The Real Waiting
What's the main point of this book? Not until the last few pages
did I recognize it. In this book, Ha Jin told us what was the real
waiting — Neither Kong Lin's nor Manna's, But Shuyu's. Being a silent
and humble character, Shuyu was "naturally”overlooked by most readers.
Hence, only patient readers could enjoy the ecstasy on the surprising
ending Ha Jin tried to tell us after the long read. At this point this
book was incredibly beautiful and successful, as well as metaphorical
and philosophical --- on hitting the climax and simultaneouly testing
the readers and awarding those who were faithful.
By Ha jin's design, we readers SHOULD wait patiently for the ending.
Impatient readers would never find the beauty and the true meaning of
this story. In fact, since the pace of this book was so slow, the
stories and scenerios during those 18 waiting years were repeated and
predictable, I almost gave it up in the middle. But when I finished it
, I was deeply moved and burst into tears. The book totally deserved
it's reputation.
BTW, Why "18" years? The Chinese, and only Chinese, knew that.
It refered to an ancient folk tale of China. A woman (王寶釧) waited
for her husband (薛平貴), an officer, for "18" years in a shack,
not knowing her husband had another lover in the army. This tale was
so famous that almost every Chinese knew it. So we can see that Ha Jin
tried to write a modern Wang-Shue tale. Each main character in the
"Waiting" had its own corresponding character in the Wang-Shue story.
The only drawback of this book, in my opinion, was the chapter about
Manna being raped. It read so cheap.
Giawgwan, 2002
--
*********************************
* 雄壯 威武 嚴肅 剛直 安靜 堅強 *
* 確實 速捷 沉著 忍耐 機警 勇敢 *
* 我是教官 教官是我 *
* 每個人都記嘉獎一支 *
*********************************
--
※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.csie.ntu.edu.tw)
◆ From: 61.216.25.27
※ 編輯: Giawgwan 來自: 61.216.25.27 (01/22 19:44)
※ 編輯: Giawgwan 來自: 61.216.239.198 (01/22 23:07)