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by heidifromoz , Oct 18 '06
Pros: Informative in regard to everyday people's lives in Mao's China. Interesting descriptions.
Cons: Uninspired narrative style, drags a bit, depressing.
Intro A few weeks ago, I picked this book off the library shelves and was about one-third of the way into it when I realized I’d read it before. My conclusion was that it couldn’t have made much of an impression the first time round, but ...
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by LilScamp , Sep 25 '02
Pros: Moving, universal tale portrayed with elegant simplicity
Cons: A bit slow at points. Too graphic to add to my classroom library shelf.
I ran across Waiting by Ha Jin last spring at a book sale. I am a social studies teacher and had just finished teaching about the Cultural Revolution in China that week. The back cover of Waiting promised a love story set in...
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by chinesemel , Sep 26 '07
Pros: Intriguing love story, realistic portrayal of China
Cons: Depressing at times
Lin Kong, a doctor in the army, was forced to marry a village girl at a young age, with whom he had a daughter. The couple have never lived together - Lin just visits his wife and daughter for two weeks a year when he is on annual leave. Eventually he ...
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by Epicure  - Top 500, Oct 25 '00
Pros: In-depth character development. Clever use of irony.
Cons: --
Recently struck with a terrible bout of the flu, I was bedridden for two days. It would have been a miserable two days indeed if not for the companionship of a couple of delightful books. One of them - Waiting by Ha Jin - really spoke to...
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by aeoluscmc , Dec 06 '02
Pros: poetic, deceptively simple love story
Cons: often dense and a little slow in the beginning
I have quite a bit to say about this one so I'm going to try to do so in an organized manner: The PLOT: The beginning of the plot is very like "Ethan Frome," with one man struggling between two women -- his wife whom he no longer loves (but to whom ...
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by chris.swann , Jun 11 '00
Pros: Spare, poetic prose; well-developed characters; strong setting
Cons: Slow-paced plot (which is well worth the wait)
Ha Jin came to America to earn his Ph.D. in literature and planned to return to his native China to teach. While in America, Ha Jin saw the massacre at Tiananmen Square on television and decided that he could not return to work for such a repressive...
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by omar107 , Mar 01 '00
Pros: Meticulous Prose
Cons: None
The first line of this novel is "Every summer Lin Kong returned to Goose Village to divorce his wife." How could you stop reading after that? With a vast and complex story, coupled with a deceptively simple writing style, Ha Jin has created a...
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by RonFranscell , Jun 22 '00
Pros: Exotic and accessible
Cons: Fortunately different from American classic style
Ha Jin is an expatriate realist with a lean, direct narrative style exploring conflicts that nobody ever seems to win.
The book is a remarkably austere love story, suffused with irony and subtlety, played out on a foreign stage. The hero is a...
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by jprathe , Mar 31 '00
Pros: quick read, intriguing emotional plot twists
Cons: disturbing description of a rape
Ha Jin's book began as a novella of 106 pages and was revised into "Waiting" after it received complimentary reviews. When I heard him read from it recently, he told us that it was a story lifted from the experiences of several members of his...
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by embermae , May 25 '01
Pros: Excellent character development
Cons: The middle can be slow at times
I read Waiting because it was set in China, a country I’m interested in learning more about. I loved Waiting because of its universal wisdom on life and love. It was not what I expected; I thought it would be a vibrant love story. It was...
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by Quintessence , Jul 15 '00
Pros: masterfully created
Cons: leaves you feeling like you've been socked in the gut
Waiting has a sweet, sad quality to it without being tragic, and it gives an interesting window into daily life in the more remote cities of China that I've never seen in the blood-and-inner-strength Gong Li Chinese films that get distributed...
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by kskopitz , Mar 15 '00
Pros: Superb use of language, subtle use of plot.
Cons: None.
If you are a fan of Chinese novels or film, read this book. The haunting lyricism of repressed desire, often a feature of this genre, is exquisitely displayed here. If you haven't delved in before, this is a great place to start.
Lin Kong,...
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by lilybriscoe , Oct 25 '00
Pros: beautiful language, compelling story
Cons: stilted dialogue
In 1985, Ha Jin left his native China for the United States to attend Brandeis University. He never went home.
The massacre at Tianamen Square in 1989 convinced Jin that China, under such a murderous regime, would be an impossible place...
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by butterfly8 , Dec 20 '03
Pros: A sensual book: an Asian virtue of being quiet in the way you love.
Cons: A slow book: the story of love and patience requires a patient reader.
While reading this text, I was wondering if patience was truly supposed to be a treasured virtue. The East advocates patience much more than the West. We, in the West, have only now begun to realize the great qualities and values of the past worlds. ...
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by maddrewler , Oct 10 '02
Pros: Looking into the souls of the characters
Cons: Having to "wait" along with the characters
This book is ingenious in its insight into human emotion. Much like Patricia Highsmith's "The Talented Mr. Ripley" and Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov's "Lolita," "Waiting" is a thoroughly thought-out study in human emotion.
The feelings of...
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