Author: Ha Jin
Translator: Yeon-su Kim
Publisher: Sigongsa
Hardcover | 480 pages | 208*145mm
| Important! Please read before you order! |
| >>>This book is written in Korean. |
About This Book
Jin's quiet but absorbing second novel (after In the Pond) captures the
poignant dilemma of an ordinary man who misses the best opportunities in
his life simply by trying to do his dutyAas defined first by his
traditional Chinese parents and later by the Communist Party. Reflecting
the changes in Chinese communism from the '60s to the '80s, the novel
focuses on Lin Kong, a military doctor who agrees, as his mother is
dying, to an arranged marriage. His bride, Shuyu, turns out to be a
country woman who looks far older than her 26 years and who has, to
Lin's great embarrassment, lotus (bound) feet. While Shuyu remains at
Lin's family home in Goose Village, nursing first his mother and then
his ailing father, and bearing Lin a daughter, Lin lives far away in an
army hospital compound, visiting only once a year. Caught in a loveless
marriage, Lin is attacted to a nurse, Manna Wu, an attachment forbidden
by communist strictures. According to local Party rules, Lin cannot
divorce his wife without her permission until they have been separated
for 18 years. Although Jin infuses movement and some suspense into Lin's
and Manna's sometimes resigned, sometimes impatient waitingAthey will
not consummate their relationship until Lin is freeAit is only in the
novel's third section, when Lin finally secures a divorce, that the
story gathers real force. Though inaction is a risky subject and the
thoughts of a cautious man make for a rather deliberate prose style (the
first two sections describe the moments the characters choose not to
act), the final chapters are moving and deeply ironic, proving again
that this poet and award-winning short story writer can deliver powerful
long fiction about a world alien to most Western readers. (Oct.) FYI:
Jin served six years in the People's Liberation Army, and came to the
U.S. in 1985. --From Publishers Weekly
"Subtle and complex--his best work to date. A moving meditation on
the effects of time upon love."--The Washington Post
"A high achievement indeed."--Ian Buruma, The New York Review of Books
"A portrait of Chinese provincial life that terrifies with its emptiness
even more than with its all-pervasive vulgarity. The poet in [Jin]
intersperses these human scenes with achingly beautiful vignettes of
natural beauty."--Los Angeles Times
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