Waiting by Ha Jin

This is a most unusual book, in several ways.

Taking place in China from the early '60s through the early '80s, it is the story of a married doctor in the Chinese army as he tries to divorce his tradition-bound peasant wife to marry Manna Wu, a more modern and educated nurse. Year after year, his wife agrees to the divorce, only to withdraw her consent at the last minute, so that Dr. Lin Kong and his intended new wife are forced into "waiting" for 18 years to pass, when by law Dr. Lin can divorce his wife without her consent.

This sounds like a highly romantic love story full of passion and longing, but it is not that at all. Instead, the "lovers" seem strangely complacent about their situation, both deciding at various times that waiting is not the answer. Lin Kong even tries twice to help Manna Wu find another man to marry. And when their waiting is over, the outcome is not happily-ever-after.

The portrait of China provided here is very interesting and revealing. picturing as it does a society in transit, with superstitious peasant life and the new order of the People's Revolution present at the same time. Dr. Lin Kong is portrayed as a man constrained both by the heritage of the past and the laws of his new present. The author, Ha Jin, was himself a member of the People's Revolutionary Army before coming to America in the 1980s, so he can probably be trusted to be providing a true analysis.

The writing is unique for the time (published in 1999), in that it is extremely straight-forward and without embellishment or emotion, almost choppy, in fact. Yet somehow this style seems to reflect the content perfectly, since the characters all seemed to be almost emotionless.

At the end, I could not decide exactly what the author intended I should take away from the reading. Should I believe that both the old ways of China, with its arranged marriages, and the new ways of China, with its strict laws of conduct and decorum, sapped the romance out of male-female relationships? Should I believe that Lin Kong is a flawed human being, with concern only for his own comfort and well being? Should I consider this an allegory for the aphorism, "Be careful what you wish for"? Maybe all of the above?

This novel was the National Book Award winner in 1999, and I found it fascinating, but I still can't decide what to make of it exactly.