Erin's review
A Free Life
by Ha Jin
Erin's review
A Free Life by Ha Jin
Erin's review
rating:
I actually listened to this book on CD over the past few weeks and I mention this because I think that impacts the way one experiences a book. Anyway, I loved it. It's a lush, detail-driven account of a Chinese family's life in America after leaving China around the time of the Tiananmen Square massacre. It's told from the father's point of view, a man longing to be a poet, but instead pursuing the "American dream" of wealth and success.
The book moved like a foreign film to me. It's not plot or action driven, every detail didn't serve to move the book along. Instead it was a rich, introspective account of one man's search for meaning. The book ends on an uptick but it feels transient. In other words, life isn't about what we've got at the end but by the millions of moments strung together to get there.
The book moved like a foreign film to me. It's not plot or action driven, every detail didn't serve to move the book along. Instead it was a rich, introspective account of one man's search for meaning. The book ends on an uptick but it feels transient. In other words, life isn't about what we've got at the end but by the millions of moments strung together to get there.
