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Product Description
Book Description
The stark and powerful first novel by the author of Waiting
Product Description
Ha Jin has been compared to the late Issac Babel for his spare evocation of ordinary lives caught up in the flux of vast social movements. Winner of the Hemingway/PEN Award for first fiction for his story collection Under the Red Flag, Ha Jin is a writer of stark power, simple beauty and poignant irony. His themes of personal honour in the face of political rectitude are carried forward here in his first novel, In the Pond, a close, unsentimental depiction of life in a small factory town; the manoeuvring, posturing, petty jealousies and injustices of an ordinary man who tangles with the party bosses.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
After reading some of Ha Jin's short stories I couldn't wait to read one of his novels.
This is a very short book, written in the simplest of prose. The plot is rather predictable and the characters not very well developed.
However, hopefully without this sounding too patronising, I really felt as though the story was told by this working-class, poor, narrator. The language isn't flowery or poetic, it is the language of a maintenance worker in a fertalising plant, just as it is supposed to be (even though he is a self-professed intellectual). He describes the characters as one would expect him to describe them and the predicatability of the plot makes it seem realistic.
I couldn't put it down, and read the whole thing last Sunday. For the whole day I felt I had been transported to communist China and was deply involved in this man's struggle against the fertalising plant's corrupt leaders.
If you want a captivating little tale without too much literary poetic 'nonsense' then you'll love this!
(p.s. Don't listen to the review that says you can't help comparing this to Animal Farm- it is nothing like Animal Farm. The only similarity is that China is communist. Otherwise no resemblance whatsoever!)
This is a very short book, written in the simplest of prose. The plot is rather predictable and the characters not very well developed.
However, hopefully without this sounding too patronising, I really felt as though the story was told by this working-class, poor, narrator. The language isn't flowery or poetic, it is the language of a maintenance worker in a fertalising plant, just as it is supposed to be (even though he is a self-professed intellectual). He describes the characters as one would expect him to describe them and the predicatability of the plot makes it seem realistic.
I couldn't put it down, and read the whole thing last Sunday. For the whole day I felt I had been transported to communist China and was deply involved in this man's struggle against the fertalising plant's corrupt leaders.
If you want a captivating little tale without too much literary poetic 'nonsense' then you'll love this!
(p.s. Don't listen to the review that says you can't help comparing this to Animal Farm- it is nothing like Animal Farm. The only similarity is that China is communist. Otherwise no resemblance whatsoever!)
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This a short novella about a factory worker kicking up a fuss about the allocation of worker housing when he isn't top of the list for housing closer to the plant. He uses his artistic skills and satire to become a thorn in the side of the corrupt party officialdom.
This is written very simply, laying out the tale in black and white. The characters are just puppets for the plot and one glides through this short book not really getting a handle on any of the characters. The plot is good but it didn't exactly set my heart a-flutter. You do get an insight into communist China, but it's more like looking through a crack in the door than anything else. I do like that it becomes irrelevant that you are in China and the normality of the regime begins to feel everyday, commonplace.
However, it really is not that good. Take away China and communism from the equation and you are left with some pretty thin fiction and quite a forgettable book. So, two stars.
This is written very simply, laying out the tale in black and white. The characters are just puppets for the plot and one glides through this short book not really getting a handle on any of the characters. The plot is good but it didn't exactly set my heart a-flutter. You do get an insight into communist China, but it's more like looking through a crack in the door than anything else. I do like that it becomes irrelevant that you are in China and the normality of the regime begins to feel everyday, commonplace.
However, it really is not that good. Take away China and communism from the equation and you are left with some pretty thin fiction and quite a forgettable book. So, two stars.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
After first reading Ha Jin's short story collections, like Under the Red Flag, I was very interested in reading a novel. He did not disappoint. One might expect the gut punch his stories like "Emperor" throw at us, but rather Jin did what few can do well. He created a subtle satire that extends beyond Communist China to all the world, just imagine your corporate heirarchy instead of a communist regime. Using humor that is either sly or farcical, he reminded me of another cunning writer, Don Delillo. In studying what makes a hero, he gets closer to such a character, a more real person than any Odysseus could ever be. This is the best book that I have read in the past year, except maybe McCarthy's Cities of the Plain.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Powerful Political Story
This is a simple novella telling the story of a factory worker caught up in the political forces at play in Communist China. Read more
Published on 3 April 2009 by Mrs. K. A. Wheatley
Excellent political fable
I hadn't heard of Ha Jin before reading In The Pond (whose title still baffles me even after having finished it) but I was immediately drawn to his uncomplicated, playful style. Read more
Published on 23 Sep 2008 by jacr100
Corruption in post Animal Farm communist China (but funny!)
It's impossible not to compare this book to Animal Farm, in that it takes place in a communist environment where the pigs have become men, communist leaders as corrupt as the... Read more
Published on 24 Feb 2002
humourous struggle to attain a lifetime dream
One of the best books ha jin has written yet. Gutt wrenching story, soley built to keep you reading page after page. A short yet exciting book which grabs at your attention. Read more
Published on 28 Jan 2002 by blue2butterfly@hotmail.com
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