I started reading the novel last week.

It would be at least half-finished by now if this were one written by any of my favorite American writers. Unfortunately there are still about 500 pages left for me to read. It’s not a page tuner for sure, but seemed like telling a story of Ha Jin’s own. There were quite a bit things I was experienced and familiar with. That’s the best part I like.

As for the solecisms John Updike mentioned in his review, I don’t want to discuss much about that. Per my reading experience, we always can easily find grammar and writing errors from most American writers’ books. Many times so-called solecisms were written on purpose to make the books more readable.

While reading the novel, I can tell what John said about the Ha Jin's writing was not as good as in his novels previously written about the Chinese in China, its not written very smoothly for the readers who don’t know much about the first generation Chinese immigrants like us. It also reminds me that Ha Jin is not a native English speaker, but he is still a good storyteller.