A Map of Betrayal
(2014) by Ha Jin
In
2002 (or thereabouts), Ha Jin came to my college to talk about his
story collection, The
Bridegroom.
I remember liking the stories, but not feeling very strongly about
them. I also remember liking Jin himself and the way that he talked
about the difficulties and rewards of writing.
Fast-forward
to last week- I'm deep into his latest work, A
Map of Betrayal,
and I'm wanting
to love it and waiting
to love it but....I'm not loving it. Here, Jin tells the story of
Lillian Shang, whose father Gary was a spy for China during his
entire life in the U. S. (1950s-1980s). The novel flips back and
forth between an account of Gary's time as a mole in the CIA and
Lillian's attempts to meet the Chinese side of her family for the
first time.
In both narratives, Jin evokes the loneliness and
rootlessness that come with living in a foreign country and not
knowing what happened to family members caught up in the chaos of
China's Cultural Revolution. Even Lillian, the child of an American
mother and Chinese father, feels incomplete until she finally meets
her half-sister and other family members from Gary's first family,
left behind in China.
I
wanted to love this novel because I like Ha Jin's understated and
precise style. Also, I've been reading a lot recently about the
Cultural Revolution and thought this fictional account of a Chinese
spy would be a fascinating look at the country from a different
perspective. Alas, neither of these things made a different. The
phrase "lacks soul" jumped into my mind as I was wondering
why I couldn't get into this novel, and I still feel that way. Yes,
Gary story is written like an objective report, which parallels
Gary's own reports to China about American plans and strategies. Such
narratives, though, do not need to be flat, prosaic things, however.
Even Lillian's narrative lacked depth, and her meetings with her
half-sister and nephew, which should have been emotionally powerful,
were unimpressive.
I finished this book, despite not liking it early on, because it's
only 280 pages and I thought it might get really good at any moment.
That didn't happen. Nonetheless, I would like to read more Ha Jin in
the future- perhaps this book was an anomaly.
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