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The Crazed Ha Jin 9781400032143 Books

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The Crazed Ha Jin 9781400032143 Books

The fictional-historical book titled, "The Crazed", by Ha Jin, centers on Mr. Shenmin Yang, a Professor in the Literature Department of a provincial University in China who suffers a stroke in the Spring of 1989 and is hospitalized in the intensive care unit. The story is narrated by Jian Wan, one of Professor Yang's graduate students who happens to be engaged to Yang's daughter, Meimei. Because Mrs. Yang is away in Tibet, and Meimei is away in Beijing studying to become a Pediatrician, Ying Peng (the Party Secretary of Jian Wan's department at the provincial University) asks Jian Wan to help care for Professor Yang during his hospitalization, claiming that he is the "only family Professor Yang has here." Although Jian Wan is extremely busy studying for the Ph.D entrance exams for Beijing University (where he hopes to eventually join Meimei), he complies with Secretary Peng's `request' (which is really an `order' since she, as a government official, has a great deal of power over Jian Wan's future). Jian Wan ultimately alternates hospital shifts with his fellow graduate student, Banping Fang (who is married to Anling).

The 59 year old Professor Yang's stroke is not accompanied by aphasia---he retains the ability to speak/understand both spoken and written language; and he exercises this ability to excess. As Professor Yang drifts into and out of a `crazed' state, he speaks incessantly and eloquently (to nobody in particular), recites poems and sings belligerent songs, relating both real and imagined life experiences. For example, during several of Professor Yang's utterances, he passionately relates the torture that he experienced during the disastrous `Cultural Revolution' (1966-1976) when he was labeled a "Demon-Monster" and a counterrevolutionary by the Red Guards, who destroyed his entire library (he was a bibliophile); and he was forced to perform manual labor in the field in lieu of pursuing his beloved intellectual endeavors. During Jian Wan's regular visits to the hospital, he listens intently to Professor Yang's utterances and `challenges' himself to discover the underlying life experiences that were responsible for Yang's stroke. He is intrigued and shocked by much of what he learns about Professor Yang's personal and professional life experiences and his deep-seated (heretofore hidden) political views and ideology. For example, during one of his diatribes Professor Yang assumes the role of his former oppressors (during the calamitous `Cultural Revolution'), expressing the desire to rule over (and dominate) other people. Jian Wan wonders whether these sentiments are genuine, or simply a symptom of dementia.

This fascinating story is developed against the backdrop of the student protests in Beijing against the repressive policies of the Chinese Communist government, culminating in the Tiananmen Square Massacre on June 4, 1989 when tanks (under order by Deng Xiaoping and Li Peng) cleared the throngs. It serves as an excellent window into the history/culture of China and the relationship (and ongoing rift) between the Chinese Communist government and the Chinese people. Moreover, Dr. Yang's case, in particular, provides deep insight into the contrast between a person's `public image' and his/her `inner self'; and suggests the possibility of a chasm between the two. Overall, I found this book to be extremely enlightening, well-written, and enjoyable.


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The Crazed Ha Jin 9781400032143 Books Reviews

In THE CRAZED, a young Chinese student is assigned to care for his graduate studies teacher - also his father-in-law to be - who has just had a stroke. Throughout the afternoons, Jian, the student, listens to the ramblings of Mr. Yang, as the older man slips in and out of reality. Embarrassed but attentive, Jian begins to piece together sections of his teacher's life through the tidbits which Mr. Yang reveals. By the time that Jian is finally relieved of his vigil, he discovers that his teacher's revelations have also affected the terms in which he defines his own life, and has presented him with new choices that he never considered before.

This is my first experience with the National Book Award winner Ha Jin - it is also the first outright modern 'literary' fiction that I've read in some time. Too often, I find this genre (if it can be called such) to be very well-written, but somehow unaffecting. And that was essentially the experience I had with THE CRAZED; I like Mr. Jin's writing - I like it a lot. Several times I noticed passages that, while not flowery, seemed to include small details that enhanced the scene but stopped short of over-description. This makes the writing straightforward in a way I appreciate, relying on that essential detail rather than an aggregate of similes to drive the story and set the scenes.

On the strength of that writing, I'm sure I'll pick up more titles from Mr. Jin (the pen name of J¨©n Xu¨§f¨¥i) - but I'm divided as far as THE CRAZED. The device of using the ramblings of the old professor to further Jian's education - albeit in a different direction than before - seems too neat, too contrived. And, although the existential crisis this precipitates is believable, it did not feel particularly urgent.

I did enjoy the details of life in China from this time period (1989), but, in the end, I'm left with a mediocre impression of THE CRAZED, but an admiration for the author's talent. Three-and-a-half stars.
I liked it , he's part of that new cadre of authors out of china...English is the language of business and sons that wish to do well learn it. Especially as he is part of a one child only society. Colleges these days like to hire the accomplished bi-lingual teachers, as they are a great draw... And, as foreign students they pay full tuition and stimulate the local economy. We are lucky his family didn't buy a poultry processing plant in Ohio, for him to manage... The Crazed
Confusing at times. Ha Jin is a world known writer. I do like his writing. This story had me wandering what it was really about.
thank you!
ok
I was amazed to discover that the author of this book arrived in the U.S. only in 1985. His writing not only is in good English, but it's good writing! The story takes place in the spring of 1989, in China. Obviously, the reader is in a state of mounting suspense awaiting the eyewitness description of the massacres at Tiananmen Square which occurred on June 3-4. Ha Jin writes of these and of everyday things--food preparation, clothing styles, ancient poems, songs, and political events, as only a native Chinese could. His narrator, a graduate student at a provincial university, experiences the horrors of tending a deranged stroke patient--his professor and mentor--and hears the recollections the older man dredges up about the Cultural Revolution, a time of book-burning, persecution, and debasement of all intellectuals by the regime. There are also several side plots involving romance and political advancement at the expense of merit, a crude form of cronyism with which we are familiar in our own country.

Ha Jin has managed to write in a style that reads as though it is a translation from Chinese to English, but obviously he wrote the book in English. A thoroughly impressive effort.
The fictional-historical book titled, "The Crazed", by Ha Jin, centers on Mr. Shenmin Yang, a Professor in the Literature Department of a provincial University in China who suffers a stroke in the Spring of 1989 and is hospitalized in the intensive care unit. The story is narrated by Jian Wan, one of Professor Yang's graduate students who happens to be engaged to Yang's daughter, Meimei. Because Mrs. Yang is away in Tibet, and Meimei is away in Beijing studying to become a Pediatrician, Ying Peng (the Party Secretary of Jian Wan's department at the provincial University) asks Jian Wan to help care for Professor Yang during his hospitalization, claiming that he is the "only family Professor Yang has here." Although Jian Wan is extremely busy studying for the Ph.D entrance exams for Beijing University (where he hopes to eventually join Meimei), he complies with Secretary Peng's `request' (which is really an `order' since she, as a government official, has a great deal of power over Jian Wan's future). Jian Wan ultimately alternates hospital shifts with his fellow graduate student, Banping Fang (who is married to Anling).

The 59 year old Professor Yang's stroke is not accompanied by aphasia---he retains the ability to speak/understand both spoken and written language; and he exercises this ability to excess. As Professor Yang drifts into and out of a `crazed' state, he speaks incessantly and eloquently (to nobody in particular), recites poems and sings belligerent songs, relating both real and imagined life experiences. For example, during several of Professor Yang's utterances, he passionately relates the torture that he experienced during the disastrous `Cultural Revolution' (1966-1976) when he was labeled a "Demon-Monster" and a counterrevolutionary by the Red Guards, who destroyed his entire library (he was a bibliophile); and he was forced to perform manual labor in the field in lieu of pursuing his beloved intellectual endeavors. During Jian Wan's regular visits to the hospital, he listens intently to Professor Yang's utterances and `challenges' himself to discover the underlying life experiences that were responsible for Yang's stroke. He is intrigued and shocked by much of what he learns about Professor Yang's personal and professional life experiences and his deep-seated (heretofore hidden) political views and ideology. For example, during one of his diatribes Professor Yang assumes the role of his former oppressors (during the calamitous `Cultural Revolution'), expressing the desire to rule over (and dominate) other people. Jian Wan wonders whether these sentiments are genuine, or simply a symptom of dementia.

This fascinating story is developed against the backdrop of the student protests in Beijing against the repressive policies of the Chinese Communist government, culminating in the Tiananmen Square Massacre on June 4, 1989 when tanks (under order by Deng Xiaoping and Li Peng) cleared the throngs. It serves as an excellent window into the history/culture of China and the relationship (and ongoing rift) between the Chinese Communist government and the Chinese people. Moreover, Dr. Yang's case, in particular, provides deep insight into the contrast between a person's `public image' and his/her `inner self'; and suggests the possibility of a chasm between the two. Overall, I found this book to be extremely enlightening, well-written, and enjoyable.