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3.27 AVERAGE
3.27 AVERAGE
Lilian Shang has been haunted by her father for many years. A Map of Betrayal is both of their stories, and in typical style for Ha Jin, it's an elegant, restrained exploration of family, loyalty, and patriotism.
Lilian's father Gary immigrated to the US as a translator with the CIA, where he earned a stellar reputation for his superlative work and dedication to his team. Until it was revealed that he was receiving the exact same commendations from the Chinese government for his work as a spy. The double life was even more pervasive than just a career, though--Gary even had a secret family back in his homeland. A wife and two children who were kept hidden away from him in order to keep him focused.
A temporary teaching post in China gives Lilian the chance to track down her father's elusive past in an attempt to understand him. To reconnect with the family and the parts of her own self that have been kept from her for so long.
Ha Jin's elegiac novel is haunting and spare--specialties of his. The emotional restraint is at times infuriating, but the payoff is sound in this case. If the subplot involving Lilian's nephew is a touch too spot-on, well, the central storylines make up the difference. And if the first hundred pages are a bit slow, the last half of the book makes up for it.
What I'm saying, I suppose, is that while A Map of Betrayal is a flawed book, it is also a very good book and well worth the effort.
Grade: A-
Lilian's father Gary immigrated to the US as a translator with the CIA, where he earned a stellar reputation for his superlative work and dedication to his team. Until it was revealed that he was receiving the exact same commendations from the Chinese government for his work as a spy. The double life was even more pervasive than just a career, though--Gary even had a secret family back in his homeland. A wife and two children who were kept hidden away from him in order to keep him focused.
A temporary teaching post in China gives Lilian the chance to track down her father's elusive past in an attempt to understand him. To reconnect with the family and the parts of her own self that have been kept from her for so long.
Ha Jin's elegiac novel is haunting and spare--specialties of his. The emotional restraint is at times infuriating, but the payoff is sound in this case. If the subplot involving Lilian's nephew is a touch too spot-on, well, the central storylines make up the difference. And if the first hundred pages are a bit slow, the last half of the book makes up for it.
What I'm saying, I suppose, is that while A Map of Betrayal is a flawed book, it is also a very good book and well worth the effort.
Grade: A-
I found the book a little slow at first, but then I found myself really getting into it. Well written and also very well narrated by Angela Lin - I will have to check out more (audio)books by this author and / or with this narrator.
I liked the twists and turns of the two narratives, especially since we knew a little bit about how the "flashback" one of them would end from the very beginning. This gave the ending of that narrative a certain inevitability, while you still couldn't help hoping that some things would turn out otherwise. I also liked the strange effect of hearing the same voice narrating from adult Lilian's perspective, and then referring to Lilian in the third person in the "flashback" narrative. I also really liked that I learned a lot about the history of Chinese-US relations through Gary's narrative.
A couple things that seemed a little strange though - Lilian, who is half-white and grew up in the States, is able to pass herself off as Chinese while teaching and traveling in China, despite both her race and likely having an accent. That just doesn't ring true to me. Also, I was surprised at the lack of mention of racism in Gary's narrative, given that he lived in a largely white community in the States in the 1950's and onward.
I liked the twists and turns of the two narratives, especially since we knew a little bit about how the "flashback" one of them would end from the very beginning. This gave the ending of that narrative a certain inevitability, while you still couldn't help hoping that some things would turn out otherwise. I also liked the strange effect of hearing the same voice narrating from adult Lilian's perspective, and then referring to Lilian in the third person in the "flashback" narrative. I also really liked that I learned a lot about the history of Chinese-US relations through Gary's narrative.
A couple things that seemed a little strange though - Lilian, who is half-white and grew up in the States, is able to pass herself off as Chinese while teaching and traveling in China, despite both her race and likely having an accent. That just doesn't ring true to me. Also, I was surprised at the lack of mention of racism in Gary's narrative, given that he lived in a largely white community in the States in the 1950's and onward.
There was something off about this, odd use of words and wierd phrasing. Whatever was going on, I just couldn't deal with it.