Waiting

Lin Kong waited for eighteen years to spend the rest of his life with his love!

This is a story of a couple who waited for 18 years before they could get married. The story revolves around three characters; Lin Kong, the army doctor; Shuyu, his wife; Manna Wu, his girlfriend at his workplace. Shuyu was chosen for Lin Kong by his parents. After they got married she took care of his parent’s who were severely ill and along with that took care of their daughter. Shuyu was a very nice lady but Lin Kong never felt love for her. For him she was a good housewife but not a good partner. Later Lin Kong met Manna Wu at the hospital where he worked. Manna Wu worked as a nurse in the hospital. They both had feelings for each other and fell in love. After falling in love Lin Kong realized that he should divorce his wife and spend the rest of his life with his girlfriend. Every year Lin Kong would visit his village during holidays and discuss the prospects of divorce with his wife. His wife agreed that she will consent to the divorce once they are in the court. But every time they went to the court she backed out and stayed silent. Eventually Lin Kong failed every time and also disappointed Manna Wu. Lin Kong and Manna Wu couldn’t even spend time together since he hadn’t divorced his wife as the law was strictly against it. They both used to meet secretly. They couldn’t even leave the hospital compound together because of strict restrictions. Despite this, eventually everyone got to know about their affair and the hospital directors were worried about it. However, Lin Kong assured the vice director that he won’t destroy his respect by having an illicit relationship with Manna Wu. As Lin Kong waited to divorce his wife, Manna Wu also waited for Lin Kong and never married anyone else.

Finally after eighteen years Lin Kong succeeded as the law that said if a man and a women were separated for 18 years they could get a divorce without the spouse’s consent, favored him.

After getting married to Manna Wu, he had two sons but even then Lin Kong didn’t feel fulfilled. The book doesn’t state any reason related to Lin Kong’s unhappiness and ends at a cliffhanger but one can assume a reason, which maybe his struggle of eighteen years or his old age.

This book is written by a Chinese American, Ha Jinn in 1999. His first book was “Ocean of Words” which also won the pen award in 1997. After that he attracted a lot of audience and later on he wrote “waiting”. It is a novel based on a true love story told by his wife. When she visited a Chinese army hospital she heard about an officer who waited for eighteen to marry the one he wanted to. The book also won a national book award in 1999.

This book gave me thrills after every chapter and I was always inquisitive of what will happen next. The interesting part in the book was the devotion and passion shown by Lin Kong for his girlfriend. Since each sentence has a cadence and a rhythm of its own, it makes this tragic love story an intellectually appealing and a lovingly detailed tale. This unusual love story kept me engrossed about the characters and their acts. The struggle of waiting and the hope shown by the two characters is beautifully presented by the author.

The sophisticated story along with its chronological structure kept me engaged with the tale and while reading the book I found myself picturing Romeo and Juliet who had a similar story. I also realized that all of us are waiting for something. It may not be someone we love but there is always something which gives us hope, faith and a sense of purpose.

We can connect with Lin Kong’s struggle and the wait as all of us in some or the other way, are spending our lives in hopes and passion. The way the story ends is also fascinating. The wait and the hope gives us all a sense of purpose and a meaning. Something we look forward to and hope to achieve. However, once that goal is accomplished and the wait is over we begin to feel lost. The exhilaration of getting what we want is soon replaced a feeling of void. We may have a sense of accomplishment but it ends very soon and we find ourselves chasing after another thing. Perhaps it is the human nature to not value what we have and set on a chase for something better or something new.

I shall give a rating of five stars to this story. It is a compelling, engaging narrative that explores the very deepest of human longings. The passion, the longing, the love, the wait and an enduring hope makes it a tale rich with emotions. Moreover set in the context of communist China it is also a narrative of life under a strict non-democratic regime where people are not free to make their life decisions. It introduces us to some of life’s very harsh realities and I feel it gives us some interesting lessons on perseverance, love and human psychology.