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lily_s77's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
danbydame's review against another edition
4.0
This was good. It gave me (as did Waiting) such an amazing glimpse in to the personal/cultural differences between Chinese life and ours. And it was an interesting "young man finds himself" story.
There was one part in the story where the main character's literature professor is giving his theory on the difference between Western and Eastern poetry. He says that Western society is built on the individual, and so a writer protects his individuality as something precious and adopts a persona for writing. In contrast, the Eastern society is so focused on the community (an individual's actions are strongly influenced by the opinion of the public), that a Chinese writer is always writing from his own life/perspective. It is his only chance to experience his individuality.
I think this is (for me) the take-away theme of the book. Thru the course of the book, the main character moves from doing what is expected (getting married, getting his PhD in literature, becoming a scholar) to ... something very daring and "Western".
I don't know a lot about Chinese culture, but from what I've seen ... how do they keep going? How does it work? Why doesn't the individual scream out more? Or does he, but he just gets so efficiently stamped down that it never amounts to anything? Maybe once a place gets to 1,000,000,000, an individual can truly have no effect.
There was one part in the story where the main character's literature professor is giving his theory on the difference between Western and Eastern poetry. He says that Western society is built on the individual, and so a writer protects his individuality as something precious and adopts a persona for writing. In contrast, the Eastern society is so focused on the community (an individual's actions are strongly influenced by the opinion of the public), that a Chinese writer is always writing from his own life/perspective. It is his only chance to experience his individuality.
I think this is (for me) the take-away theme of the book. Thru the course of the book, the main character moves from doing what is expected (getting married, getting his PhD in literature, becoming a scholar) to ... something very daring and "Western".
I don't know a lot about Chinese culture, but from what I've seen ... how do they keep going? How does it work? Why doesn't the individual scream out more? Or does he, but he just gets so efficiently stamped down that it never amounts to anything? Maybe once a place gets to 1,000,000,000, an individual can truly have no effect.
daysreads's review against another edition
This book was very different than from what I thought it would be going in, but it was very interesting and it made me want to learn about this particular time period.
farkle's review against another edition
3.0
When the world seems to be falling apart around you, life goes on. Sometimes it just so happens that your life is falling apart too. So it goes in The Crazed. Ha Jin's uniquely Chinese voice captures the tumult of China in the late 80s—the bureaucracy, the students, the whole thing falling apart.
Oddly enough, Ha Jin does not seem to have been in China in the late 80s having left the country in 1985 for the US. Which does make me question, is this an authentic version of China, or the version that Western readers expect? I know, I'm a cynic, but the book is definitely still worth the read.
Oddly enough, Ha Jin does not seem to have been in China in the late 80s having left the country in 1985 for the US. Which does make me question, is this an authentic version of China, or the version that Western readers expect? I know, I'm a cynic, but the book is definitely still worth the read.
zelbel2016's review
4.0
Honestly, I truly loved this book.
Thirty years past Tiananmen and several weeks into the Hong Kong protests, this book felt appropriate. I encourage any individual who has an interest in China's history (or even Hong Kong's recent fight for autonomy) to read this incredible novel.
Here are the basics.
Ha Jin's The Crazed centers on Jian, a nearly thirty-year-old academic studying literature in a rural town. Things are going pretty well for Jian who, despite failing his TOEFL, is poised to enter a prestigious Beijing university. Beyond that, he's already found a partner in Meimei, the daughter of his professor Mr. Yang. If all goes well, Jian will ace his exams and take up a post in Beijing, joining his fiance and starting their nest.
But then everything goes awry.
Mr. Yang suffers a stroke, and the school assigns Jian and a few of his classmates to care for their ailing teacher. During Jian's shifts, Mr. Yang begins to rave and rant, disclosing secrets from his experience during the cultural revolution. As an intellectual, Mr. Yang saw his life completely upended and laments what his country has become.
Watching his teacher fall apart, Jian begins to doubt his own life, wondering whether the job he seeks and the life he is working for are worth it. Building alongside Jian's self-doubt is dissent among the students of China, who are rising up against their government and demanding democracy. Whispers of dissent quickly become raging protests as students take to the streets around the country. These protests led to arguably the most infamous event in modern Chinese history: the slaughter of thousands of students in Tiananmen Square.
Ha Jin is an incredibly gifted writer.
I've only read snippets of his writing up to this point, but each time he is able to use simple language to evoke emotions and create relatable scenarios. This is so critical when expressing the struggles of China, both past and present, seeing as China is a nation that many people around the globe struggle to understand in the context of modern history.
Four stars. It wasn't a fast read (and it wasn't a light read), but it was well worth it.
Thirty years past Tiananmen and several weeks into the Hong Kong protests, this book felt appropriate. I encourage any individual who has an interest in China's history (or even Hong Kong's recent fight for autonomy) to read this incredible novel.
Here are the basics.
Ha Jin's The Crazed centers on Jian, a nearly thirty-year-old academic studying literature in a rural town. Things are going pretty well for Jian who, despite failing his TOEFL, is poised to enter a prestigious Beijing university. Beyond that, he's already found a partner in Meimei, the daughter of his professor Mr. Yang. If all goes well, Jian will ace his exams and take up a post in Beijing, joining his fiance and starting their nest.
But then everything goes awry.
Mr. Yang suffers a stroke, and the school assigns Jian and a few of his classmates to care for their ailing teacher. During Jian's shifts, Mr. Yang begins to rave and rant, disclosing secrets from his experience during the cultural revolution. As an intellectual, Mr. Yang saw his life completely upended and laments what his country has become.
Watching his teacher fall apart, Jian begins to doubt his own life, wondering whether the job he seeks and the life he is working for are worth it. Building alongside Jian's self-doubt is dissent among the students of China, who are rising up against their government and demanding democracy. Whispers of dissent quickly become raging protests as students take to the streets around the country. These protests led to arguably the most infamous event in modern Chinese history: the slaughter of thousands of students in Tiananmen Square.
Ha Jin is an incredibly gifted writer.
I've only read snippets of his writing up to this point, but each time he is able to use simple language to evoke emotions and create relatable scenarios. This is so critical when expressing the struggles of China, both past and present, seeing as China is a nation that many people around the globe struggle to understand in the context of modern history.
Four stars. It wasn't a fast read (and it wasn't a light read), but it was well worth it.
melanie_reads's review against another edition
4.0
Will definitely be reading more of Ha Jin's work. An enjoyable work that opened my eyes to a subject that I had hitherto never thought much of, the fate and scholarship of Chinese professors under Communist rule. As a bonus, this book features a great explantion of the difference between Chinese poetry and most Western poetry (hint: guess what, the narrator isn't the center of the world).
yangyvonne's review against another edition
2.0
This book is set in China in the months before the June 4, 1989 Tianamen Square protests. Jian is a graduate student working under his fiancé's father who just had a stroke. In his crazed state, the professor begins to rant about his experiences under Mao's communist regime. Jian learns of the true pain of being a scholar and his mentor's infidelities and unhappy marriage and begins to question his own path. Led astray by a plot that reaches all aspects of his life, he loses his fiancee, his spot in the PhD exam, any chance at a government job ,and is forced to flee everything he knows as he is marked as a traitor.
This book took a LIFETIME to get going - a good 65-70% of the book was consumed with the ranting, poetic mumbling and folk songs of the professor and Jian's visits with him where he tried to make sense of what was going on. After my almost giving up, all of a sudden, the book shifted into high gear and the plot of everyone around him begins to take shape. The events of June 4th are given short-shrift and the eventual end for Jian is extremely rushed, which makes you wonder why so much time was spent on the rantings - especially since they weren't explanatory to the ultimate ending.
This book took a LIFETIME to get going - a good 65-70% of the book was consumed with the ranting, poetic mumbling and folk songs of the professor and Jian's visits with him where he tried to make sense of what was going on. After my almost giving up, all of a sudden, the book shifted into high gear and the plot of everyone around him begins to take shape. The events of June 4th are given short-shrift and the eventual end for Jian is extremely rushed, which makes you wonder why so much time was spent on the rantings - especially since they weren't explanatory to the ultimate ending.
lemann's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
indalauryn's review against another edition
4.0
I picked up this book because quite frankly I was excited to find a beautiful hardcover book in one of the local Little Free Libraries. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would and wondered if I had been drawn to the subject matter on a subconscious level. The focus is on a young graduate student, Jian Wan, who helps take care of his professor, Yang, who has suffered a stroke. His professor begins raving in his delirium and the student begins to learn not only more about his professor but also begins to doubt his own life. In the meantime, the student uprisings in Tiananmen Square have also begun to come to a boil.
I was drawn to this one thinking about my own grandmother who recently suffered from a series of strokes. However, I like the way the personal lives of the characters unfolded here. The personal, professional and political are all intertwined in very twisted and unexpected ways. The reason I gave this one four instead of five stars is because I am a little unsure of how I feel about the ending. It feels a bit abrupt, but perhaps that is best. I need to think about it some more. In any case, I'm glad to have "discovered" Ha Jin and found this one well worth the read.
I was drawn to this one thinking about my own grandmother who recently suffered from a series of strokes. However, I like the way the personal lives of the characters unfolded here. The personal, professional and political are all intertwined in very twisted and unexpected ways. The reason I gave this one four instead of five stars is because I am a little unsure of how I feel about the ending. It feels a bit abrupt, but perhaps that is best. I need to think about it some more. In any case, I'm glad to have "discovered" Ha Jin and found this one well worth the read.