Valet Reader

Waiting… that’s exactly what I was doing, waiting for the damn book to end!

Waiting by Ha Jin

I’ve never had much trouble with love stories, so long as they offer me something new. Granted I rarely choose to read one, although from time to time it’s acceptable for a man of my nature (you know, dashing, refined, intelligent and pompous). If it’ll make a lady happy I will gladly sit through a romantic movie; however, I don’t think I can say the same about reading a book about a love, lost or found. I can say with certainty that if I read another book as bland and lovey dovey as this one I may choose to cut out one of my eyes (that way I can wear an eye patch and still be pretty cool).

The only thing this book had going for it was the small tidbits of information and  views of communist China over a twenty or so year period. Just last year, before I started recording my thoughts on books and was studying Mandarin Chinese, I went through a heavy China phase where every other book I picked up was about the Far East. None  centered on the period of time of this book (1960′s – 1980′s) so it helped to put a few pieces together. The writing revealed the subtle changes of the communist regime during that time period but I would have enjoyed more history and less of the pansy love.

I read somewhere that Ha Jin served in the People’s Liberation Army which adds a great deal of credence to the things he writes about. His style was interesting and fresh with metaphors. Unfortunately the story fell flat. Give this book to a woman and she may cry (I am not a chauvinist, I swear). Give it to a man and he very well may laugh in your face. Jin’s storyline is generic, unconvincing and is no different from  other love stories out there.