Ha Jin

I had a very hard time connecting to the story "Love in the Air." The main character's emotional plight was very intense and palpable, but I could not bring myself to empathize with him. Some of his thought processes were too alien for me to easily comprehend them. I couldn't transcend the differences of background.

There are a few very profound passages found in this piece of literature, such as, "The gray forests stretched along the undulating mountain ridges toward the receding horizon. The sky was so high and the land so vast." I think this quote stayed with me because it possesses a beauty that I did not recognize in the larger work. It seems to speak of the simply glory of nature, and later on the character thinks, "For the first time he felt a person was so small." This seems to convey that the character is viewing himself as part of a larger scheme of things.

In short, I enjoyed parts of this piece, but found the overall story to be lacking. I didn't understand all of the characters motivations and this prevented me from appreciating the bulk of the writing.

Did anyone else feel as though the writer's foreign background prevented them from enjoying the piece to the full extent?