American Fiction, Asian Americans - Fiction & Literature, Short Story Collections (Single Author), Character Types - Fiction

A Good Fall

Name: A Good Fall
Author: Ha Jin
ISBN: 9780307473943

by Ha Jin

Available on Bookshop Write a review

Books.org participates in affiliate programs including Bookshop.org and the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. We may earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this page, at no additional cost to you.

Overview

In his first book of stories since The Bridegroom, National Book Award-winning author Ha Jin gives us a collection that delves into the experience of Chinese immigrants in America.

A lonely composer takes comfort in the antics of his girlfriend's parakeet; young children decide to change their names so they might sound more "American," unaware of how deeply this will hurt their grandparents; a Chinese professor of English attempts to defect with the help of a reluctant former student. All of Ha Jin's characters struggle to remain loyal to their homeland and its traditions while also exploring the freedom that life in a new country offers.

Stark, deeply moving, acutely insightful, and often strikingly humorous, A Good Fall reminds us once again of the storytelling prowess of this superb writer.

Synopsis

In his first book of stories since The Bridegroom, National Book Award-winning author Ha Jin gives us a collection that delves into the experience of Chinese immigrants in America.

Stark, deeply moving, acutely insightful, and often strikingly humorous, A Good Fall reminds us once again of the storytelling prowess of this superb writer.

The Washington Post - Marie Arana

In short, the storyteller's art is richly on display here. Ha Jin has a singular talent for snaring a reader. His premises are gripping, his emotional bedrock hard and true…there is no doubt that in A Good Fall Ha Jin captures a new, growing slice of America. It may not be as eye-blistering as the perspective he offers in his novels about China, but there's something arresting about the view. You might even call it: captivating.

About the Author, Ha Jin

National Book Award winner Ha Jin writes about the tribulations of life in Chinese society with dark humor and an economical but effective prose style. He has turned out remarkable novels, short stories, and poetry -- all the more remarkable considering he only began writing in English in the late 1980s.

Reviews

There are no reviews yet. Log in to write one.

Editorials

Colm Toibin

In his latest collection of stories, Ha Jin explores the nature of displacement and the unease with which Chinese immigrants in the United States experience their new country. With skill and spareness, he uses the dozen stories in A Good Fall to dramatize lives in which hope has been crushed rather than abandoned, in which the struggle to find a place to live becomes as much a daily battle within the self as it is with society. His characters seem to be in exile not only from the China of their memories and dreams but from their very sense of who they are. Their emotional universe has become as circumscribed as their physical surroundings. Once inhabitants of a sprawling and familiar culture, they are now confined to a few rooms, a few streets.
—The New York Times

Marie Arana

Publishers Weekly

From National Book Award–winner Jin (Waiting) comes a new collection that focuses on Flushing, one of New York City's largest Chinese immigrant communities. With startling clarity, Jin explores the challenges, loneliness and uplift associated with discovering one's place in America. Many different generational perspectives are laid out, from the young male sweatshop-worker narrator of “The House Behind a Weeping Cherry,” who lives in the same rooming-house as three prostitutes, to the grandfather of “Children as Enemies,” who disapproves of his grandchildren's desires to Americanize their names. Anxiety and distrust plague many of Jin's characters, and while the desire for love and companionship is strong, economic concerns tend to outweigh all others. In “Temporary Love,” Jin explores the inevitable complications of becoming a “wartime couple” or “men and women who, unable to bring their spouses to America, cohabit... to comfort each other and also to reduce living expenses.” With piercing insight, Jin paints a vast, fascinating portrait of a neighborhood and a people in flux. (Dec.)

Library Journal

With an enviable literary reputation built on award-winning titles set in China, poet/novelist/short story writer Jin recently debuted his first U.S.-based novel, A Free Life, about the Americanization of a Chinese immigrant family. While the 12 stories in his latest release continue to explore familiar immigrant themes—assimilation, isolation, generation gaps—Jin again captures the smallest details to create uniquely resonating portraits of everyday people: a lonely composer befriends his girlfriend's parakeet in "A Composer and His Parakeet," a man suspects his wife of infidelity in "The Beauty," an elderly couple are shunned by their American grandchildren in "Children as Enemies," and a garment worker falls for a prostitute in "The House Behind a Weeping Cherry." VERDICT Beyond his characters' ethnic backgrounds, Jin's writing clearly has mass appeal, most notably exemplified by National Book Award winner Waiting. This new work will be welcomed by any reader and is an excellent companion piece to The Bridegroom, a collection whose characters are the Chinese counterparts of characters featured here.—Terry Hong, Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program, Washington, DC

Kirkus Reviews

First collection of short fiction in nine years from expatriate novelist Ha Jin (A Free Life, 2007, etc.). All set in Flushing, N.Y., all concerned with the Chinese immigrant's experience in America, these 12 stories are unified in geography and theme, uneven in richness and depth. The opening piece, "The Bane of the Internet," is one of the slightest, suggesting in four pages that the speed and amount of communication offered by e-mail aren't necessary benefits for a Chinese immigrant with relatives back home. Many other stories also resemble fables or parables, with generic titles and plot twists reminiscent of O. Henry. "Beauty" shows that quality to be not what it appears, and not merely skin deep. "Choice" concerns a series of (you guessed it) choices, as a graduate student opts for the humanities and deprives himself of the support his parents would have offered for a more professionally focused education. He finds a tutoring job to pay the bills and is torn between his teenaged pupil and her mother, an attractive young widow, but the climactic choice turns out not to be his. "Shame" invites the reader to find autobiography within its narrative, as a student's changing relationship with his former professor inspires a first novel in English. Generational tension bristles through "Children as Enemies" and "In the Crossfire," as elders prove resistant to the assimilation that younger Chinese-Americans are more likely to embrace. The title story is the most powerful, as an immigrant monk on the verge of suicide finds despair leading to redemption. "You can always change," he learns. "This is America, where it's never too late to turn over a new page."Rich imagery-"drizzle swayed in thewind like endless tangled threads," "the streetlights were swimming in my eyes"-displays the author's poetic gifts, but some of these tales belabor the obvious.