A substantial amount of my reading this year has involved books that have come, one way and another, from other people. I like the feeling of unpredictability involved. I would never have chosen to read anything by Ha Jin, of whom I'd never even heard, before finding a copy of The Bridegroom on my desk at work. It's a collection of twelve short stories and I'm halfway through, having just read the title story. I'm impressed.
The stories are set in the fictional town (or city maybe) of Mujin in the period just after the death of Mao Zedong, and evoke a China that is both realistic in an almost tedious manner yet surreal in a way that touches on nightmare without quite going full-on Kafka, if you see what I mean. Ha Jin exhibits an icy control of proceedings, all the more impressive when you realise he's chosen to write in English to distance himself (I assume) from his native land.
Funnily enough he's praised for his 'simplicity' in the blurb on the Vintage edition. I find this odd since, although the stories make for straightforward reading, they don't deliver much in the way of obvious interpretations. Probably why I like them so much.
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