Rating: 
Summary: Slow beginning but worth the wait.
Review: I was excited to read this National Book Award winner, but wow, did it start slowly. The first two parts of the book are tedious and depressing, but once the third part begins, the author shows us why he is so acclaimed. This is definitely a book that sticks in your head after you finish it. I often wanted to kick some sense and emotion in to the head of the main character, Lin, and finally realized this is exactly what the author wants the reader to feel. The book was a great insight in to people living their life as tools in a restrictive society.
Rating: 
Summary: Not worth the WAIT
Review: Although this took place in China, there was none of the flavor of the country. A very shallow, rather spineless man cannot obtain a divorce from his wife for many years. When he finally does, he lives the addage, "Be careful what you wish for". It was adult subject matter, but written on a 6th grade level. I was truly disappointed in this book.
Rating: 
Summary: A deceptive love story
Review: "Waiting" to me , is on a whole a deceptive romantic love story. Initally, through reading the first two parts of the novel, the reader will get an idea that she is reading an enduring love story where love can conquer all odds.However, at the end of the novel, I get the idea that no love exist at all between Lin Kong and Manna. They are just together because they have been Wating for each other for so long. "Waiting" thus gives the reader a depressing view of love in the end. To me, no true love exists in the book and the last line of the novel clearly illustrates the idea that Lin is just waiting for Manna to die so that he can return to Shuyu.The protagonist is selfish and crowdly to the very end and he is a pathetic character who does not know what he wants.This book is a fine literary read that offers many ideas about human emotions . It is a must read for anyone who wants to think about the issues of love and the selfish nature of man. I truly enjoyed this book although it is , on the whole, a really bleak portrayal of human nature and love.Ha Jin's simple and direct prose also assists in bringing his ideas more closely to the reader .
Rating:
Summary: SO depressing
Review: Waiting is not something that I personally do well. "Waiting" the novel made me want to scream! It was so terribly dark and depressing, I am surprised that I finished it at all. It just felt incredibly static that year after year the divorce doesn't happen.
Rating: 
Summary: Subtle, smooth, slow and cold
Review: Subtle, smooth, slow and cold, Ha Jin's Waiting moves at a glacial pace and cuts as deep, carving its path deep into the hard ground of everything you once thought you knew. The book is unrepentant. In its quiet-but-raw way, it builds, it swells, gaining tension, ever advancing. Finally, it opens, gradually, languidly, like a delicate, fierce, hungry, dying black flower of pure, exquisite anguish. And at the center of that flower is both the wonder of discovery and the despair of utter futility, all wrapped up in a tangled mass of memories and hopes, and, most of all, regrets. This is a book that shows you what it doesn't -- what it can't bear to -- tell you. In its elegant, composed and even tranquil way, it chops you right down to size. Once you miss your chance, it says, that chance is gone. Poof! Forever. So, you have learned that Life is what happens to you while you are busy making other plans. Too bad. The book feeds you just a meager taste of the truth, but even this teaspoonful is insufferable, intolerable, gagging, and bitter as bile. The book does to you what Lin does to himself, makes you wait...and wait, and wait and wait, and seems never to deliver. But it does deliver. Only what it delivers is pain, pain disguised as a rare treat, enticing you to take a bite, the Garden-of-Eden-what-the-hell-did-I-just-do bite, the bite that made all the difference.
Rating:
Summary: A meditative literary work
Review: I read 'Waiting' and enjoyed the meditative style of Jin's portrayal of an innocent, yet illicit, love story of a married doctor and a nurse. Jin's story enlightened my limited knowledge of the Chinese culture. It takes a dedicated and patient reader to enjoy this work by Jin. The title itself sets the mode for the reader. Patience is a prerequisite for 'waiting.' The National Book Award validates the importance of this work.
Rating:
Summary: A Chinese Ethan Frome
Review: Readers of Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome will find striking parallels between that classic and this new book by Ha Jin. In both, the atmosphere is claustrophobic, in both, the hero is trapped in an bleak life and a loveless marriage. In both, a younger woman offers escape and hope. In both, the conclusion is not quite what the hero plans or expects. Ha Jin is a Chinese living in the US, writing in English about a life in China. As such, I think the writing of this evocative novel is a triumph. His style is terse, without frills - no flashbacks, no elaborate metaphors - and cheerlessly evokes the daily grey-beige life of a middle-class professional in the post-Cultural Revolution era. How would happiness be possible in such a sepia-toned world? - one longs for a ray of sunshine, a burst of color, but there is only overcast sky and endless cadres in uniform. An old Chinese saying advises: "Be careful what you wish for; you might get it." This story is a good example of this idea also.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing and Unengaging
Review: This book was a huge disappointment. What was touted as a delicate investigation of the human heart turns out to be a depressing reminder of how selfish and immature grown adults can be. One is left wondering whether the Lin's self-centered carrying on is more properly attributed to his wife's passivity or the lack of resposibility he enjoys thanks to the communist regime.
Rating:
Summary: the other shoe, please....
Review: I agree with many of my fellow reviewers -- it's a solid bookwith lots of insight into Chinese customs, but it's not nearly at thelevel of winning something as major as the National Book Award. After the first 100 pages or so, the narrative starts to unwind a bit -- if not for the fact that i don't like to leave a book unfinished, I wouldn't have kept going. Plus, the main character was so devoid of passion that it was hard to believe that he would have even made it through the 18 year wait. I suppose the ending has a philosophical point (ending up back where you started), but I found it unsatisfying. Remains of the Day was much better in the vein of inability to acknowledge feelings and emotions while a book like Memoirs of a Geisha was infinitely more interesting. I did enjoy this book, I just thought it was 100 pages too long and not quite at the National Book Award level. For both those reasons, I found it disappointing overall although I certainly enjoyed parts of the book.
Rating:
Summary: Delicate and fascinating
Review: 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.
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