A famous literary critic called Ha Jin dull. The New Yorker, however, claimed that reading Ha Jin was like falling in love.
I agree with the latter. Ha Jin’s writing is straightforward and devoid of frills which makes it easier for the reader to connect to the story while relishing the simplicity of both the narrative and the plot.[break]
In Ha Jin’s novels, the male protagonists often find themselves in precarious situations, forced to act within a moral vacuum, and “Waiting” is no different. It captures the poignant dilemma of an ordinary man who tries to do his duty – as defined first by his traditional Chinese parents and later by the Communist Party during the Cultural Revolution in China.
The novel tells the story of Lin Kong, a military doctor who works at an army hospital. He gets married, upon the insistence of his parents who live in their village, to Shuyu, a country woman who looks far much older than her 26 years, and who has, to Lin’s great embarrassment, bound feet. But she takes care of his ailing parents, and then tends to their graves on a regular basis after they are gone while Lin works on undisturbed by familial concerns at the hospital.
Then Lin falls in love with an educated, clever, modern woman, Manna Wu. Since he’s married, such an affair is forbidden by the Communist strictures. So Lin goes back to his village every year to ask for a divorce. Every year, his compliant and devoted wife agrees to it but then backs out when they reach the court. The result: for eighteen years, Manna waits for Lin to divorce his wife so that they can be together.
There’s nothing suspenseful in Ha Jin’s second novel which apparently is based on a true story the writer heard from his wife while visiting an army hospital in China. But the story is so cleverly crafted that when you read a sentence you are left yearning for the next.
In a culture where tradition and ancient family values still hold sway and adultery is beyond any reasoning, Lin and Manna’s passionate love goes through turbulent times. At times, Manna starts searching for ways to validate her sense of self – by flirting with other army officers, or drinking wine without a care in the world while, on the other hand, there’s Lin who feels it unfair on Manna to wait for his divorce to pan out. His guilt over stringing Manna along and watching her become an “old maid” in the eyes of others has him trying to set her up with his cousin and promoting a relationship with a high ranking military official.
As you come to understand the characters, you can almost feel their anguish and then there is just no stopping you from picking up the book at every possible minute. What makes the book a compelling read is not so much the curiosity of when – or if – Manna and Lin will marry, but the force with which they are constantly pulled in several directions.
A good writer, they say, can make the most banal of lives seem interesting by the choice and deployment of words. Ha Jin’s language, though simplistic, has that impact. The last few chapters where Lin contemplates on his life are moving and deeply ironic. The only negative aspect of the story is that Lin is such a passive character that at times you can’t believe a woman would wait for him, let alone two.
The book, albeit a bit slow and depressing at times – it is only in the novel’s third section that the story gathers real force – makes you ponder over what motivates and drives the human heart while making you realize how big of a luxury immediate gratification actually is. And that’s the beauty of this simple and somewhat clichéd story.
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