- Paperback
- Publisher: Vintage
- ISBN-10: 0099285894
- ISBN-13: 978-0099285892
- Product Dimensions: 17.7 x 11.2 x 2.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 181 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (254 customer reviews)
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First Sentence
Every summer Lin Kong returned to Goose Village to divorce his wife, Shuyu. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt
Every summer Lin Kong returned to Goose Village to divorce his wife, Shuyu. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Torn,
By
This review is from: Waiting: A Novel (Paperback)
Story of a man torn between his arranged marriage wife who has been devoted to him and his lover who he is in love with. The book is pretty good and really puts you in the footsteps of this man torn and indecisive. I felt the environment of the story set in China added to the story greatly - making the situation more believeable than other settings.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Audiobook,
By
This review is from: Waiting (MP3 CD)
It is post revolutionary China, and Lin Kong is a doctor in the Chinese Army. Years earlier his parents arranged a marriage for him to peasant woman Shuyu. While she has remained on their farm to raise their daughter and plant and then harvest the crop, Lin is not happy with his marriage. He has met a Manna Wu, a nurse at the hospital, and wants to divorce Shuyu.This book had no wild chase scenes, no dramatic outbursts, yet somehow it managed to keep me finding errands to run so that I could get back in my car and turn on my ipod and listen in on a few more minutes of the story. I kept hoping that Lin would make some dramatic action toward ending his marriage, or that Manna Wu would give him an ultimatum, but it didn't happen. I didn't find this disappointing as much as I found it totally in keeping with their characters. I didn't want a doctor and a nurse who could take such spontaneous actions. By nature they both should be much more methodical and process driven. I found myself rooting for Shuyu. She was the backbone of the whole tale. She kept the farm going, cared for her ailing in-laws and daughter, and provided the family stability the Lin needed for his reputation with the Army. I don't think that I would want to know Lin Kong. He never gave a chance to his marriage, didn't try to make it work. Right from the start he was embarrassed by his wife's bound feet and didn't want it to affect his career. He used Manna as an excuse to keep from dealing with his failure as a husband. Spoiler Alert The final chapters in the this book brought the story round circle. I can imagine that after Manna passes away, Lin will turn to the only person he can count on to help raise his sons. He will return to Shuyu who will care for them as though they were her own. End of Spoiler Alert I borrowed this Brilliance Audiobook from my library. It was read by Dick Hill. Mr. Hill has a steady, clear voice that was quite in keeping with the feeling of this story. Ha Jin is the pen name of Xuefei Jin, professor at Boston University.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Arranged,
By
This review is from: Waiting: A Novel (Paperback)
Ha Jin's novel is a perfect allegory for the living conditions in communist China. Like arranged marriages, arranged lives kept people waiting for something to happen. The carrot was career promotion, if you marched along the party lines. The stick was discredit and displacement.Of course, those rules applied only to the common of mortals. The bunch of mostly corrupt party bosses could live a more exciting life and profit fully from their uncontrolled power. This sometimes poignant, sometimes boring novel has not the same high standard as 'The Crazed', which was far more appealingly constructed, although it dealt with the same themes.
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