In an effort to show you that I'm a serious puppy, too, who does other things besides watch a lot of Law and Order SVU episodes (speaking of which, I started watching one last night at midnight, couldn't finish it, and now am going to watch the tail end at 740am, which means invariably that despite waking up early, I will find myself scrambling to get to work per usual, simply because one never really is one, and one can never really say no to another Law and Order SVU episode), I am also going to review the ocassional book that I read. There, aren't you happy? This is a serious, literary blog!
So on the plane ride back from Mumbai last weekend, I read Ha Jin's novel Waiting. Oh, at the outset let me warn you dear reader that I don't know how to do one of those "If you want more details, click the link after the jump" or whatever so I'm just going to go on and review the book here. I'll avoid spoilers to the extent I can but I'm not really good about anticipating where my stream of consciousness will take me and I rarely edit my posts after writing them (b/c sometimes important things like Law and Order SVU episodes await) so . . . c'est la vie.
Anyway, I liked the book. I was wary at first because I don't have connection to China generally much less the tiny rural village where the book was partly set in. And I know that intimate knowledge of the context of a book isn't necessary to reading it and/or appreciating it, but sometimes that knowledge gives you an added insight. I once got in trouble with a good friend who is white/ American for suggesting that she wouldn't understand Salman Rushdie's Midnight Children as well as I did because the history of the book -- emergence from colonialism/ independence/ the initial leaders of India/ the struggle with Pakistan and Bangladesh/ the Emergency period, etc. -- were built into my historical psyche.
I liked the book. It was predominantly sad. And I looked at the book jacket later and saw that many of the reviews talked about the "tragic comedy" of the book. Which I can see. But that comedy, let me tell you, really is tempered by a lot of sadness and melancholy.
I'm cheesy. I take away life lessons from books. So a big one from this book was "Seize the day." The book recognizes that it's not possible to always do that -- life is complex, and there are various factors all at play that compete with each other and might prevent you from doing something. I liked that understanding. But the bottom line that I took away is that one should not give up trying to make the change in one's life that one seeks. For otherwise life will just take its own course. (Which reminds me of that quote, "Life is what happened to you while you were busy planning.")
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
interesting. i read this about a year ago and liked it as well, though i found the plot frustrating because the you see the characters wasting their lives and you just want to grab them and shake them about.
Hmmm. Now I want to read the book. Because the idea of "carpe diem" frustrates me. Sure, you can "seize" change if, truly, you are in charge of your own destiny. Although our highfalutin education (and loving upbringing) inculcates us with the idea that we can do anything we want, that's often not the case.
Now, mid-life, I understand the flipside of seize -- discard. To seize change, you effectively must discard what you have. Everyone's willing to accept explosive change, as long as they can simultaneously enjoy what they have. The cost, in other words, is the cost of letting go. That's hard. I can understand why it's so easy to sit around and "waste" your life.
Does it have pictures? Better yet, is there a movie version?
Post a Comment