War Trash, the extraordinary new novel by the National Book Award-winning author of Waiting, is Ha Jin's most ambitious work to date: a powerful, unflinching story that opens a window on an unknown aspect of a little-known war--the experiences of Chinese POWs held by Americans during the Korean conflict--and paints an intimate portrait of conformity and dissent against a sweeping canvas of confrontation. Set in 1951-53, War Trash takes the form of the memoir of Yu Yuan, a young Chinese army officer, one of a corps of ...
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War Trash, the extraordinary new novel by the National Book Award-winning author of Waiting, is Ha Jin's most ambitious work to date: a powerful, unflinching story that opens a window on an unknown aspect of a little-known war--the experiences of Chinese POWs held by Americans during the Korean conflict--and paints an intimate portrait of conformity and dissent against a sweeping canvas of confrontation. Set in 1951-53, War Trash takes the form of the memoir of Yu Yuan, a young Chinese army officer, one of a corps of "volunteers" sent by Mao to help shore up the Communist side in Korea. When Yu is captured, his command of English thrusts him into the role of unofficial interpreter in the psychological warfare that defines the POW camp. Taking us behind the barbed wire, Ha Jin draws on true historical accounts to render the complex world the prisoners inhabit--a world of strict surveillance and complete allegiance to authority. Under the rules of war and the constraints of captivity, every human instinct is called into question, to the point that what it means to be human comes to occupy the foremost position in every prisoner's mind. As Yu and his fellow captives struggle to create some sense of community while remaining watchful of the deceptions inherent in every exchange, only the idea of home can begin to hold out the promise that they might return to their former selves. But by the end of this unforgettable novel--an astonishing addition to the literature of war that echoes classics like Dostoevsky's Memoirs from the House of the Dead and the works of Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen--the very concept of home will be more profoundly altered than they can even begin to imagine.
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Add this copy of War Trash to cart. $2.07, very good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Reno rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Reno, NV, UNITED STATES, published 2004 by Pantheon Books.
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Ha Jin's novel "War Trash" (2004) is cast in the form of memoir written by the 73 year old Yu Yuan recounting his experiences nearly 50 years earlier as a Chinese soldier and POW in Korea. The fictitious memoirist is a man of my own age. I could understand his desire to reflect on the momentous events of his younger life. A lifelong resident of mainland China, Yu writes his memoirs while visiting his daughter, her husband, and two grandchildren in Atlanta, Georgia. He notes that at his age he "won't be coming to the States again." He writes in English, a language he began to learn at the age of 14, and tells his story "in a documentary fashion to preserve historical accuracy." Yu regards his memoir as "the only gift a poor man like me can bequeath his American grandchildren."
Yu was a graduate of the Huangpu Military Academy in China and his student years overlapped the Nationalists and the Communists. He was sent to Korea as part of the Chinese invasion, leaving behind an aged mother and a fiancee. His unit was decimated by the Americans and Yu suffers a severe leg wound. He recovers the use of his leg thanks to the work of a American woman physician, Dr. Greene. Yu is then sent to a variety of prison camps. His memoir describes the harsh life of the camps with among other things the heavy tension between the nationalist and the communist Chinese and the interrelationship with their American captors. Yu is a bookish young man and his skills in English are put to use as an interpreter. He is pulled throughout by both the nationalists and the communists. Yu is not ideologically inclined and wants in his heart only to go home to take care of his mother and marry his sweetheart.
Ha Jin succeeds in giving the tone of a memoir to his novel. He gives an extensive bibliography of sources he consulted for information about the Korean War and about the treatment of POWs. While the depiction of the war is convincing, the focus is on Yu and on his detachment from the competing groups and from the brutality around him. Although not religious, Yu is shown as a reader of the Bible which he says improves his English. The only Biblical book mentioned by name is Ecclesiastes with its emphasis on change and on the shortness of human life.
Yu has two formative experiences which he wishes to explain to his grandchildren and which pervade his memoir. The first involves a tattoo which he received on his belly against his will from the nationalist Chinese. It consists of a standard four-letter American obscenity followed by a reference to communism, which later becomes changed for prudential reasons to keep the obscenity and to remove the letters in the word "Communists" with the exception of the "U" and the "S". Much of the memoir explains the story of the tattoo Yu has carried with him through life.
The second experience involves Yu's relationship with Dr. Greene, the American physician who cured his leg and whom he never sees again. Yu has kept the memory of Dr. Greene and it forms what he sees as the value of life and of his hopes for his young grandson. It is critical to the memoir and prevents Yu's understanding of life from descending into only existentialism or individuality. Yu reflects:
"I cannot explain in detail to my son and daughter -in-law why I often urge Bobby to think of becoming a doctor, because the story would involve too much horror and pain. In brief, this desire of mine has been bred by the wasted lives I saw in Korea and China. Doctors and nurses follow a different set of ethics, which enables them to transcend political nonsense and man-made enmity and to act with compassion and human decency."
"War Trash" has a thick, complex texture with many characters and places. It invites reflection and slow, careful reading. Yu writes at the conclusion of his memoir of his relationship to his captors and fellow POWs: "In the depths of my being, I have never been one of them. I have just written what I experienced." The book tells the story of a war and of a person.
Robin Friedman
PaulK
Apr 23, 2007
Excellent, Thought-Provoking Book
War Trash is an engaging, exciting, and depressing account of life in a US army POW camp during the Korean war. At the beginning of the war, the protagonist finds himself fighting for a cause for which he cares little--and then again after being captured. In this book, Ha Jin vividly and masterfully portrays life in a POW camp. But much more importantly, he delves into the psyches and personalities of war prisoners, and examines the personalities that support nationalism and communism. I highly recommend War Trash, especially for its insight into the politics of revolution and national rebirth.
