The Crazed [Paperback]

 

 

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The Crazed, Ha Jin, Vintage Inter., 2002, pp.323

This story takes place in Shanning City, 1989, about two hours by train outside Beijing. Professor Yang, a well-liked and respected literature scholar, suffers a stroke. His future son-in-law, Jian Wan is a favourite of the professor and engaged to his daughter, Meimei. Jian and his friend, Banping are assigned to care for Yang until further help can be obtained. Jian is telling the story and throughout the novel, he asks many suspicious questions, answers to which are discovered only near the end.

While caring for Yank daily, Jian has to listen to his rantings, many of which progressively become more revealing and personal. He discovers that this man whom he idolizes, is not all he appears to be and in fact has lived a life contrary to his principles and teachings. Jian slowly pieces together the meaning of these rantings. Writing in the USA gave the author the freedom to express his anti-communist feelings, which at times, through the mouthpiece of his characters, is quite vehement. The leading spokespersons for the Party are the Vice-Principal and Ying Peng, the local party boss. These two are portrayed as the antithesis to everything moral, honest and truthful. In fact, naive Jian will eventually wise up to a plot to subvert him.

Jian is deeply in love with Prof. Yang's daughter. Jian's idea if marriage is self-giving and sharing but Meimei's idea is more personal. She sees Jian in a supporting role for what she desires in life and if it means he must pursue a career or program in Beijing, so be it. Their separation during most of the novel is due to school but it also provides Meimei opportunities she would not have near home and leads to surprising results.

With Prof Yang hospitalized and rantings, visitors are led to believe he is crazy. As the novel progresses, the author twists this around. Without revealing the plot, I found this realization quite a surprise. In many ways, some of these conclusions could apply to us and our acceptance of influences and personal decisions.

I liked this novel particularly because it reveals so much of Chinese life under communist rule: choice of schools and programs; housing; administrative structures and the party boss; the Tiananmen Square Incident of 1986 witnessed by many on site foreign reporters; weddings; and many more insignificant details governed by the party. This is significant all the more because this is a current novel. This is the communist party today and how it intrudes into every aspect of daily living.

It is this very dominance of the party which leads to choices made by Yang and finally a momentous decision by Jian. 'I saw China in the form of an old hag so decrepit and brainsick that she would devour her children to sustain herself. Insatiable, she had eaten many tender lives before, was gobbling new flesh and blood now and would surely swallow more.' (p.315) It is this realization which the author develops in this novel. The revelations give credence and support to the many history texts I have read but now I see history as lived out in the daily activities of the people. This is invaluable!

He writes simply but clearly and strangely, as he nears the conclusion, his writing picks up a vehemence which sharpens his writing. You would almost think there were two authors. As one reads through the novel, you can't help but feel pity for the country's populace so tied down without any outlet for free expression. Fear dominates every activity. It is no wonder the people have discovered a form of happiness in amassing 'things'. They can still buy freely, as long as items are available...and this they do with a relish.

I liked Ha Jin's Waiting, but preferred The Crazed. This book was a quick read, and extraordinarily well-written. The descriptions of people, objects and scenes in this novel were made incredibly real through the author's poetic and creative word choices. I thought this author particularly skilled in this area, in that he described things in a unique and creative manner that enabled the reader to vividly picture the scene/object or feel as the narrator did:

"When I entered the sickroom, Mr. Yang was sleeping with the quilt up to his chin. The room was brighter than the day before; a nurse's aide had just wiped the windowpanes and mopped the floor, which was still wet, marked with shoe prints here and there. The air smelled clean despite a touch of mothball."

"His shortwave radio was still on, giving forth crackling static. I got up and flicked it off. At once the room turned quiet as if the whole house were deserted."

"It was almost midmorning. I opened the window of our bedroom to let in some fresh air. Outside, on the sunbaked ground a pair of monarch butterflies was hovering over an empty tin can, which was still wet with syrup. The colorful paper glued around the can showed it had contained peach wedges."

"As I wondered whether I should turn back, the door opened slowly and Mrs. Yang walked out. She was a small angular woman with deep-socketed eyes. Seeing me, she paused, her face contorted and sprinkled with tears. She lowered her head and hurried past without a word, leaving behind the rancid smell of her bedraggled hair. Her black silk skirt almost covered her slender calves; she had bony ankles and narrow feet, wearing red plastic flip-flops."

"[The train] pulled out smoothly as if wafted away by dozens of hands waving along the platform."

I especially liked how the author colored the descriptions of people other than the narrator by giving the reader the narrator's impression, rather than objective facts, about those people--it added an extra dimension to the writing:

"Today she seemed under the weather, her eyes red, rather watery, and an anemic pallor was on her cheeks. Her youthful outfit, an apple-green ruffled skirt with a white shirt with ladybugs printed on it and a shawl collar, didn't add much life to her."

"I was amazed by such a shrewd answer."

"To my thinking he was too optimistic."

"Mr. Song wore blue sneakers and a gray jacket, which was shoulderless and barrellike--a standard garment for middle-aged male college teachers at the time. I was amused to see him in such a jacket even when he was jogging."

"Between our squat cups sat a teapot like a small turtle. Banping was always proud of his teaset, which he claimed was of a classic model."

The narrator's emotions are made so palpable by the author's writing that the reader cannot help but empathize/identify with him:

"For some reason I was suddenly gripped by the desire to touch her, my right hand, so close to her waist, trembling a little."

"I grew dubious and angry, feeling the painting must be either false or satirical. To some extent I was perturbed by my response to it. This kind of work used to touch me easily, but now it had lost its impact because I had begun to look at things with doubtful eyes."

"I realized I shouldn't have come to seek Banping's advice. granted he treated me as a friend, speaking with complete candor, he and I were by nature different kinds of people: I was too sensitive, too introverted, and maybe too idealistic, whereas he was a paragon of peasant cunning and pragmatism."

Like the "crazed" patient rambling seemingly incoherently, each chapter picked up on one of many seemingly minor details from the previous chapter, and expanded upon it. Ultimately, this served to weave the narrative together and yet propel it forward at the same time, paralleling the progress China's democratic student movement in 1989, against the backdrop of which this novel is set. (The language highlights this backdrop: in Beijing during the outbreak of violence surrounding the marches on Tianenmen Square, the narrator explains, "[i]n the indigo sky a skein of geese appeared, veering north while squawking gutterally. The sight of the birds reminded me of a squadron of superbombers.")

Overall, a very impressive, worthy novel.

My father is a history fiend. He loves reading historical novels and learning about the past. One year over the holidays my three siblings and I, without any planning or discussion amongst us, all purchased him gifts of books or videos on World War II. I think he finally reached the point of being overwhelmed by historical information.

I've read several of my father's books, but have never been able to embrace history the way he does. I do like it though when a book is able to take a historical event and feed it to you in such a way that you get to read a compelling story and not the dry history of schooldays. I like to get lost in the story, but finish the book feeling smarter about the past. While I don't gobble up history the way my father does, I think that he is smart to learn about what has happened before us so he can better understand our present and future.

In The Crazed, by Ha Jin, we are introduced to a communist China of the 1980s. What is presented as a mystery that unravels through the delusional rants of a sick old man is actually a statement on the political atmosphere of China for intellectuals during the late 80s.

The Crazed follows Jian Wan and his relationship with his teacher, Professor Yang. Jian is engaged to Professor Wan's daughter, Meimei, so when the professor suffers a stroke he feels doubly obligated to care for his teacher. During long hospital visits where Professor Wang speaks at length in the form of poems, unintelligible chatter and memories seemingly long lost, Jian starts to piece together a past to his professor's life that neither he, nor the professor's daughter, was ever aware of. He also gets insight into the life of an academic - a life that Jian is in the process of pursuing himself.

While the mystery of Professor Wang's life unfolds, in the background of the story always lurks the political climate of the area. If Jian passes his exams and is able to go on to study for his PhD, he will get to move to Beijing and be near his fiancé, Meimei. In Beijing there are student demonstrations occurring to protest the government. Through their letters back and forth, Jian and Meimei share their feelings on the protests. Jian's roommates also discuss with him their points of view on what is going on in the city.

Both the storyline about Professor Wang and that of the politics of China collide when Jian finds himself in Beijing. And then, in a very subtle way, Ha Jin is able to introduce his reader to a perspective on the Beijing student protests that might be new. While his reader is engrossed in his compelling story, he pulls out the great surprise of teaching a little history.

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1.0 out of 5 stars full of false information, reflects author's hatred to China
First of all, since I was a graduate student in China some time ago and also worked as a junior instructor for a few years, this book gave me a refresh of my experience--both... Read more

Published on April 14 2004 by xlsyu

4.0 out of 5 stars China on the eve of Tiananmen
The author of "Waiting" sets his new tale in the same China as his earlier book--the excesses of Mao are past, some political outcasts are being rehabilitated, and the... Read more

Published on Mar 14 2004 by J. Marren

4.0 out of 5 stars interesting novel
The Crazed gives a good insite on what living in "Communist" China is like. The characters are real, interesting, and three dimensional. Read more

Published on Feb 7 2004 by crazy_helen46

5.0 out of 5 stars Subtle Story, Fluid Writing
I had a difficult time deciding whether to awared this book four stars or five. Ther were some aspects of the book I didn't like, such as the narrator's extreme naivete, but once... Read more

Published on Nov 15 2003 by Patrick O'Brien

5.0 out of 5 stars A mask is necessary for survival
This novel tells the story of a young intellectual - a man with a mission - who becomes the plaything of a malignant party bureaucrat. Read more

Published on Sep 20 2003 by Luc REYNAERT

4.0 out of 5 stars Just Before Tiananmen
I listened to the cassette version of this book, and I must say that the Chinese male narrator, Norm Lee, probably made this story even better. Read more

Published on Aug 13 2003 by S. Brand

4.0 out of 5 stars Witty approach to expose the post-Cultural Revolution China
The literature department at Shanning University came to a halt at the news of Professor Yang suffering from a sudden stroke in spring 1989. Read more

Published on Mar 16 2003 by Matthew M. Yau

5.0 out of 5 stars Many layers, many turns of face...
This novel moves a lot slower than "Waiting." There's a lot of literary lecture interspersed throughout the story, as it revolves around an old literature professor who... Read more

Published on Feb 19 2003 by momwith2kids

4.0 out of 5 stars MORE LIKE 4.5 STARS
As Jian Wan studies hard for the PhD entrance exams for the classical literature at Beijing University, Professor Yang, his mentor and future father-in-law, suffers a stroke and... Read more

Published on Feb 15 2003 by S. Calhoun

2.0 out of 5 stars Underdeveloped characters - boring.
I thought there was very poor character development - hard to identify with any of them. I struggeled to finish this book. Read more

Published on Jan 29 2003

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