The Boat Rocker by Ha Jin

Instead of reading a book from my most epic TBR list, I decided to go to the library and get some more. Because when you're knee deep in books what better way to get out than getting more books... one of the books I got was The Boat Rocker by Ha Jin.

This book is less than 300 pages, so it took me 2 days to read on my commute. The protagonist is a man named Feng Danlin who moved to the US from China and became a journalist. He was married to Yan Haili who is also a writer. They were married in China, Haili came to the US first and when Danlin arrived she handed him divorce papers and remarried a rich American. Danlin ends up investigating Haili because of a book she is publishing. The story follows Danlin on his search for the truth about Haili's book and touches on US-China relations, his personal relationship with his ex-wife, and his relationship with America herself.

So overall I actually liked this book. I was surprised that I enjoyed it because I find that a lot of non-American writers use really flowery language and I don't usually like that. Ha Jin's writing is very straight forward, which I appreciated. My favorite theme that was explored in this novel was the notion that if you are a naturalized American you are never 100% accepted by America. Even though Danlin is a U.S. citizen and considers himself American, he constantly told by others than he's not truly American. As a first-generation American who has many friends who were immigrants, this really hit home.

I think if you are looking for something short to read that isn't all fluff definitely check this book out. Sometimes it's hard to find shorter novels of substance, but Ha Jin does a great job of keeping his story succinct and very meaningful.