Waiting by Ha Jin is by far one of the most truthful stories I've read in a long time. Jin's novel focuses on Lin Kong, a doctor torn between the woman he's married to and the woman he loves. Sound like a cliché? Well, in Jin's skilled prose, the story is anything but cliché.
Set in a restrictive post-Cultural Revolution China, Waiting expounds against the oppressive nature of the regulations of the time, as well as the societal pressures that existed. Lin's parents chose his wife, Shuyu, a traditional woman with bound feet whom he was embarrassed to bring with him to his post at the Army Hospital in Muji City. Shuyu cared for Lin's parents until they died, and she remained in Goose Village, raising her and Lin's only daughter, Hua. Since Shuyu will not grant Lin a divorce (though he returns to the village every year to request one), he must wait until they are separated 18 years before a judge will grant him a divorce without her consent. Thus, the title of the novel refers to the long years that Lin and his true love, Manna Wu, must wait until they can finally be together.
While it is a typical case of "be careful what you wish for" and "the grass is always greener on the other side", Waiting provides a very human look at the clash between our desires and reality, and the painful trade-offs we make in our lives, hoping that "this" will make us happier than "that" ever could.
Waiting won the 1999 National Book Award for Fiction. This is a great accomplishment for a simple story told in simple prose that carries such a great load of truth and wisdom on its pages.
