Waiting

In Waiting, the author Ha Jin draws on his knowledge of China to create a great novel. Lin Kong is the main character and the whole novel revolves around his life. He is a man living in two worlds, struggling with conflicting claims of two different women. As he moves through the political minefields of a society designed to regulate his every move.
For eighteen years, Lin Kong, a devoted doctor has been in love with an educated woman, Manna Wu. But in his home village lives his wife, who was chosen for him by his family when he was young. His wife is a humble woman, whom he visits, throughout the years for a divorce. At these times China is very traditional therefore if adultery is discovered by the Party it can ruin lives forever. Lin’s passionate love has to be on pause until the wife accepts the divorce. She always agrees to a divorce but ends up backing out.
Ha Jin does a great job to vividly conjure the texture of daily life in a place where the demands of human longing must contend with the weight of centuries of custom. There was humanity in the text, but there was a lot of waiting (maybe that was Jin intentions). Jin does a real good job because he isn’t looking for the best in people. He makes every character uniquely human with all their faults and contradictions