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Summary: CC from NJ
Review: The book began well, but after awhile I became annoyed with the main characters. There is just so much "waiting" a reader can put up with before you decide to move on (which is what the characters should have done before the middle of the book).
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Summary: Reads like a fable
Review: I liked this book, and I'm pleased that it has received so much recognition. The story is fascinating and suspenseful. The characters are sympathetic and rounded. The novel as a whole is quite satisfying.What did irk me, though, was that the style so closely resembles that of a fable, not a novel. The sentences are clipped and their structure is invariably simple. I felt like I should be drawing lessons from the story instead of enjoying it for its own sake, like the title should have been "The Story of the Man Who Waited Too Long and of What He Learned." But if you're in the mood for a fable, this one's the way to go.
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Summary: Lessons of Life
Review: I must give this book a 5 star rating because it shows one of life's greatest lessons. The grass IS always greener on the other side. How many of us are spending precious time looking for the happiness in life we already have but just don't appreciate? How many of us are as painfully honest with ourselves as Lin finally was with himself? Better late than never, I suppose. It's a good book, with a good lesson to learn.
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Summary: Simple, sad story of "bitter love"
Review: Waiting is a beautifully written story of the bitter love between Lin, a doctor and officer in a Chinese army hospital, and Manna, a modern nurse and Lin's coworker. Lin's pathetic attempts to sever his marriage of duty to Shuyu, the simple countrywoman with bound feet who was chosen for him by his parents, foretell his feeble nature. The beauty of the story is in the detail given to the characters and a sense of time, place, and history. What I liked about it: how easily the descriptions of a culture so foreign to me blended with the storytelling. I came to know the characters whether I liked them or wanted to bonk them on the head, and I cared what ends they would meet. It wasn't a tearjerker - I normally cry when reading even a bad love story. This time I didn't. Perhaps I was associating with the unemotional Lin and by the end I was too angry with him to sympathize. What bothered me about the story: I was saddened by both Lin and Manna's weakness time after time, and I even thought I wouldn't bother finishing the book. Yet, as the lives of the women hurt by Lin's "loyalty" crossed, I had to find out how it would be resolved. I couldn't imagine how it might have a happy ending. And I'm still not sure it does.
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Summary: Very Interesting Read
Review: I "read" this book on audio, and at times I thought how interesting the book was, and at times I was bored. The last third of the book was definitely the best. It was hard to be sympathetic to any of the characters except Shuyu, the dutiful wife. I felt very sorry for her. Lin Kong, the absent husband was a very weak man, with no passion in his life for anyone or anything. At times I was angry with the characters, at times (a few), I felt sorry for them, and at times I was disgusted with them. However, they were real people, with all the faults that go along with being human. Perhaps what I liked best about the book was its description of communist China. It is hard not to have a morbid fascination with the country. The culture is so completely, totally different from American culture; it is hard to fathom living in a country in which the individual simply has no value as an individual. It is definitely one of the books that will stick with me a while.
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Summary: Waiting
Review: This novel allowed me a clear and vivid visualisation of the daily life of the central characters, and enriched my understanding of the cultural climate of China during that period. I found the personality composition of the leading characters to be refreshingly balanced between human strengths and weaknesses. A good read.
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Summary: Not award winning caliber
Review: Criticism of Ha Jin's writing by the Chinese reviewer from Boston seems excessive; yet, I agree with his basic observations. Ha Jin's writing style and use of the English language hardly seems award winning caliber. In fact, my first impression, as I began to read Waiting, was that the translation was pitifully weak. Then, I realized my mistake: the book was not translated; Ha Jin, a professor of English at Emory, wrote the story in English. It is difficult to understand why a college English professor, writing a serious novel, would use countless trite and hackneyed phrases such as: "Mama ran into Gang Yen" and "How come he was so benign..." Ha Jin's writing style seems to be directed towards the 10 to 12 year old reader. However, to be fair, he periodically displays flashes of good writing with plausible metaphors and descriptive passages. Coincidentally, similar inconsistencies, though to a lesser degree, are found in other Asian writers who seem to be straddling a fence between greatness and mediocrity, however, unfortunately, leaning precariously towards mediocrity. Two notable examples: Jung Chang, author of Wild Swans, born in China, now living and teaching in London; and Haruki Murakami, a prominent Japanese writer, author of The Wind-up Bird Chronicle which was translated in English. With some polish and effort, they, perhaps, can leap the fence to greatness. Ha Jin, Like Chang and Murakami, ostensibly has the innate ability to write well but needs refinement. In Waiting, he tells a story with meaning and thought as well as a reasonable plot to hold the reader's interest. And yet, I found Waiting to be tiresome. The title may be a warning to me. Beware of "waiting" titles. As with Waiting For Godot, I grew tired of waiting...and waiting...and waiting.
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Summary: Great story about modern China
Review: At first I was very disappointed by the book's ending, which I will not disclose. I think I always expect to like the main character of the book and I didn't like this one, Lin. I felt that he was a weak person and I couldn't sympathize with him. Then I realized that the author might not have necessarily wanted us to like Lin. Maybe he was only using Lin and his story that spans over 18 years to tell us about China and the culture of the communist party. In that context, Lin's story isn't really important. The "waiting" was not the main theme of the book, the main theme was the life of an average Chinese man or woman in communist China in the 70s and early 80s. In other words, I was too focused on the plot of the book, but I think that wasn't what the book was about, it was just an instrument for the author to describe modern China and the Chinese mind-set. I felt that the book was definitely written for a Western audience. I mean, if you're writing a book for the Chinese audience, you wouldn't be describing the food at every meal, which was what the author did. He didn't say Lin and his family sat down for dinner, he described every dish they were having. I don't know if that was good or not. I found it a bit annoying, but others may appreciate the details because it showed them a different culture. Read this book if you're interested in how the average person lives in China and what it's like to live in a communist country. It's hard to imagine but very well captured by Ha Jin.
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Summary: Great book? Give me a break!
Review: I'm about 2/3 through the book. I've learned enough about it to have an opinion. After all, you don't wait till the very last page to discover a book great. I'm Chinese. The story sounds totally trite to me, the writing ranges from tolerable to awful. Come on, you native English-speakers. English is my second language, if I can see this, shouldn't it be obvious to you? Can't you see his uneven vocabulary (well-grown in his garden and menagerie but thin elsewhere) and his consciousness of his sentences. Ther are parts that read like intructions you find on Chinese products. It boggles the mind that a book like this has won such prestigious awards. I don't recognize any more that this is the land that has given the world such writers as Nathanial Hawthorn, Henry James, or even Henry Miller, grumpy as he was. I don't have much against the book, it has the right to be published and read. But such high praises? You folks are funny. As a matter of fact, if this book was written as a memoir, it would deserve a few more merits. I just read Morris Berman's The Twilight of American Culture, in which the author claims that few Americans read serious books any more. The reader's comments here provide ample evidence to me. The majority have even lost their ability to tell good English from bad (even more amazing some are among the top 1000 reviewers here. Slow down, folks, chew a little more, good for your stomach). A great book should appeal to all people, it would be really weird if it appeals mostly to people outside of the culture it is writing about. Imagine a book about the Holocaust that fails to impress the jews. What is its intrinsic worth going to be? This story is a folk story, at best. It has no depth, psychologically or otherwise. The author's translation of Chinese song lyrics, chinese idioms, etc, are, in most cases, inexact and ungraceful. His use of the term Manchuria at the beginning of Part 1, ch 1, shows his lack of knowledge of history(quite basic). "Manchuria" was a name used for the northeartern provinces of China at the time when it was occupied by the Japanese invaders. It is insulting to the Chinese. No Chinese patriots use that name today. Of course, the author might not consider himself Chinese. I understand. The episode where Whitman's poems are concerned was unlikely to happen at the time. I bet it is there because the author was impressed by them while he was a student here in the US. No crime, but sounds unreal to my Chinese ears. But these are minor charges. For me a novel should be first and foremost an art of language, which this book is anything but. I've read somewhere that the author himself claims to have been benefited by studying Chekhov. Sorry. I've studied Chekhov myself. I don't see a shadow of Chekhov here, perhaps he meant a poor translation of Chekhov. Keep reading books like this, native English speakers. you are helping me to see greater hope for my own English. An earlier reviewer has hit the nail right on the head when s/he said, "This book would have been vastly improved by being written in Chinese and then translated by a competent translator." I feel generous today, so I give it 2 stars.
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Summary: What A Perfect Title!!
Review: This title is so fitting as I "waited" all through this book. I "waited" to see where the story was going, then "waited" for something to happen, and "waited" to find a character I even liked. (I think that character must have been Shuyu as Lin was nothing but a wimp and Manna needed to "get a life"). Then I couldn't "wait" to get to the end of the book!! I loved "being in China" and learning of how it must have been during the cultural revolution, but as for the rest of the story........DISAPPOINTED......
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