his struggles. I interpreted this story to warn against chasing something for many years, which we may find we don't want in the end. We are all apt to fall into this type of situation more or less, for countless and endless desires human nature. Also, the writer illustraes an interesting way the man's tendency to follow a more presentable woman to find in the end that shw was not what he wanted.
Rating: 
Summary: Mao Dun
Review: Ha Jin does a great job of showing the duality of human nature. The two characters are forever caught between two equally valid interpretations of reality.
Is Lin Kong's love for Manna true love, or simply a symptom of his own stunted emotional growth? Is Lin Kong truly a caring and sophisticated man, or is he just too timid to express his true passions?
Maoist China serves as the force which divides reality into these two spheres of interpretation. The traditional Chinese ideal is constantly being overturned by Mao's suppression of the old ways -- an embrace of the new which forces Lin Kong to sometimes despise the village life. Yet he can never completely suppress his love for the idyllic rural family life.
As the novel moves to the post-Mao Deng's "to get rich is glorious" era, the carpet is swept from under the characters' feets and they are forced to consider the possibility that they are pathetic victims who never actually made a real choice in their entire lives. Ha Jin portrays this internal conflict by having the characters actually holding conversations with voices inside their head.
If you can identify with these characters -- and I think anybody who has ever looked back on their lives with some hint of regret will be able to -- you will find that Ha Jin successfully tries to assuage those regrets by universalizing our suffering. There is a universal element to Ha Jin's prose because it speaks of emotions so literally. His use of analogies are used to explain specific emotional events, rather than to offer over-arching interpretations.
Unlike a plot-driven novel where the author intentionally deceives the reader (to the reader's great joy), Ha Jin leaves these characters completely exposed to us. And unlike characters in a plot-driven novel, Ha Jin's characters are without clear intentions, without unambiguous motivations, but constantly flooded by internal conflict.
What the Chinese call "mao dun."
Rating:
Summary: peace in the turmoil of china
Review: HA JIN's Waiting is a quick read for me. I spend only one day to finish it off. But its simple narrative enthralled greatly. I am a native Chinese speaker and English is my second language, same as the author himself. But his command of the English language is really impressive. From the interviews of the author, we know that he treats his draft very seriously, often rewrites them more than ten times. Some vocabulary are definitely impressive, such as "nippy",
"french chalk", "kraft paper", "dog-dead", "wisp", etc. His narrative has a rather fixed plot - first, some hope for marriage, then some diversions, either a potential mate, a sexual encounter, it makes the waiting more unexpected, as a supposed long march to marriage. once in a while he will describe the physical environment such as the polar trees, grass, the sentry post, which reminds me a Brownte novel. The historical context is always present. the cultural revolution, the reform after Deng. Ha Jin described what he know best, namely the chinese army. He served in the PLA for a number of years before enrolling in the university after 1977. This background will reapprear in his newest novel, WAR TRASH, in which he described the wrenching expierence of a chinese POW in the Korean War. I reject some reviews which read too much politics in the novel though. This novel is basically a novel about humanity, love, relationship, society, not about ideology. Both Manna WU and the protagonist is not ideologically inclined to anything, all they believe is humanity and progress. that is all. This novel reminds me a recent short fiction by JIAN MA in on recent issue of New Yorker, in which a mid-level party official try to get rid of his baby-girl fruitlessly, for consecutively dozens of times. I suspect some borrowing here, I mean on the part of JIAN MA. But obviously JIAN MA is shadowing more family planning politics in his short fiction.
Rating: 
Summary: Still Waiting
Review: Ha Jin, who taught himself English while working as a railroad telegrapher on the Sino-Soviet frontier, decided not to return to China after Tiananman Square, and, like Conrad and Nabokov before him, willed himself into becoming a writer in English, is a self-made man. His personal story epitomizes the American Dream and underscores a certain political point of view about China. Perhaps for this reason, "Waiting," his first novel, has been overrated and over-awarded.The backdrop of the novel -- the daily life of proletarians and party officials in Mao's China -- is interesting enough and sometimes amusing, but the author's development of his central characters and his narrative technique will disappoint readers used to Western fiction. There is little of the subtlety of Checkov or Turgenev, or the expanse of Nabokov, here. Physician Lin Kong and his chaste lover, nurse Manna Wu, begin and end as tentative, slight characters, virtually devoid of inner lives or major contradictions. The so-called "twist" at the end of this book is, in reality, little more than a double dose of the tentativeness which affects Lin throughout. To the extent Lin and Manna face dilemmas, they do so, not through actions which the reader might interpret and identify with, but rather through interior monologues of the angel-on-the-left-shoulder, devil-on the-right-shoulder variety. As a result, their problems never really become our problems. This is easy, but unfortunately not rewarding, reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Waited for the end . . .
Review: I have to agree with many other reviews on this one. I spent the first 100 pages of this novel waiting for the story to pick up the pace. The story is about a love affair in perpetuity. Manna Wu and Lin Kong are comrades and soul mates who meet while working at a hospital in China during the Cultural Revolution. The relationship has one huge hurdle, Lin is married. Although the marriage was arranged by his parents and based on the parents' need for elderly care, Lin is bound to the union by tradition and law. Each year, Lin returns to his village from his job in the city to request the court to grant him a divorce from his wife. Each year, the request is denied and Lin returns to the city where he and Manna's relationship grow more intense - the absence of any physical expression of their love also serves to intensify their bond. Finally, after waiting eighteen years, Lin is granted a divorce from his wife with the understanding that he is to pay alimony and find their daughter a job in the city. He and Manna are married and begin their life legitimately as husband and wife. Lin, newly married - and unlike his previous marriage, living with his wife - finds the daily demands of marriage exhausting. Soon, Lin begins to questions his love for Manna and his decision to leave his first wife.
Ultimately, the novel explores the nature of love and personal commitment in the face of social and government restrictions. Although "Waiting" starts off slow, it picks up a bit in the later half of the book. Ha Jin does an excellent job with setting and depicting the Chinese atmosphere during the Cultural Revolution. This wasn't a bad read, just a slow one. Perhaps it was the author's intent to have the reader experience waiting in the way the characters do. So, is the grass greener on the other side? Well, like most things, it depends on the eyes through which the observation is being made. I'm not suggesting that you run out and buy this one but if it crosses your path give it a try.
Rating:
Summary: Waiting for the sake of waiting
Review: It is rare that the essence of a book is so completely captured in its title. The title of this particular book, "Waiting," is apt in many ways. First of all, the protagonist, Lin Kong, spends 18 years waiting to divorce his wife. While he is waiting, as is his intended bride-to-be, the reader also waits in the daily grind of his job, duties, and other human interactions, for the day Lin Kong is finally able to divorce his country-bumpkin wife and marry the woman of his dreams. So both the protagonist and the reader wait, page after page, event after event, yearning for that end to his unhappiness.
If, however, the "waiting" was meant only for this long-awaited divorce, the reader finds out that the book goes on to narrate the married life of Lin Kong and his new bride, Manna Wu, after the supposed end to his waiting. Is the book all of a sudden not about waiting anymore? It turns out that this "waiting" is not just for the one event in life, rather it turns out to be the very condition of continuing human existence. As the protagonist realizes that he was waiting "for the sake of waiting," it is the very thing that kept him alive and living.
Thus, when his waiting for the divorce is over and he starts a family with his new bride, he starts to have regrets. When his bride turns out to have a heart condition which would eventually kill her, he yearns to wait again. This time, the reader is left with the impression that he will have to wait for Manna to die, in order to be reunited with Shuyu, his first wife, whom he now regrets divorcing. The very last image with which the novel ends is telling: as Lin comes to the realization that he will have to wait for her to die, Manna looks out the window, radiantly and so alive, greeting those outside it. There is no mistake here that the reader is being led to believe that the waiting this time will again take a long time. Just as the divorce was certain but slow to come, the reader is left to believe that Manna's death, which will set Lin free again, will be certain, but again slow. So the waiting game begins again.
Ha Jin's prose is impeccable. It is flawless. He writes better than most native English speakers. It reminds me of Franz Kafka's prose, written in impeccable, but book-learned German. Undoubtedly the fact that both Ha Jin and Franz Kafka are writing in a language that is not native to them sets them apart from those to whom language comes easily. At the same time, both Ha Jin and Franz Kafka, because they are conversant in a non-native language, are able to see common human condition before they see particularities in disparate cultures. Therefore, both Jin and Kafka end up writing in a universal language that is easily understood by everyone. It speaks to everyone and is felt by everyone. At the same time, as writers of "minor literature," as inside outsiders, they are able to jar consciousness and make the reader see things differently.
In a short story by Kafka called, "The Judgment," the protagonist, Georg Bendemann, jumps off of a bridge because he has seen the true nature of human condition. Not being able to deal with it, he opts to die while the endless traffic crosses under the bridge. This image of Georg in his final moment and Manna Wu's radiant face at the end of "Waiting" seemed to me two sides of the same face, one who is denied the kind of "waiting" that sustains humanity and the other who enables it.
Rating:
Summary: An Chinese immigrant man who knows how to write stories in E
Review: The author writes a good story building on a innate trait that the Chinese people seem to have, patience. He does well to set the story with this foreboding, eventually to the breaking point in the last fifth of the book. This author uses the patience ideal, building up scenerio after scenerio. As the reader you know that the protagonists are being frustrated by the waiting but don't show it. You know something is going to happen, you just don't know what. It is the last dozen pages that give away life's issues.
Don't read unless you have patience. The author emigrated from his native China to study at Brandeis U, teaches English at Emory U. One of the few Chinese American men who write good fiction based on life in the new China.
Rating:
Summary: Like a Fine Reisling Wine
Review: The language in this novel is simple but very expressive. People with many different levels of reading ability will enjoy it. Charcteristic of some of our greatest writers reading and understanding Ha Jin's work is effortless. Not the least pretentious in his writing Ha Jin who was born and raised in China amazes. His command of the English language which he learned as an adult is marvelous. Unlike Conrad who chose to write in English, his second language, he avoids long complicated sentences and wording that drives the reader to the unabridged dictionary. This lovely tale describes life and social mores in China on the cusp of its change to a capitalist society. The protagonist, Lin, is a passionless man who never feels great love for any woman or anyone.He comports with all the requirements of a good highly educated communist,but he never rises to the level of success a man with his native intellect should. He lacks leadership skills on some levels. He is uncomfortable taking risks and therefore never does. He is considerate with his subordinates, but he lacks originality and passion. We are offered a glimpse at the changes in China's society. Where it was once evil to make a profit, be creative and individual, those traits are now being rewarded. Lin cannot adjust to these changes. He is rigid in many ways. This story revolves around Lin's relationship with his country wife Shuyu and his city girlfiend Manna. He is embarrased that shuyu has bound feet. However, he finds Manna's more worldly demands annoying. He seems to want a mate who is worldy like Manna and submissive and undemanding like Shuyu. He does not even feel a fervant passion for his daughter,Hua, which is almost unnatural. However, he cares enough for her that he moves her to the city as soon as possible so she does not live the hard life of a farmer in a country village. He also does not understand why in modern China families value boys so much more than girls. He even prefers that his only child is a girl. I wondered that,perhaps, he was a closet homosexual closeted even from himself. Homosexuality is probably not accepted among the Chinese. However, he didn't have passion for men either. He was a doctor with a university medical degree, one of only three in his regional hospital. He has empathy for the suffering of others except for those closest to him. When Manna has a terrible time giving birth to their twins, he runs out of the room. The screaming is more annoying and embarassing to him than upsetting. He is simply an unfeeling man in many ways. Our glimpse at China offers the frightening details that one becomes an obstetrician after attending a year and a half of trade school. In the U.S. a midwife has a great deal more schooling. Additionally, he performs surgery by directing a team of surgeons who don't have medical degrees. He as well as many adult workers at the hospital share rooms with two or more people. Only married couples have private quarters. China now realizes that capitalism is the road to a higher standard of living for everyone. While the communist revolution was neccesary to equalize educational opportunities, reduce famine, and provide a semblance of the neccessities like food, housing, and medical care to the majority, it has outlived its usefulness. China is now a socialist country trying to improve everyon'e standard of living. Increasingly it more closely resembles a capitalist country. In Waiting we see one individual's turmoil as the rules change like shifting sands under his feet. It is particularly troubling to him, because he has no strong family bonds and can't confide in anyone about his personal difficulties with the change. After reading Waiting, I intend to read all Ha Jin's novels including his newest "War Trash". Waiting is a quick read. It is a good vacation or beach book with a serious subject that can be finished in three hours. If you like Pearl S. Buck, you will like Ha Jin's novels too.
Rating:
Summary: Poetically written
Review: This book held my attention and I looked forward to picking it up and reading every free moment I had. Look inside this book and read the excerpted first pages. The writing style continues the same throughout. The author is a master writer; he is almost a minimalist painter (with words) much like the Chinese landscape painters. I would say it gave a good picture of China during the time of the cultural revolution, which was the reason I decided I wanted to read this book. As for the storyline, it made me think about the question, "What is love?" Naturally, the book did not really answer the question and the reader has to decide for him/herself. I came away from this book being glad for the time I spent reading it. I would recommend this book to anyone, provided they aren't looking for an action packed thriller about cops and robbers or a passion packed sex-filled romance novel. To me it is a piece of poetry.
Rating:
Summary: The Grass is Greener...
Review: This well-written novel, which takes place in 1960s and 1970s China, tells the story of Lin Kong, a doctor, Shuyu, his wife, and Manna Wu, a nurse who Kong has feelings for. This story, told over many years time, is interesting but depressing at the same time. Lin believes that he is not happy in his marriage to Shuyu and divorces her in order to marry Manna. Once he marries Manna he believes that he will be happy but finds he is not. Much of the story revolves around his attempting to divorce Shuyu and the problems that he and Manna encounter, but the larger idea that can be taken from this is that there is not one thing in the world that can make you a happier person. The grass will always be greener somewhere else.
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