3.5
War Trash
ByPublisher Description
Ha Jin’s masterful new novel casts a searchlight into a forgotten corner of modern history, the experience of Chinese soldiers held in U.S. POW camps during the Korean War. In 1951 Yu Yuan, a scholarly and self-effacing clerical officer in Mao’s “volunteer” army, is taken prisoner south of the 38th Parallel. Because he speaks English, he soon becomes an intermediary between his compatriots and their American captors.With Yuan as guide, we are ushered into the secret world behind the barbed wire, a world where kindness alternates with blinding cruelty and one has infinitely more to fear from one’s fellow prisoners than from the guards. Vivid in its historical detail, profound in its imaginative empathy, War Trash is Ha Jin’s most ambitious book to date.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesWar Trash Reviews
3.5
C
Created 2 months agoShare
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“5/10. Historical fiction that's written like it's non-fiction, and where the level of credibility of the narrator is unclear. The writing is simple/average and did not stand out to me in any way - there is a way to write non-fiction in a way that is profound and beautiful, but this is not the way. Overall, I think it's just average - not sure what else there is to say about it.”
Jamila Ramirez
Created 4 months agoShare
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Jackie
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CameroCro
Created 6 months agoShare
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Ancrath Justice
Created 6 months agoShare
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“Very detailed look at a side of war I personally don't think about often. As a citizen of the United States, reading something entirely from the perspective of a character seemingly opposed to America politically was an enrichment experience. Highlights the futility, chaos and confusion of war. I was astounded at the resilience of the prisoners to hold on to their humanity as much as possible in utterly dehumanizing conditions.”
Diverse representationLikeableMemorableMinor characters stand outRepetitiveSlow-pacedSteady pacingUnsatisfying conclusionBleakDarkHarshHistoricalRealisticVivid descriptionsClear but uninspiredDescriptiveTakes getting used toAbleismAbuseAnimal abuseBigotryDeathGriefMisogynyMurderRacismReligious intoleranceSelf-harmSexual assaultSubstance abuseViolenceWar violence
About Ha Jin
Ha Jin left his native China in 1985 to attend Brandeis University. He is the author of the internationally bestselling novel Waiting, which won the PEN/Faulkner Award and the National Book Award, and War Trash, which won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, and was a Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize; the story collections The Bridegroom, which won the Asian American Literary Award, Under the Red Flag, which won the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, and Ocean of Words, which won the PEN/Hemingway Award; the novels The Crazed and In the Pond; and three books of poetry. His latest novel, A Free Life is his first novel set in the United States. He lives in the Boston area and is a professor of English at Boston University.
War Trash, The Crazed, The Bridegroom, Waiting, In the Pond, and Ocean of Words are available in paperback from Vintage Books.
War Trash, The Crazed, The Bridegroom, Waiting, In the Pond, and Ocean of Words are available in paperback from Vintage Books.
Other books by Ha Jin
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