Joe's comments:
Ha Jin is a contemporary Chinese-American novelist and professor of creative writing at Boston University. His novels usually share his cultural heritage in common. I highly recommend Waiting, winner of the National Book Award in 1999, as a first read.
War Trash takes place in the early 1950s, at the height of the conflict between the Chinese communist army and the U.S. forces in Korea. The main character finds himself trapped behind enemy lines with some of his comrades. They subsist in the countryside, avoiding capture. Eventually, as the characters begin to bloom, the reader becomes more aware of their conflicts- some wanting to fight, others more ambivalent about their condition.
The men get captured by the U.S. Army and the remainder of the book is devoted to their treatment in the hands of the Americans. While some soldiers are eager to return home to Red China, others realize their capture- though shameful in their culture- might also be their ticket to freedom.
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