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Rating: 
Summary: Ha Jin's Short Stories Have Tall Stature
Review: Ha Jin brilliantly evokes emotion in short stories that may take some an epic novel to create the same impact. His words are sunbeams bouncing on desolate land and you want to continue despite the heartbreak that you may only survive simply to survive. Never to fully live in the light. He is the most eloquent writer and he allows us to view a world not known to most Americans: China under Mao. Be swept away with words and emotions.
Rating:
Summary: A Terrific Collection of Short Stories
Review: I picked up An Ocean of Words from a staff recommendations section of the bookstore. I am glad that I did. This book is a wonderful collection of short stories. This book was great.The stories all take place on the border of China and the USSR during the early 1970s when the two communist countries actually came pretty close to war. The stories are actually a microcosim of Communist China as a whole. The stories are wonderful and I highly recommend this book not just to sinophiles but to anyone who wants to read a great collection of stories.
Rating: 
Summary: Very interesting
Review: I'm very critical of some Chinese writers like Amy Tan for their distortions of a life they haven't experienced. But this doesn't apply to Ha Jin, who survived the Revolution and was a soldier. I really like this collection of stories because Ha Jin excels in writing vignettes by injecting fresh details. Anyone who is curious about Communist China should read this book. Skip his novels though.
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