Despite my best intentions, I can never seem to keep this short, but I am going to try. I want to get an e-reader (ipad, kindle, nook, feel free to convince me ), but I also want to read all of the books on my shelf before I do. There are about 80, just waiting. At first, I plucked this book from my shelf because I had a doctor appointment, and I was hoping someone would appreciate the visual pun of me, in the waiting room, um, waiting. (nobody really did)
So, here’s the setup, from the first, perfect line. “Every summer Lin Kong returned to Goose Village to divorce his wife Shuyu.” Lin Kong’s parents arranged his marriage to Shuyu while he was away in medical school. She is a nice country girl, but this young military doctor in the Muji City is embarrassed by her country ways and especially by her bound feet. It is the 1970s, and girls just don’t do that anymore. For years he lives apart from her, returning once every summer to see how she and his young daughter are getting along. It isn’t until he meets Manna, a young nurse at the hospital, that things become complicated.
Ha Jin lived through the political climate of this novel, but he hasn’t made it the overriding theme. Instead, he explores his characters with a poet’s prose, revealing the intimate and ordinary details of their lives. But their lives are not poetry, and I am hurt and happy for them all, as I follow the strange path that brings Lin, Shuyu and Manna together. It was definitely worth the wait.
No comments:
Post a Comment