Oct 29, 2007 ha jin, a first generation chineseamerican and winner of the national book award for his earlier work, waiting, is the latest author to take on the immigrant experience. National book award winner ha jin writes about the tribulations of life in chinese society with dark humor and an economical but effective prose style. The story and characters are so well rounded and believable. In reading ha jins powerfully moving war trash, one might be forgiven for forgetting. About war trash ha jin s masterful new novel casts a searchlight into a forgotten corner of modern history, the experience of chinese soldiers held in u. His new novel, a free life, details the firstgeneration travails and experiences of chinese immigrant nan wu, his wife pingping and their son taotao. How might the loss of home experienced by yuan and the other prisoners compare to the life of the writer in exile.
He was awarded the pen faulkner again in 2005 for war trash. Jin began to educate himself in chinese literature and high school curriculum at sixteen. Ha jin presents war trash as the memoir of yu yuan, a chinese officer. Ha jin, chinese american writer who used plain, unadorned english prose to explore the tension between the individual and the family, the modern and the traditional, and personal feelings and duty. Ha jins writing cv might reasonably leave any warmblooded author nearnauseous with envy. Ha jin left his native china in 1985 to attend brandeis university. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading war trash vintage international. But yuan is canny enough to get by, and, having survived revolution, war, and prison, he manages to outlive the fanatics in the end. It takes the form of a memoir written by the fictional character yu yuan, a man who eventually becomes a soldier in the chinese peoples volunteer army and who is sent to korea to fight on the communist side in the korean war.
In 1951 yu yuan, a scholarly and selfeffacing clerical officer in maos volunteer army, is taken prisoner south of the 38th parallel. Another brilliant installment in ha jin s history of modern china the crazed, 2002, etc. The book received widespread critical acclaim upon publication and received a 2005 pulitzer prize nomination. Ha jins new novel is the fictional memoir of a chinese peoples volunteer, dispatched by his government to fight for the communist cause in the korean war. Its written as the memoir of a fictional chinese pow during the korean war. In keeping with the fictional memoir format the writing is simplistic and straight forward. War trash fiction by the author ha jin and 20 similar books.
Ha jin project gutenberg selfpublishing ebooks read. The narrator catalogs chronologically his experiences from enlistment to capture and on to release. Because he speaks english, he soon becomes an intermediary between his. He is the author of the internationally bestselling novel waiting, which won the penfaulkner award and the national book award, and war trash, which won the penfaulkner award for fiction, and was a finalist for the pulitzer prize and the kiriyama pacific rim book prize. War trash is a novel by the chinese author ha jin, who has long lived in the united states and who writes in english.
War trash, the extraordinary new novel by the national book awardwinning author of waiting, is ha jins most ambitious work to date. May 10, 2005 ha jins war trash illuminates the harrowing struggle of the korean war between the divisive pronationalist and communist regimes and the interventionist united states. Many times throughout the book i had forgotten i was reading fiction. War trash by jin, ha and a great selection of related books, art and collectibles available now at. War trash, the extraordinary new novel by the national book awardwinning author of waiting, is ha jin s most ambitious work to date.
This could easily be mistaken as a memoir of the horror of war, and the humanity of its prisoners. Ha jin earned his masters degree at shandong university in china, and in 1986 came to the united states to begin his doctoral work at brandeis. Everyday low prices on a huge range of new releases and classic fiction. The novel war trash 2004, set during the korean war, won a second penfaulkner award for jin, thus ranking him with philip roth, john edgar wideman and e. Another brilliant installment in ha jins history of modern china the crazed, 2002, etc. War trash vintage international kindle edition by jin, ha. Yu yuan describes his ordeal after capture, when p. Ha jins writing cv might reasonably leave any warmblooded author nearnauseous. About war trash ha jins masterful new novel casts a searchlight into a forgotten corner of modern history, the experience of chinese soldiers held in u. Dec 18, 2007 ha jin left his native china in 1985 to attend brandeis university. Nov 11, 2005 war trash by ha jin 352pp, hamish hamilton. Read it now enter your mobile number or email address below and well send you a link to download the free kindle app. He has turned out remarkable novels, short stories, and poetry all the more remarkable considering he only began writing in english in the late 1980s.
In 1951 yu yuan, a scholarly and selfeffacing clerical officer in maos volunteer army, is. Original title isbn 9781400075799 published on 200411 in edition language. The narrative shares similarities with ha jins other works, including saboteur an underlying ambition to bring to light the injustices suffered by those who have no voice. Vivid in its historical detail, profound in its imaginative empathy, war trash is ha jin s most ambitious book to date. In reading ha jin s powerfully moving war trash, one might be forgiven for forgetting that its a work of imaginative fiction and not a. Because i failed to do something else, writing in english became my means of survival, of spending or wasting my life, of retrieving losses, mine and those of others. But in his new novel war trash, awardwinning author ha jin has chosen to focus on an even lessremembered aspect of that war. Chinese pows faced with the choice between repatriation and resettlement in free china, aka taiwan. First published in 2004, this penfaulkner awardwinning novel considers the experiences of chinese soldiers imprisoned in american pow camps during the korean war.
Ha jin s masterful new novel casts a searchlight into a forgotten corner of modern history, the experience of chinese soldiers held in u. Then you can start reading kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or. Buy war trash by jin, ha from amazons fiction books store. Ha jins masterful new novel casts a searchlight into a forgotten corner. Ha jin has said that war trash will be his last book on china. His newest books are a free life 2007, the writer as migrant 2008, a good fall 2009 and nanjing requiem pantheon 2011. Download it once and read it on your kindle device, pc, phones or tablets. Book has minor edge wear, faded on spine and on head edges of covers, crease. His notable novels included waiting 2000 and war trash 2004. Apr 22, 2020 download book war trash by author ha jin in pdf epub. Ha jin captured by enemy forces, yu yuan, a chinese army officer serving in korea in 1951, takes on the role of interpreter due to his proficiency in english, a role that places him in a conflict between. Blurb war trash is a novel by the chinese author ha jin, who has long lived in the united states and who writes in english. Doctorow who are the only other authors to have won the prize more than once. Ha jins new novel is the fictional memoir of a chinese peoples volunteer, dispatched by his government to fight for the communist cause in.
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