I like Ha Jin for the simplicity of his stories. The characters tend to have basic motivations that are easily comprehensible. The plots of the stories also seem basically simple. They are neither fairy-tale's nor determined to show a malevolent fate. What's successful is that he is able to make...
I read this after having read "Ocean of Words". I thought I would like to read a novel by him, but to me this just felt like a short story that got elongated. Some of the things I like about his writing are there, it's not elegant prose by any stretch of the imagination, but there is something ver...
I picked this up at random at the library and am glad I did. The stories are interesting and take me to a place and time remote from my own. At the same time they don't feel foreign at all. There is a little bit of moralizing about the cultural revolution but for the most part it's not heavy hand...
The most thorough treatment of the Asian immigrant experience you're ever likely to find. All of the most intricate details ring so clear and true. Only someone who has lived this experience could render it so honestly and poignantly. I am in awe of Ha Jin's mastery of English. He's so careful w...
Wooden writing and shallow characters, but an interesting story that could only be set in mid/late 20th century China: about discipline, longing coupled with detachment, lost opportunities and more.
Maybe this sounds contradictory to what I wrote before, but I am giving this book 5 stars. How do you call a book a "favorite" when the story told is so thoroughly horrible. This book is more memoir than historical fiction. Names had to be changed! First of all this is about a war and primarily is f...
This was the first Ha Jin book I read and is also my favorite. Great story and so true to the human character - in Chinese circumstance. I find it extremely difficult to find Chinese fiction writers that I like (is Ha Jin technically American?), but I love reading about China, so, filet mignon for e...
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