Ha jin has 37 books on goodreads with 80374 ratings. In the united states, good journalists are muckrakers, rabblerousers, sometimes even troublemakerstheir job is to rock the boat. The boat rocker deftly explores media and the chinese. He is the author of seven previous novels, four story collections, three volumes of poetry, and a book of essays. His dissertation was on modernist poets such as pound, eliot, auden, and yeats because, as he told dave weich of powells city.
Having enjoyed ha jins waiting, when i saw this book on my local public librarys shelves, i immediately checked it out. Kurlander, crimson staff writer ha jin has made a career on crafting skillful histories of particular moments in the history of 20thcentury china. In this interview, we focus on the boat rocker, ha jins most recent novel, published by pantheon in 2016. Throughout the book he wrestles with the importance of maintaining objectivity. Ha jin was born xuefei jin in liaoning province, china. The protagonist in the boat rocker, feng danlin, is a journalist who prides himself on being impartial in his reporting and principled about expressing his opinion. Review of the boat rocker by ha jin, plus backstory and other interesting facts about the book. Set in new york, ha jins new novel, the boat rocker, takes place a week before the fourth anniversary of 911. When young chinese immigrant yan hailis 911exploiting novel love and death in september gets a publicity bump from the chinese government, and rumors circulate about president george bush endorsing the book, hailis exhusband takes aim. Ha jin stretches danlins initial missives, though amusing, nearly to the point of repetitive exhaustion, yet as the novel shifts focus from small squabbles to a more worldly narrative. The boat rockers cast features people of varying backgrounds whose speech patterns jin captures in pitchperfect dialogue.
Ha jins the boat rocker is redeemed by the authors own. His latest novel, the boat rocker, is the timely and darkly funny story of an aspiring author, an outrageous book idea, and a lone journalists quest for truth. Chinese expatriate feng danlin is a fiercely principled reporter at a small news agency that produces a website read by chinese all over the world. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading the boat rocker. For fictional devices, ha jinthe author of the real novel the boat rockerdazzlingly refashions the literary trope of a novel within a novel into a novel about a novel. Ha jin, pseudonym of xuefei jin, born february 21, 1956, jinzhou, liaoning province, china, 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 jin had only a brief, incomplete education before the schools in china closed in 1966 at the beginning of the. Waiting by ha jin video project for prize winners course at tsu.
He grew up during the cultural revolution, served in the army, and earned both his ba and ma at chinese institutions before arriving in the us on a student visa to pursue a phd in english at brandeis university. Its cast features people of varying backgrounds whose speech patterns jin captures in pitchperfect dialogue, right down to the slang common to members of my own tribe, homo academicusjin also reveals an added talent. Written in ha jins typically plainspoken style, the boat rocker is not one of his finest works. Chinese expatriate feng danlin is a fiercely principled reporter at a small news agency whose website is read by. Jin began to educate himself in chinese literature and high school curriculum at sixteen. His other works of fiction included the novella in the pond 1998, the novel the crazed 2002, and the shortstory collections the bridegroom 2000. Though his writing is censored in his native country, ha jin says he fails to qualify for full boatrocker status. Ha jins the boat rocker is a scathing satire about chineseamerican patriotism and intellectual integrity. In jin s latest novel, the boat rocker, his eponymous protagonist, feng danlin, is a new yorkbased journalist and newly naturalized american citizen writing in chinese for an organization. The boat rocker by ha jin is this weeks new title tuesday recommendation because it is timely, occasionally darkly humorous, and provides insight to the consequences of acting on principle and the limits of a free press summary. Chinese expat ha jin reflects on nationalism, tiananmen.
The boat rocker s cast features people of varying backgrounds whose speech patterns jin captures in pitchperfect dialogue. From the awardwinning author of waiting and war trash. The chinaborn but united statesbased author xuefei jin, who publishes. He is the author of six previous novels, four story collections, three volumes of poetry, and a book of essays. Chinese expatriate feng danlin is a fiercely principled reporter at a small news agency whose website is read by chinese all over the world. Ha jin left his native china in 1985 to attend brandeis university. Ha jin ha jin left his native china in 1985 to attend brandeis university.
He is the author of seven previous novels, four story collections, three volumes of poetry, and a. Ha jins latest novel shows off his funny side the new york times. A columnist for a chineselanguage newspaper operated out. The boat rocker by ha jin penguin random house audio. Ha jins latest novel shows off his funny side the new. Jins latest novel, the boat rocker, isnt as elegantly crafted as waiting, but it provides even more linguistic dexterity. Natl book awardwinner ha jin packs a quiet punch this outwardly nondescript story about a journalist facing up to the chinese government has a.
No, im much tamer, says the national book awardwinning author, who calls his latest novel the boat rocker. The boat rocker ha jin author 2016 the boat rocker ha jin author edoardo ballerini narrator 2016 war trash ha jin author 2007 a free life ha jin author jaeson ma narrator 2007 nanjing requiem vintage international series ha jin author 2011 a free life. But he also draws us, so gently that we hardly notice, into some very deep questions, first about chineseamerican identity, then about identity for any person, and then about the value and the risks, for. A former chinese army soldier who chose to stay in the united states after the tiananmen square massacre, ha jin has lived and worked under. Download for offline reading, highlight, bookmark or take notes while you read the boat rocker. Ha jins latest novel, the boat rocker, follows the story of chinese expatriate feng danlin, a fiercely principled reporter at a small news agency that produces a website read by chinese all over the world.
In the boat rocker he continues with his supply of unadorned prose, as evocative as chekhovs. He researches facts and scrupulously reports his findings, calling out fraud where he sees it. The boat rocker by ha jin in library journal bookdragon. Download it once and read it on your kindle device, pc, phones or tablets. In ha jins choppy boat rocker, a journalist takes on china. The novel includes nuanced debates on loyalty and identity. The boat rocker by ha jin pantheon books langans book mark. He was an unsophisticated, aspiring author, and she turned out to be a scheming young woman who also imagined herself as a writer, he loved her and believed her love for him was sincere. Ha jins story collections, too, have won notable prizes, with under the red flag awarded the flannery oconnor award for short fiction and ocean of words the penhemingway award. The schadenfreude, the gallows humor, lays upon the 911 attack a critical comic view that would be difficult to pull off by anyone, a challenge jin. Jin is a chinese author who writes realistic novels about everyday people and their difficulties and daily struggles in life. Edoardo ballerini, narrator feng danlin and yan haili, were married in china.
The boat rocker focuses on chinese expatriate feng danlin who is a journalist in new york. Hence the title of ha jins the boat rocker, in which the socalled turtle is 36yearold feng danlin, a journalist working on long island for a small chinese news agency thats trying. Ha jin depicts here the full spectrum of immigrant life and the daily struggles some minute, some grand faced by these men, women, and children 4 out of 5 stars a different view. A columnist for a chineselanguage newspaper operated out of new york city, danlin knows that some of his columns make it into china despite the countrys outsidemedia freeze, and he. The boat rocker, by ha jin jin maintains he would never have become a writer were if not for this trauma and his decision to stay in the states and become an american citizen. He has received the national book award, two penfaulkner awards, the penhemingway foundation award, the asian american literary award, and the flannery oconnor award for short fiction. Its plot turns seem both unlikely and cynical, and its dialogue can be stiffly political.