A Free Life is a 660-page treatise on dramatic irony. I am impressed at the editor who got this manuscript (or maybe it was longer to begin with?!?!) and who decided to print it in all its slow, plodding glory.

Nan, a Chinese student studying in the US, is left with a decision after Tiananmen Square: continue his studies or re-envision his life as an immigrant, not a temporary student (there were favorable immigration policies enacted for Chinese students who chose to stay in the US in that era). He quits his studies, brings his son from China to the US, and then has a mostly unremarkable life, which is written in great detail. The entire book is written from Nan's point of view, and he seems to be completely unaware of his useless obsession with his former girlfriend, his incredibly shoddy treatment of his wife, and his circular pattern of commitment, despair, surrender, re-commitment, etc.

Nan reminds me of several characters in Margaret Atwood's books, or Edith Wharton's: the man who slowly sucks the life out of the female protagonist, except slightly edgier. He's clearly making Pingping miserable, but there is an abusive dimension: he keeps on recommitting to her when she has health issues, or when others point out that she's extremely loyal, and then he has these sporadic violent outbreaks (e.g. when he burns the cash register money towards the end of the novel).

Ending with Nan's poetry is a brilliant move: the author spends some time making the reader aware that Nan's poetry is not great. He has a few pieces accepted here and there, but he mostly toils in obscurity. And then you can see in the poems that same pattern: some of the lines sing ("Another rain will burst them— / full of teeth, they will grin / through the tiny leaves") and then some are just abjectly awful ("I swear I'll never say good-bye / to my son again, not until / he graduates from Parkview High"). What fun it must be to write bad poetry! ( )

I stopped reading this, which is rare for me. It's beautifully rendered but slowly plotted and I couldn't shake my dread of impending tragedy (which never materializes, as far as I can tell) in order to avoid trying to race through to the next plot point. ( )

Very low key but insightful into the life of an immigrant, A Free Life tells the story of Nan Wu, a Chinese man who aspires to be a poet and must remain in the United States because his native country labeled him a dissident. The story opens with Nan Wu and his wife Pingping bringing their then 3-year-old son Taotao from China to live with them. The story traces their years together, their disagreements, their joys, their aspirations, their disappointments, and their successes. It is multilayered and thought-provoking.

Be forewarned that this book is very long. I did appreciate its short chapters so that I didn't get weighed down by how long it was. At first, I was not happy with the three main characters, Nan, Pingping, and Taotao, but the parents grew on me as they learned to adapt to the American culture. Taotao was always a brat, and I never did like him.

The book ends in an unusual way...with a short journal and then with several poems. My favorite of those was "Groundhog Hour". I guess that was because it was about an animal. My favorite quote came from the poem entitled "Homeland". The lines read as follows:

“Eventually you will learn:
Your country is where you raise your children,
Your homeland is where you build your home.” ( )

Long, but I couldn't stop listening to this audio although there were many times I wanted to just shake Nan and tell him to stop living in his dream world over his girlfriend and realize that he had the best in Ping Ping. But it took the length of the book, following the ups and downs of their life together, for Nan to get to the point where he understood what he had. A fascinating picture of an immigrant family's life. ( )

Ha Jin's [b:Waiting|235773|Waiting|Ha Jin|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327881519s/235773.jpg|985211] with its precise writing, its absence of adjectives and the cool, objective yet somehow deeply emotional stance was like no style I had ever read before. I am not a fan of the florid, whether paintings, poetry or books, yet minimalism of the written word always seems to me to me to be a self-conscious style, a deliberate attempt at being thought 'an artist'. [b:Waiting|235773|Waiting|Ha Jin|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327881519s/235773.jpg|985211] was just perfectly balanced and so I was looking forward to reading another Ha Jin.

It's quite different, much more mature writing, not quite so spare, a deeper exploration of the emotional life and an even more enjoyable read. On one level it was a really good family saga showing how Chinese immigrants take what they find useful from American life but, other than superficially, assimilate not at all. It's very insightful and as with all good sagas detailing the triumphs and disasters of the progress of a family through life, both interesting and involving.

And on another level, it is a man's search for meaning in his life. For the balance between necessary materialism and freedom from the baggage of goods, between status and the freedom to do what one's heart truly desires, and from the pressure of two communities, American and Chinese, that a man's measure of his worth is how he succeeds in the eyes of others and, again, for personal freedom.

On every level, this is a 5-star book. It would make a great film too. If a Hollywood movie, the sort that the main character could get an Oscar for, if a European movie, one where you would want to stand at the end and applaud the director. Highly recommended. ( )