THE LIBRARY - BOOK REVIEWS - A FREE LIFE - DONNE TEMPO
A Free Life
Reviewed by Cecie O’Byron-EnglandHa Jin’s A Free Life (Pantheon , $17.95, 978-0-375-42526-4) tells the story of Nan a Chinese academic, and immigrant, over twenty years in the United States. His is a success story, but he is personally unfulfilled.
Beyond this Ha Jin seems to ask, is it the inner life or the expression of that inner life that makes our existence meaningful. These large issues are not hashed out in any messy scenarios but explored with depth through each page of A Free Life.
The life of Nan, husband, father, business owner, homeowner, Americanized Chinese immigrant, is tormented by his own inner longing to be a person of passion, one who creates great art, in this case poetry.
The mentors Nan meets in America include Chinese immigrants who become famous in America, writers who make peace and return to Asia, and American writers. None of these are tormented by politics as Nan is. Nan’s search is for answers, the question he poses is whether artists can serve a master other than art and remain true. Can they be nationalists or publicists or businessmen?
It is a small story, in that the characters live their own lives, ordinary lives, consumed with paying their mortgages and buying houses and educating their children, yet, Ha Jin delves deeper into the human experience with Nan’s constant searching.
Nan even goes so far as to track down his first love seeking passion in his hardworking life. This is a fanciful trip for a character that debates for weeks before taking the afternoon off from his restaurant to attend a lecture.
Nan’s wife, Pingping, is a study in acceptance. She desperately wants Nan to love her as fully as she loves him, and yet accepts that he never will. She lives with him, and is a true partner in their life together, although she remains aware that he does not love her in the same way and constantly considers the fact that he may leave her to seek another way of life.
She seemingly accepts that in China she may have been an independent woman with choices (including divorce and the ability to make a living independently) but in the U.S. she must stand on guard against anything that may separate her husband from her and the interests of their family.
Pingping’s tenacious attitude toward financial independence and her involvement in the education of their son, Taotao, suggest a powerfully determined, fully developed, independent minded woman. Yet, she accepts that her husband will never love her as she loves him.
This is a cultural leap for the American reader. However, the couple remains committed to their future. The dedication and general devotion that Pingping and Nan have for each other is a different kind of love story.
The separation of love for one’s country and support for one’s government runs through the novel. Nan is a part of an anti-Chinese government group at college and separates himself from his academic department after a fellow member is institutionalized.
He is haunted for years by the threat of the Chinese government and the power it wields from afar. His concerns for his family in China, despite his emotional distance from them, are practical and caring.
He chooses to forgo academia and to give up his focus on writing in order to learn how to be a Chinese chef. This allows Nan and Pingping to purchase their own small Chinese restaurant in Georgia where they settle, physically and emotionally.
Nan’s poems are included at the end of the book. They too tell the story of his life but a different one. The novel is a tale of compromise and assessment; Nan’s poetry is his inner self, painstakingly eked out between long shifts and worries.
It is a clever conclusion because it allows the reader, who has become invested in the life of this man and his family, and hopeful for his choices and future; choose to read the art that Nan finally creates.
Ha Jin is a talented storyteller. He is spare in his words and his plot is well developed. This novel is written in the style of the man who drives it. It is the story of a small but good life conflicted by a greater yearning.
True art is often harder to accept and raises more questions than answers. A Free Life does this. The freedom in the title is the ability to choose what kind of life you live. Nan chooses a practical life yet remains true to his convictions. America allows Nan this choice. The freedom of choice is the greatest gift.
Author Ha Jin's Biography
Professor. B.A., Heilongjiang University; M.A., Shandong University; M.A., Ph.D., Brandeis University
Teaching and Research Interests: Fiction writing; migrant literature; poetry and poetics.
Selected Publications: A Free Life (2007); War Trash (2004); The Crazed (2002); Wreckage (2001); The Bridegroom (2000); Waiting (1999); In the Pond (1998); Under the Red Flag (1997); Ocean of Words (1996); Facing Shadows (1996); Between Silences (1990)
Honors, Grants, and Awards: Fellow of American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2006); PEN/Faulkner Award (2005); Townsend Prize for Fiction (2002); Asian American Literary Award (2001); Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fellowship (2000-2002); PEN/Faulkner Award (2000); Guggenheim Fellowship (1999); National Book Award (1999); PEN/Hemingway Award (1997); Flannery O’Connor Prize for Short Fiction (1996)