Ocean of Words Army Stories

Set on China's bleak northern border in the 1970s, when Russia and China were close to war, these short stories describe the life of soldiers, professional officers, and raw recruits, living in constant proximity. In this hierarchical and politically charged world, there is even less privacy than normal in China, highlighting a fundamental difference between Chinese and Western societies. The book provides an unusually brilliant insight into the Chinese psyche, with its preoccupations with food, family, and political standing, and its ambivalent attitudes toward women and animals.

Yet Ocean of Words also makes us aware of the common humanity that we share with Ha Jin's characters. Hunger, fear, sexual embarrassment, curiosity about the outside world are universal emotions, and we find ourselves caring deeply about these men. The title refers to a treasured dictionary in a story that brings together a maladjusted young man and an elderly officer. Ha Jin obviously cares deeply about words; his writing is spare, penetrating, and often funny, as when he describes the embarrassment of the officers at the "politically incorrect" earthiness of an old survivor of the Long March, who by definition must be considered an archetypal revolutionary. In this book, Ha Jin has done for the Chinese army what Zhang Xianliang did so powerfully for the prison camp in works like Grass Soup. -- John Stevenson