Waiting (Fifteenth Anniversary New Edition)

Waiting

Fifteen years of waiting, a classic that is irreplaceable

■New Edition of "Waiting" 15th Anniversary■
Special collection of the author's memorial preface, writer Huang Chunming's recommended article

Unprecedented: A Chinese author wins both the National Book Award and the Faulkner Award. This is the only work of this kind. ■ A literary classic that has sold over 50,000 copies in Taiwan. First edition revision. Ha Jin visits Taiwan at the 2015 International Book Fair.

"How many lives are lost and spoiled in waiting?"

Set in northern China during the Cultural Revolution, the novel depicts the life of a military doctor, Kong Lin, caught in a love triangle between his first wife and his confidante. It depicts a life-long struggle between kinship, love, and external realities. Constrained by Chinese Communist Party laws and social norms, couples must live apart for eighteen years before they can divorce. They waited for eighteen long years, cherishing a lifetime of hope, but ultimately losing the instinct to love.

"The Chinese version of Waiting has been published for fifteen years.
It is gratifying that it still has many readers. May it remain young forever." - Ha Jin

Award-winning record

Won the 1999 National Book Award and the 2000 PEN/Faulkner Novel Award.
Finalist for the 2000 Pulitzer Prize

book review

"One of the great writers who has remained true to realism in the alienated postmodern era." -- PEN/Faulkner Award Jury

"A deceptively simple story, written with remarkable precision and grace. Since Ha Jin, he has established his reputation as one of the most consistently realistic novelists of the modern era." - Kirkus Reviews

"Waiting presents an absurd drama set in Chinese society during the Cultural Revolution, yet it also cleverly analyzes the alienation of human nature." - New York Times Book Review

"Achingly beautiful... Ha Jin captures the details of ordinary life, from food and clothing to the interpersonal relationships in rural society. The strong emotions behind the text are reminiscent of Dickens and Balzac." - Los Angeles Times Book Review

"A delicate and intricate portrayal of the effects of time on love."—The Washington Post

"The story, through the protagonist Kong Lin's awaiting divorce, reflects the changes in China's Communist government from the 1960s to the 1980s. The book picks up steam in the third part, and after the divorce is finalized, Ha Jin's touching and wry prose reveals the astonishing ability of a laureate poet and award-winning short story writer to master the novel." - Publishers Weekly

"A perfectly executed deadpan comedian... Page after page, carefully crafted until the very end, 'Waiting' transforms into a novel of unparalleled hilariously satirical proportions."—Time magazine

"A truly remarkable achievement."—The New York Times

Celebrity recommendations

"A literary work, especially a novel, is almost a classic if it appeals to all ages, the elite and the masses, and not only moves the reader but also evokes an indescribable sense of beauty. Simply put, "Waiting" is a work of art that is visually and audibly captivating throughout the novel. In each fragment of the novel, the setting and the characters' activities are portrayed so concisely, delicately, and vividly. In terms of novel writing techniques, the language of the dialogue must be appropriate to the speaker, and it must capture the situation and emotions at the time. This is definitely not something that can be achieved by those who have read a lot of books at the academy. "Without a writer with a broad perspective and keen observation, this aspect of the novel, especially when depicting the masses, the working people, would be difficult to grasp. Even more valuable is that, given the aforementioned novel-writing conditions, even illiterate people will be moved and appreciate the novel when it is read to them. What I mean is that Ha Jin's novels have a mass appeal and can become teaching materials for the cultivation of the general public. A tribute to Mr. Ha Jin." - Huang Chunming, writer, excerpted from "Waiting for Ha Jin," the full text of which is included in the book.

"Life's greatest tragedy is the fear of change in the face of the impermanence of life, and we are all more or less trapped in the same predicament. This insight into life is perhaps the most important reason why Ha Jin's "Waiting" has transcended national boundaries and become a popular masterpiece of world literature." - Feng Pinjia, President of the Anglo-American Literary Society of the Republic of China

"There are three novels that have had a great influence on Waiting: Anna Karenina, Madame Bovary, and Fathers and Sons. In other words, Waiting has continued the tradition of excellent European love novels in terms of style and sentiment. In fact, the writing process was quite bumpy. At the beginning, I kept thinking about this question: Why didn't Kong Lin understand the woman he loved after waiting for eighteen years? As I wrote, I gradually understood: He didn't "He truly loved, and because of the long wait, he was suppressed and gradually lost his instinct to love. These internal factors enable the story to resonate with more people and give "Waiting" more vitality. "Waiting" has been published in Chinese for fifteen years, and it is gratifying that it still has many readers. I hope it will remain young forever." - Ha Jin, excerpted from "Preface to the Fifteenth Anniversary Edition", the full text of which is included in the book

2015-02-02

時報出版

360

9789571361871