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Nanking Requiem
Nanking, Dezember 1937: Die japanische Armee verübt ein unvorstellbares Massaker an der chinesischen Zivilbevölkerung. Die amerikanische Missionarin Wilhelmine „Minnie“ Vautrin ist eine von wenigen Mitarbeitern ausländischer Einrichtungen, die sich entschließen, zu bleiben. Gemeinsam mit ihrem kleinen Team verwandelt sie das amerikanische College, das sie leitet, in ein Flüchtlingslager für Frauen und Kinder – und rettet Tausenden von Menschen das Leben. Ein ergreifender Antikriegsroman, der dem Leser von heute das Grauen von damals spürbar macht.
345 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2011
88 people are currently reading
1740 people want to read
About the author
Ha Jin
61 books848 followersHa Jin is the pen name of Jin Xuefei, a novelist, poet, short story writer, and Professor of English at Boston University.Ha Jin writes in English about China, a political decision post-Tiananmen Square.
Ha Jin grew up in mainland China and served in the People’s Liberation Army in his teens for five years. After leaving the army, he worked for three years at a railroad company in a remote northeastern city, Jiamusi, and then went to college in Harbin, majoring in English. He has published in English ten novels, four story collections, four volumes of poetry, a book of essays, and a biography of Li Bai. His novel Waiting won the National Book Award for Fiction, the PEN/Faulkner Award, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Ha Jin is William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professor in English and Creative Writing at Boston University, and he has been elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His writing has been translated into more than thirty languages. Ha Jin’s novel The Woman Back from Moscow was published by Other Press in 2023.
Ha Jin grew up in mainland China and served in the People’s Liberation Army in his teens for five years. After leaving the army, he worked for three years at a railroad company in a remote northeastern city, Jiamusi, and then went to college in Harbin, majoring in English. He has published in English ten novels, four story collections, four volumes of poetry, a book of essays, and a biography of Li Bai. His novel Waiting won the National Book Award for Fiction, the PEN/Faulkner Award, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Ha Jin is William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professor in English and Creative Writing at Boston University, and he has been elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His writing has been translated into more than thirty languages. Ha Jin’s novel The Woman Back from Moscow was published by Other Press in 2023.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 233 reviews
April 8, 2024
Rarely do I quit a book once started, but I closed Nanjing Requiem after about 140 pages. Ha Jin wanted to write a history of the Rape of Nanjing in the form of a novel. The result was stilted, with poor development of characters and plot, and without narrative flow. Minnie and Anling went here, went there, went here again, went there again and the Japanese did this, the Japanese did that -- this doesn't make a novel. Ha Jin‘s War Trash was well done. It contained all the elements of a good novel lacking in Nanjing Requiem. I recommend Iris Chang's The Rape of Nanking. It is a straightforward non-fiction account without the feebly-applied fictionalized aspects of Ha Jin's book.
April 25, 2012
I read this book because I thought a novel would be a better way for me to read about the Japanese occupation of Nanjing. Reportage of atrocities can de-sensitize us so that they have less impact and you care less about the victims. Fiction with characterization where you see into the minds and hearts of the characters and see their lives in context should make you care more. Unfortunately, as other reviewers have said this is closer to reportage than fiction.
One of the problems is that Ha Jin wanted a Chinese viewpoint character while choosing to focus primarily not on the viewpoint character, but the American missionary Minnie Vautrin. This is an odd choice. The POV character, Anling, a Chinese Christian missionary, vanishes behind Minnie Vautrin for long stretches of the narrative. Yet she emerges from the shadows very poignantly when she experiences an inner conflict over her son. This is a genuinely complex character dilemma in a book where so many of the characters are as papery thin as fallen leaves. So by the end of the book I considered Anling a better choice of viewpoint than I had originally thought.
I also discovered a Japanese journalist's non-fiction book about these events in Ha Jin's author note. Ironically, I am pursuing reportage. I put it on hold. I know that Japanese authorities have done their best to try to suppress any accounts of these atrocities, so I want to find out how this Japanese author managed to write such a book. It's The Nanjing Massacre: A Japanese Journalist Confronts Japan's National Shameby Honda Katsuichi. I feel that I ought to give this book an extra star because it's leading me to this other one that sounds so significant.
One of the problems is that Ha Jin wanted a Chinese viewpoint character while choosing to focus primarily not on the viewpoint character, but the American missionary Minnie Vautrin. This is an odd choice. The POV character, Anling, a Chinese Christian missionary, vanishes behind Minnie Vautrin for long stretches of the narrative. Yet she emerges from the shadows very poignantly when she experiences an inner conflict over her son. This is a genuinely complex character dilemma in a book where so many of the characters are as papery thin as fallen leaves. So by the end of the book I considered Anling a better choice of viewpoint than I had originally thought.
I also discovered a Japanese journalist's non-fiction book about these events in Ha Jin's author note. Ironically, I am pursuing reportage. I put it on hold. I know that Japanese authorities have done their best to try to suppress any accounts of these atrocities, so I want to find out how this Japanese author managed to write such a book. It's The Nanjing Massacre: A Japanese Journalist Confronts Japan's National Shameby Honda Katsuichi. I feel that I ought to give this book an extra star because it's leading me to this other one that sounds so significant.
April 28, 2021
unrelenting details of a horrible experience ... reveals Japanese brutality toward China in 1937
October 12, 2011
I appreciate what the author has done here: educated us about the rape Nanjing. I didn't know a thing about it till I picked up this book. But where I was expecting a historical novel about a strong missionary woman named Minnie, I got just what I said above, the rape of Nanjing.
The first part of the book... is one brutality after another, page after page of rape, sexual molesting and deforming of women, head slashing, and even urinating on children. The Japanese committed the foulest of acts.
The second part is the aftermath. The raped women are now pregnant or committing suicide. Older women are sent home from the refuge only to be raped in the streets. Food is going missing from the soup kitchen. The world is not hearing the right story of Nanjing. Women are trying to get their husbands out of prison/work camps.
In the third part, Minnie tries to pick up the pieces of what is left of her school.
This was supposed to be a novel, but it read more like a war report. It completely lacked a personal feel. The narrator had a husband and children and rarely said anything about them. I didn't learn anything about Minnie that I couldn't find by googling or looking at Wiki. I wanted inside her head. I never got there. Where does she sleep? Does she cry herself to sleep? How does she FEEL? What were her hopes and dreams? Her past? It told me about nothing except the fall of Nanjing.
The first part of the book... is one brutality after another, page after page of rape, sexual molesting and deforming of women, head slashing, and even urinating on children. The Japanese committed the foulest of acts.
The second part is the aftermath. The raped women are now pregnant or committing suicide. Older women are sent home from the refuge only to be raped in the streets. Food is going missing from the soup kitchen. The world is not hearing the right story of Nanjing. Women are trying to get their husbands out of prison/work camps.
In the third part, Minnie tries to pick up the pieces of what is left of her school.
This was supposed to be a novel, but it read more like a war report. It completely lacked a personal feel. The narrator had a husband and children and rarely said anything about them. I didn't learn anything about Minnie that I couldn't find by googling or looking at Wiki. I wanted inside her head. I never got there. Where does she sleep? Does she cry herself to sleep? How does she FEEL? What were her hopes and dreams? Her past? It told me about nothing except the fall of Nanjing.
August 27, 2012
Ha Jin never goes for the jugular. His cool, reserved style works to his advantage in "Nanjing Requiem. The facts are so horrific, that letting too much emotion creep into the narrative could take it over the edge into Grand Guignol.
The focus of Nanjing Requiem is Jinling Women's College. Ha Jin seamlessly blends real and fictional figures and locations to bring us into the center of six weeks of hell on earth. As the Japanese advance, Chaing Kai-shek flees to Chongqing; he leaves his armies in disarray, his people abandoned. A handful of westerners form a safety zone, for their own protection and to provide asylum to the Chinese who cannot evacuate. Minnie Vautrin, president of Jinling, prepares for an influx of 2,500 refugees onto the grounds of this sedate institution. Instead, more than four times that number cram themselves into its precarious shelter.
Ms. Vautrin is one of the 'real' people who populate the book. She is an American missionary, organized, capable and utterly conventional. She is not at all what we imagine when we think of heroes. But Minnie rises to the occasion...along with a ragbag collection of missionaries, bureaucrats and papershuffler who stayed behind in the besieged city and firmly wedged their own bodies between the Chinese people and the savage onslaught of the Japanese.
Everyone has heard of the famous Chinese curse: May you live in interesting times. When we meet Ms. Vautrin and her colleagues, their biggest problem is the scarcity of jam for their breakfast toast. Her greatest contributin to the school: planting its famous rose garden. They are typical and vaguely silly examples of small town academic naivete and missionary innocence. It's not until things get interesting that we see what incredible stuff this little band is made of.
The story is narrated by Vautrin's associate, Anling. She is Ha Jin's fictional wheelhorse character, a Chinese woman, educated and with "western" sensibilities. Her daughter is married to a Chinese soldier, her husband is a Japanese sympather, and her son has enlisted on the side of the Japanese and serves in the occupying army. Now there's a family dinner one wouldn't want to miss.
The story opens with an incredible first line: "Finally Ban began to talk." Ban is a young boy, sent out by Minne and Anling, to gather information about the Japanese, see what is happening in the city. Ban is gone for several days. What he sees renders him literally speechless. Even before the city's official surrender, before the official occupation, the Japanese are humiliating, raping, killing and torturing the Chinese. No one is safe from them, not infants, not the elderly.
Once the city falls, things get worse. The Japanese army was sent in to punish the Chinese. Soldiers were encouraged to behave in the most savage and inhumane ways...and they did. Big time. The army of the emperor massacred 200,000 Chinese in just six weeks, according to the International Military Tribunal of the Far East. Before Nanjing's fall, Prince Yasuhiko Asaka -- uncle of Emperor Hirohito -- issued a secret order to "Kill all captives." Chinese men were rounded up as prisoners-of-war and murdered en masse, used for bayonet practice, or burned and buried alive. The Nanjing Massacre is also noteworthy for the barbaric treatment of Chinese women. Japanese soldiers raped and brutalized countless thousands.
The tiny group of Westerners who confronted the Japanese had no guarantee they would not be added to the hit list; nevertheless,they stood up to the ravaging hordes and maintained the security of their santuaries as best they could. They learned to scrounge and scavenge for food, for fuel, for the essentials of survival. They were not fearless; just unstoppable and indomitable.
There is a certain charm in the way Ha Jin depicts Vautrin's courage under fire. The campus offers shelter only to women. Initially she is concerned that men will sneak in and get drunk. The cook is stealing from their rice supply; this offends her sensibilities. She knows all Chinese servants skim, but this is an Emergency. Really, he should know better. She is upset that the Chinese she has taken in won't queue up neatly and wander about trampling her carefully tended lawns. Before very long, she is so desperate to find food that bribery, theft and law-breaking mean little. Unruly lines and lawn care cease to be her chief worry. Facing down blood-crazed Japanese armed with a bayonets takes up too much of her time for silly incidentals.
In all, the "safety zones" sheltered and saved 250,000 Chinese. John Rabe, the "good nazi of Nanjing," another real person, gets some rare recognition in this book. He was the local contact for Siemens, your typical middle management type, about as heroic as his suspenders. But he forms part of this incredible group of true heroes who managed to pull a miracle of salvation and survival out of an abyss of slaughter. The massacre is hard to imagine; even the modicum of safety they offered was more illusory than real. Japanese invaded the campus, Women were raped, assaults were frequent. It was only the bravado -- and perhaps decency -- of Vautrin and her colleagues that kept the Japanese at bay. She did not see it that way and viewed her efforts as unsuccessful.
Real heroes are never celebrated. Had it not been for Stephen Spielberg, no one would know of Oskar Schindler. John Rabe is largely unknown. Minnie Vauturin didn't get a parade. When the bloodshed ended, she looked around and saw how small her contribution was, how few people she saved in that ocean of murder, and took her own life.
The Japanese government continues to dispute what happened in Nanjing. U.S. students are taught that Chaing Kai-Shek was a hero. We continue to make war on one another. We tell our children that ballplayers good role models.
This is a book worth reading. Thank you for your patience.
The focus of Nanjing Requiem is Jinling Women's College. Ha Jin seamlessly blends real and fictional figures and locations to bring us into the center of six weeks of hell on earth. As the Japanese advance, Chaing Kai-shek flees to Chongqing; he leaves his armies in disarray, his people abandoned. A handful of westerners form a safety zone, for their own protection and to provide asylum to the Chinese who cannot evacuate. Minnie Vautrin, president of Jinling, prepares for an influx of 2,500 refugees onto the grounds of this sedate institution. Instead, more than four times that number cram themselves into its precarious shelter.
Ms. Vautrin is one of the 'real' people who populate the book. She is an American missionary, organized, capable and utterly conventional. She is not at all what we imagine when we think of heroes. But Minnie rises to the occasion...along with a ragbag collection of missionaries, bureaucrats and papershuffler who stayed behind in the besieged city and firmly wedged their own bodies between the Chinese people and the savage onslaught of the Japanese.
Everyone has heard of the famous Chinese curse: May you live in interesting times. When we meet Ms. Vautrin and her colleagues, their biggest problem is the scarcity of jam for their breakfast toast. Her greatest contributin to the school: planting its famous rose garden. They are typical and vaguely silly examples of small town academic naivete and missionary innocence. It's not until things get interesting that we see what incredible stuff this little band is made of.
The story is narrated by Vautrin's associate, Anling. She is Ha Jin's fictional wheelhorse character, a Chinese woman, educated and with "western" sensibilities. Her daughter is married to a Chinese soldier, her husband is a Japanese sympather, and her son has enlisted on the side of the Japanese and serves in the occupying army. Now there's a family dinner one wouldn't want to miss.
The story opens with an incredible first line: "Finally Ban began to talk." Ban is a young boy, sent out by Minne and Anling, to gather information about the Japanese, see what is happening in the city. Ban is gone for several days. What he sees renders him literally speechless. Even before the city's official surrender, before the official occupation, the Japanese are humiliating, raping, killing and torturing the Chinese. No one is safe from them, not infants, not the elderly.
Once the city falls, things get worse. The Japanese army was sent in to punish the Chinese. Soldiers were encouraged to behave in the most savage and inhumane ways...and they did. Big time. The army of the emperor massacred 200,000 Chinese in just six weeks, according to the International Military Tribunal of the Far East. Before Nanjing's fall, Prince Yasuhiko Asaka -- uncle of Emperor Hirohito -- issued a secret order to "Kill all captives." Chinese men were rounded up as prisoners-of-war and murdered en masse, used for bayonet practice, or burned and buried alive. The Nanjing Massacre is also noteworthy for the barbaric treatment of Chinese women. Japanese soldiers raped and brutalized countless thousands.
The tiny group of Westerners who confronted the Japanese had no guarantee they would not be added to the hit list; nevertheless,they stood up to the ravaging hordes and maintained the security of their santuaries as best they could. They learned to scrounge and scavenge for food, for fuel, for the essentials of survival. They were not fearless; just unstoppable and indomitable.
There is a certain charm in the way Ha Jin depicts Vautrin's courage under fire. The campus offers shelter only to women. Initially she is concerned that men will sneak in and get drunk. The cook is stealing from their rice supply; this offends her sensibilities. She knows all Chinese servants skim, but this is an Emergency. Really, he should know better. She is upset that the Chinese she has taken in won't queue up neatly and wander about trampling her carefully tended lawns. Before very long, she is so desperate to find food that bribery, theft and law-breaking mean little. Unruly lines and lawn care cease to be her chief worry. Facing down blood-crazed Japanese armed with a bayonets takes up too much of her time for silly incidentals.
In all, the "safety zones" sheltered and saved 250,000 Chinese. John Rabe, the "good nazi of Nanjing," another real person, gets some rare recognition in this book. He was the local contact for Siemens, your typical middle management type, about as heroic as his suspenders. But he forms part of this incredible group of true heroes who managed to pull a miracle of salvation and survival out of an abyss of slaughter. The massacre is hard to imagine; even the modicum of safety they offered was more illusory than real. Japanese invaded the campus, Women were raped, assaults were frequent. It was only the bravado -- and perhaps decency -- of Vautrin and her colleagues that kept the Japanese at bay. She did not see it that way and viewed her efforts as unsuccessful.
Real heroes are never celebrated. Had it not been for Stephen Spielberg, no one would know of Oskar Schindler. John Rabe is largely unknown. Minnie Vauturin didn't get a parade. When the bloodshed ended, she looked around and saw how small her contribution was, how few people she saved in that ocean of murder, and took her own life.
The Japanese government continues to dispute what happened in Nanjing. U.S. students are taught that Chaing Kai-Shek was a hero. We continue to make war on one another. We tell our children that ballplayers good role models.
This is a book worth reading. Thank you for your patience.
November 26, 2011
too boring...this reads like journalism, not a novel.
March 11, 2019
Ha Jin provides an empathetic history in his telling of this event that is frequently overlooked in our tellings of the history of the mid-20th century. The first half of the novel deals with themes of heroism and justice as the protagonists try to protect thousands of women and children from the invading Imperial Army. Exploring the limits of our abilities to affect the world around us, Ha Jin weaves a tale of futility highlighted by small victories and acts of heroism. It is in these sparse moments, Ha Jin argues, that we must find hope and the strength to continue.
Themes of trauma and reconciliation explored in the second half of the novel are strong points, grounding the work in something beyond a work of fiction. It implores the reader to consider not just the text, but to personally engage with and on some level understand historical tragedy. In doing this, one parallels the actions of the protagonists as we must reconcile this historical fact with the world we inhabit.
As is the case with many works that consider themes of trauma, this novel does contain frequent graphic depictions of violence and sexual assault. If you find these subjects troubling I suggest skipping this novel.
Themes of trauma and reconciliation explored in the second half of the novel are strong points, grounding the work in something beyond a work of fiction. It implores the reader to consider not just the text, but to personally engage with and on some level understand historical tragedy. In doing this, one parallels the actions of the protagonists as we must reconcile this historical fact with the world we inhabit.
As is the case with many works that consider themes of trauma, this novel does contain frequent graphic depictions of violence and sexual assault. If you find these subjects troubling I suggest skipping this novel.
July 2, 2013
Sadly, I don't have anything positive to say about this book. It's been on my to-read list for ages, and I've long been interested in the story of the Nanjing massacre. Nanjing Requiem was a major disappointment, and it read to me as if written in the simple language of a 10 year old. That in itself isn't a crime, but it was also devoid of life, colour and personality.
The characters (based on real people living in Nanjing during the Japanese occupation) are one dimensional, and the prose is mundane and lacks heart. The emotions you would expect of people who witnessed countless atrocities perpetrated against the Chinese, are understated.
Out for a walk one day, two women who run a refugee camp in the grounds of a university come across a pond which is the dumping ground for the bodies of slaughtered men, women and children. All the bodies had bayonet wounds, one woman had a breast cut off, a child had his head smashed in, and a few had their necks slashed. Can you imagine the horror of coming across this scene?
Here's an excerpt from the book where the two women find the bodies:
......Beyond him lay a middle-aged man, perhaps his father, shot in the face and his hands tied with gaiters; his right hand had a sixth finger.
"The Japanese are savages!" I said.
"We should count how many were killed here," Minnie suggested.
"All right."
Together we began counting, walking clockwise along the waterside. Minnie used a stick to part the reeds and pampas grass that obscured some corpses, while I recorded our count in my small notebook.....
Wow, the Japanese are savages! You think? A child with his head smashed in, a women with her breast hacked off - let's just do a walk around and count the bodies. Good suggestion. That will help immensely.
The matter of fact way in which these events are recorded, is thematic throughout the book. I don't know if that was the way Ha Jin intended to write this book, but I would imagine any normal people living with these atrocities would be sickened, fearful, hysterical perhaps. But not in this book. Everything is matter-of-fact. No displays of emotion. No expressions of sorrow, or anger against the Japanese. In fact at one point, a Chinese man is admonished by Minnie because he hates the Japanese. His city has just been devastated and burned, tens of thousands of people have been murdered, countless women raped and beaten and thrown away like rag dolls, and he's asked why he hates the Japanese???
I had to ask myself why I persevered when it was clear that this book wasn't going to get any better. I stuck it out for 120 pages, and threw in the towel. I should add that I very rarely give up on a book, but life is too short to read bad novels, and I'm sure there are better accounts of this dark period of history. This piece of dry, underwhelming, uninteresting pulp does little to illustrate the brutal reality of the Nanjing massacre.
The characters (based on real people living in Nanjing during the Japanese occupation) are one dimensional, and the prose is mundane and lacks heart. The emotions you would expect of people who witnessed countless atrocities perpetrated against the Chinese, are understated.
Out for a walk one day, two women who run a refugee camp in the grounds of a university come across a pond which is the dumping ground for the bodies of slaughtered men, women and children. All the bodies had bayonet wounds, one woman had a breast cut off, a child had his head smashed in, and a few had their necks slashed. Can you imagine the horror of coming across this scene?
Here's an excerpt from the book where the two women find the bodies:
......Beyond him lay a middle-aged man, perhaps his father, shot in the face and his hands tied with gaiters; his right hand had a sixth finger.
"The Japanese are savages!" I said.
"We should count how many were killed here," Minnie suggested.
"All right."
Together we began counting, walking clockwise along the waterside. Minnie used a stick to part the reeds and pampas grass that obscured some corpses, while I recorded our count in my small notebook.....
Wow, the Japanese are savages! You think? A child with his head smashed in, a women with her breast hacked off - let's just do a walk around and count the bodies. Good suggestion. That will help immensely.
The matter of fact way in which these events are recorded, is thematic throughout the book. I don't know if that was the way Ha Jin intended to write this book, but I would imagine any normal people living with these atrocities would be sickened, fearful, hysterical perhaps. But not in this book. Everything is matter-of-fact. No displays of emotion. No expressions of sorrow, or anger against the Japanese. In fact at one point, a Chinese man is admonished by Minnie because he hates the Japanese. His city has just been devastated and burned, tens of thousands of people have been murdered, countless women raped and beaten and thrown away like rag dolls, and he's asked why he hates the Japanese???
I had to ask myself why I persevered when it was clear that this book wasn't going to get any better. I stuck it out for 120 pages, and threw in the towel. I should add that I very rarely give up on a book, but life is too short to read bad novels, and I'm sure there are better accounts of this dark period of history. This piece of dry, underwhelming, uninteresting pulp does little to illustrate the brutal reality of the Nanjing massacre.
November 14, 2011
I really wanted to like this book. Jin's Waiting and The Crazed are two of my favorite books, and I pre-ordered this book on Amazon so I could get it as soon as it came out.
I was underwhelmed, though. While I did learn a lot about the occupation of Nanjing, and especially the role of foreigners in the city during the time, the book was strangely unengaging. The book is all told at a strange emotional remove, making the storytelling seem wooden and sometimes strained. Jin also had the very bad habit of not telling things as they happen sequentially, but mentioning past events only when they are part of the arc of the current event. This is no simply non-chronological storytelling, but instead a fractured, discontinuous narrative. Instead of letting all of the events build together, story arcs are pulled out and dealt with somewhat separately, so that it is a series of vignettes and not one arcing narrative.
Sometimes I wondered if the storytelling was hampered by the fact that is is about actual people and actual events, and it made Jin hesitant to write with his normal emotional resonance because he didn't want to climb into the heads of actual people. The story seemed particularly ill-served by the first-person narration of his fictionalized character, nothing more than a cipher that Jin used to tell the stories of the other people.
The tragic arc of Minnie Vautrin is so moving, but it's real emotional power was lost a bit in this disjointed and detached novel.
I was underwhelmed, though. While I did learn a lot about the occupation of Nanjing, and especially the role of foreigners in the city during the time, the book was strangely unengaging. The book is all told at a strange emotional remove, making the storytelling seem wooden and sometimes strained. Jin also had the very bad habit of not telling things as they happen sequentially, but mentioning past events only when they are part of the arc of the current event. This is no simply non-chronological storytelling, but instead a fractured, discontinuous narrative. Instead of letting all of the events build together, story arcs are pulled out and dealt with somewhat separately, so that it is a series of vignettes and not one arcing narrative.
Sometimes I wondered if the storytelling was hampered by the fact that is is about actual people and actual events, and it made Jin hesitant to write with his normal emotional resonance because he didn't want to climb into the heads of actual people. The story seemed particularly ill-served by the first-person narration of his fictionalized character, nothing more than a cipher that Jin used to tell the stories of the other people.
The tragic arc of Minnie Vautrin is so moving, but it's real emotional power was lost a bit in this disjointed and detached novel.
June 16, 2016
Zvláštní kniha. Vyprávěná z pohledu fiktivní přítelkyně skutečné postavy Minnie Vautrin, popisuje události Nankingského masakru.
Dalo by se říct, že pro nás Evropany, unavené záplavou knih o Šoa, jde až o "exotické" téma, podpořené stereotypem o asijské krutosti. Podstata je ale stále tatáž - běsy války uvolní v lidech to nejhorší. A ani po konci přestátých hrůz nepřijde vykoupení, ale často naopak další křivdy a utrpení. Sama Minnie - přezdívaná Bohyně milosrdenství - je toho důkazem.
Zvláštní kniha. Rozhodně přitáhla moji pozornost jak k Nankinským událostem, tak k Nankingu samotnému (znáte jeho význam a historii?). Na druhou stranu mě tak nějak rozrušovalo, že přes popisované zvěrstva a drobná i epická humanitární vítězství, to ve mně nevyvolává žádné emoce. Nevím, jestli to byl záměr, nebo jestli se mi nepodařilo na knihu naladit. Ale moje hodnocení to ovlivňuje hodně. I když, možná je to dobře - doporučovat ke čtení knihu o masovém vraždění a znásilňování je... podivné? nemorální? sporné?
Dalo by se říct, že pro nás Evropany, unavené záplavou knih o Šoa, jde až o "exotické" téma, podpořené stereotypem o asijské krutosti. Podstata je ale stále tatáž - běsy války uvolní v lidech to nejhorší. A ani po konci přestátých hrůz nepřijde vykoupení, ale často naopak další křivdy a utrpení. Sama Minnie - přezdívaná Bohyně milosrdenství - je toho důkazem.
Zvláštní kniha. Rozhodně přitáhla moji pozornost jak k Nankinským událostem, tak k Nankingu samotnému (znáte jeho význam a historii?). Na druhou stranu mě tak nějak rozrušovalo, že přes popisované zvěrstva a drobná i epická humanitární vítězství, to ve mně nevyvolává žádné emoce. Nevím, jestli to byl záměr, nebo jestli se mi nepodařilo na knihu naladit. Ale moje hodnocení to ovlivňuje hodně. I když, možná je to dobře - doporučovat ke čtení knihu o masovém vraždění a znásilňování je... podivné? nemorální? sporné?
September 9, 2014
My fifth Ha Jin book, and definitely the least of the five. This isn't a novel so much as it's a list of all the horrible things the Japanese did during the rape of Nanking, an occupation that killed more people than Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined. The event itself is important and very much undercovered in history classes, but story after story of mistreatment, assault, casual murder, and casual enslavement does not make for good fiction. I would have been better off reading a non-fiction account. Absolutely read "The Bridegroom", but skip this one.
May 17, 2012
While I found the opening sections of this book riveting and horrifying the slow pace and dwelling on minute details left me struggling to keep up my interest as the novel progressed. Clearly a subject worthy of exploration and revelation but I couldn't help but compare it unfavorably with classic historical novelizations like "All Quiet on the Western Front" or last year's "The Sojourn."
May 12, 2020
I found this to be a very interesting novel about Jinling Women’s College in Nanjing in 1937, as the Japanese invade the city. One of the most horrifying sites of war crimes, this novel focuses on Minnie Vautrin’s extraordinary efforts turning the college into a refugee camp for women and children. For her efforts, she was awarded The Order of the Jade, the highest honor the Chinese government could bestow on a foreigner. Another outstanding book by Ha Jin.
May 14, 2023
This was very well written but it’s just so so sad. This is not for readers with a weak stomach as descriptions of torture, mutilations, rape, murder, and other heinous acts appear throughout the text.
July 17, 2012
Nanjing Requiem is a story of courage and conviction in the face of unspeakable atrocity.
Minnie Vautrin is the American dean of the Jinling Women's College. On the eve of the Japanese invasion of Nanjing in 1937, when most foreigners are leaving for their own safety, Minnie remains and turns the campus into a refugee center for women and children, believing that her status as an American will ensure the safety of the refugees and the staff of the college who remain on with her. Her mistaken belief causes her to be a witness to unimaginable crimes against humanity.
Minnie uses everything in her power -- among them, political influence, money, bribery, invoking the fear of God, guilt -- to try to protect as many of the 10,000 refugees who were housed on her campus at the height of the occupation. She remains to pick up the pieces after order is restored to Nanjing, creating a vocational school to help widows and orphans begin to make a living for themselves.
Following Minnie from her innocent beginnings to her eventual realization, but never acceptance, that many cannot be saved is not an easy read, but an inspirational one.
Ha Jin has brought to vivid life this horribly violent time in China's history, much like he brought to life the Cultural Revolution in his novel Waiting. His story has the amazing ability to pull humanity, love, compassion, and peace from the ashes of war.
Minnie Vautrin is the American dean of the Jinling Women's College. On the eve of the Japanese invasion of Nanjing in 1937, when most foreigners are leaving for their own safety, Minnie remains and turns the campus into a refugee center for women and children, believing that her status as an American will ensure the safety of the refugees and the staff of the college who remain on with her. Her mistaken belief causes her to be a witness to unimaginable crimes against humanity.
Minnie uses everything in her power -- among them, political influence, money, bribery, invoking the fear of God, guilt -- to try to protect as many of the 10,000 refugees who were housed on her campus at the height of the occupation. She remains to pick up the pieces after order is restored to Nanjing, creating a vocational school to help widows and orphans begin to make a living for themselves.
Following Minnie from her innocent beginnings to her eventual realization, but never acceptance, that many cannot be saved is not an easy read, but an inspirational one.
Ha Jin has brought to vivid life this horribly violent time in China's history, much like he brought to life the Cultural Revolution in his novel Waiting. His story has the amazing ability to pull humanity, love, compassion, and peace from the ashes of war.
February 14, 2016
This historical novel is my introduction to the work of Ha Jin. I will follow up on reading him.
However, as horrific as the detailing is of the utter destruction of life in the Nanjing area just prior to World War II, and as potentially uplifting the stories of American and Chinese missionaries, aid workers and teachers are, somehow the novel read "flat" for me.
Minnie Vautrin and all those affiliated with Jingling College were dedicated to their work. But I was most drawn to the life story of Anling who serves as a sort of narrator or interpreter of the novel. As a Chinese national with a complicated family history, she draws me in most often.
The horror of the destruction, setting up and managing the college buildings for 10,000 refugees, dealing with local Chinese and Japanese politicos and soldiers, trying to rescue/save so many, is certainly deeply moving, as is Minnie's eventual collapse and suicide. The novel does raise several key questions: What is the price of collaboration? What should Christian (or Jewish or Buddhist or Muslim) believers do when confronted with evil-beyond-imagining? In the midst of war, what is important to preserve, to build, to affirm?
However, as horrific as the detailing is of the utter destruction of life in the Nanjing area just prior to World War II, and as potentially uplifting the stories of American and Chinese missionaries, aid workers and teachers are, somehow the novel read "flat" for me.
Minnie Vautrin and all those affiliated with Jingling College were dedicated to their work. But I was most drawn to the life story of Anling who serves as a sort of narrator or interpreter of the novel. As a Chinese national with a complicated family history, she draws me in most often.
The horror of the destruction, setting up and managing the college buildings for 10,000 refugees, dealing with local Chinese and Japanese politicos and soldiers, trying to rescue/save so many, is certainly deeply moving, as is Minnie's eventual collapse and suicide. The novel does raise several key questions: What is the price of collaboration? What should Christian (or Jewish or Buddhist or Muslim) believers do when confronted with evil-beyond-imagining? In the midst of war, what is important to preserve, to build, to affirm?
February 8, 2012
I'd certainly give this book a star and a half. I didn't like Jin's approach to the book, while I honestly believe this subject matter of this book is extremely important, as most people don't know much about the massacres of the Chinese during World War 2.
I wanted to like this book. I found the book to be dry and lifeless. While by no means is the massacre of Nanjing during World War 2 a happy subject, I just felt that this story while historically accurate was far less passionate than other books written on the subject. It made me feel indifferent and bored as I progressed, which is what I'd really not like to feel on such a horrid subject. Make me angry, make me care, but don't make me put the book down and not want to finish it due to lack of interest in historical characters. Iris Chang took a far more passionate approach and it came out in her book. I feel like the book that Jin has written here, is based mostly on her research, which is disappointing.
I wanted to like this book. I found the book to be dry and lifeless. While by no means is the massacre of Nanjing during World War 2 a happy subject, I just felt that this story while historically accurate was far less passionate than other books written on the subject. It made me feel indifferent and bored as I progressed, which is what I'd really not like to feel on such a horrid subject. Make me angry, make me care, but don't make me put the book down and not want to finish it due to lack of interest in historical characters. Iris Chang took a far more passionate approach and it came out in her book. I feel like the book that Jin has written here, is based mostly on her research, which is disappointing.
July 27, 2012
I am a huge fan of Ha Jin and his writing style. This book is one of the best he has written, at least in my mind.
The book starts out following real events in WW2 with the Nanjing Massacre (otherwise known as "The Rape of Nanjing") by the invading Japanese troops. I was aware of this event and it was interesting to read a fictional story based during this time period. The story follows teachers at a women's college in Nanjing that protected women during the Massacre and then follows the story throughout the war and shows how the event changed the lives of everyone at the college.
It can be a tough read at times if the reader is triggered by rape and violence since the book describes instances of rape in detail. The event does make the background to a very compelling story and it kept me reading, non-stop, through the entire book in one seating. The story is that powerful and involving.
The book starts out following real events in WW2 with the Nanjing Massacre (otherwise known as "The Rape of Nanjing") by the invading Japanese troops. I was aware of this event and it was interesting to read a fictional story based during this time period. The story follows teachers at a women's college in Nanjing that protected women during the Massacre and then follows the story throughout the war and shows how the event changed the lives of everyone at the college.
It can be a tough read at times if the reader is triggered by rape and violence since the book describes instances of rape in detail. The event does make the background to a very compelling story and it kept me reading, non-stop, through the entire book in one seating. The story is that powerful and involving.
Read
May 13, 2018Excellent book! My favorite of all the Chinese literature I've read. A pleasant surprise, too, because I have not liked previous books I've read by Ha Jin.
This was a very good description of the horrific crimes committed by the Japanese during World War II. Hopefully, sometime in the not-too-distant future, the Japanese government will have the courage and compassion to admit and apologize for the wrongdoing of their country during World War II. And hopefully, the rest of the world will also have the courage and compassion to cease being silent about these war crimes.
I give "Nanjing Requiem" a 7 on a scale of 10.
二零一八年：第十一本书
This was a very good description of the horrific crimes committed by the Japanese during World War II. Hopefully, sometime in the not-too-distant future, the Japanese government will have the courage and compassion to admit and apologize for the wrongdoing of their country during World War II. And hopefully, the rest of the world will also have the courage and compassion to cease being silent about these war crimes.
I give "Nanjing Requiem" a 7 on a scale of 10.
二零一八年：第十一本书
June 30, 2019
Ha Jin tends to be a slow writer. I guess that's why he wrote the book Waiting which was a slow read. But that one was supposed to be.
There is only one book to read on this topic:
by
Iris Chang
Iris Chang committed suicide after finishing the book. It may not be related to the book, but it sure adds to the effect.
There is only one book to read on this topic:
by
Iris ChangIris Chang committed suicide after finishing the book. It may not be related to the book, but it sure adds to the effect.
March 29, 2015
Until the last 50 pages, I was ready to give this book a significantly lower rating. There are times when it feels like a ten year old wrote the book. Maybe it was intentional, the idea being English was not the native language of the narrator. But there was no feeling in there at all, which is astonishing considering the content of the book. But the last 50 pages grab at you, make you feel something, and make the book worth it.
Its an ok book, but you might want to skip ahead a little if you read it.
Its an ok book, but you might want to skip ahead a little if you read it.
August 10, 2016
There was such potential in this novel, but the detachedness of the narrator mixed with the poorly intertwined story versus history made it difficult to have any sort of emotional involvement with the characters. A book like this needs to be devastating to be effective and Nanjing Requiem isn't.
February 1, 2013
A great novel! At first I wasn't sure h'd be able to pull of the 1st person voice as a female protagonist, but it worked. A very touching tale of a difficult time in the history of Nanjing! I would recommend this book to anyone, especially those interested in current China-Japan relations.
October 4, 2013
Pro mě do určité míry zklamání. Historie čínsko-japonské války (a vůbec moderní dějiny JV Asie) je u nás nepříliš známá, proto jsem byl na románové pojetí zvědavý. Deníkové pojetí mě moc nechytlo a do knihy se ne a ne dostat.
December 6, 2013
Poctivá čtyřka hvězdiček. Autor dokázal, že mi až do konce nepřišlo, že to psal chlap. Klobouk dolů. A kromě toho obdivuji jeho schopnost zůstat popisný a hlídat si emoce při popisu takových prasáren. Obdivuhodné čtení. A smutné.
August 24, 2013
I have loved Ha Jin's other books, this one is completely disappointing. Maybe the subject matter is
too horrific to be dealt with in fiction....
too horrific to be dealt with in fiction....
January 9, 2022
This book is not Ha Jin's best work, IMO, but it is quite good. 4.5 is about what I'd give it, were half stars available.
Jin approaches the Japanese atrocities in Nanking by presenting what seems a semi-biographical story involving American missionary Minnie Vautrin. In his "Author's Note," Jin references a variety of publications on which he relied in preparing his fictional work. A number of these references are books about Ms. Vautrin's time in Nanking, including one entitled "Terror in Minnie Vautrin's Nanking: Diaries and Correspondence, 1937-38.
Some reviews quarrel with the book's extended treatment of murder and rape. Indeed the first part of the book mainly consists of a serial (and sometimes uncomfortably graphic) recounting of brutality. With respect, I'd disagree with those assessments of the book.
I did indeed find the first circa ninety pages of the book somewhat wearying. So much murder and rape. However, after a while I saw what I think to have been Jin's point. As Stalin once said, "a single death is a tragedy; a million deaths are a statistic."
Certainly there is value in numbers, such as "X women were raped and Y men of roughly military age were executed." But the point here is not to tote up the carnage from a mile-high view. Nor is it to offer a comprehensive overview of the Nanking occupation. Instead the frame of reference is a set of people stuck in the middle of this disaster. The emphasis is on what those particular people experienced over the weeks and months of occupation. (As noted above, Jin's background material includes diary entries by Ms. Vautrin.)
Hence, for example, one day Minnie and other employees of the school are detained temporarily by some authorities, while soldiers barge into the school grounds from another direction and abuse dozens of the female refugees. On another day, some of the male workers at the school are seized by occupying soldiers, and Ms. Vautrin needs to persuade the Japanese than the men are not fighters but have specific jobs at the school.
This sort of thing goes on, day in any day out. Every new day brings with it another set of risks and of human tragedies. Jin brings home just how relentlessly the evils of the occupation threaten Minnie and her people. One can see how the human spirit could be ground down in such circumstances.
The book also illuminates some of the impossible choices that confront those stuck in a war zone such as Nanking. A worker who refuses to help the Japanese build a road may be executed by the Japanese -- but if he helps then he's a "traitor" and may be killed for that. A man asked to join the provisional city government knows that should he take the job he likely will pay a traitor's price. Yet if he refuses the risks will be mortal as well. The Japanese demand that Minnie supply a hundred refugee women as prostitutes. She can't stop the soldiers; neither can she tell them it's OK.
On top of the physical abuse and resulting injuries (many of them permanent) inflicted on many Nanking residents was a heavy psychological toll. How could anyone live though that sort of period without scars of some sort? Jin amply illustrates the corrosive effect of the occupation on the human spirit.
At the same time, Jim leavens the depressing story of Nanking with tales of selfless humanitarian acts. By and large, the westerners who remained in Nanking to try and protect noncombatants probably could have left. They saved many lives, but of course couldn't save them all. One might see that as a success, but perhaps Ms. Vautrin saw that as a failure.
Jin approaches the Japanese atrocities in Nanking by presenting what seems a semi-biographical story involving American missionary Minnie Vautrin. In his "Author's Note," Jin references a variety of publications on which he relied in preparing his fictional work. A number of these references are books about Ms. Vautrin's time in Nanking, including one entitled "Terror in Minnie Vautrin's Nanking: Diaries and Correspondence, 1937-38.
Some reviews quarrel with the book's extended treatment of murder and rape. Indeed the first part of the book mainly consists of a serial (and sometimes uncomfortably graphic) recounting of brutality. With respect, I'd disagree with those assessments of the book.
I did indeed find the first circa ninety pages of the book somewhat wearying. So much murder and rape. However, after a while I saw what I think to have been Jin's point. As Stalin once said, "a single death is a tragedy; a million deaths are a statistic."
Certainly there is value in numbers, such as "X women were raped and Y men of roughly military age were executed." But the point here is not to tote up the carnage from a mile-high view. Nor is it to offer a comprehensive overview of the Nanking occupation. Instead the frame of reference is a set of people stuck in the middle of this disaster. The emphasis is on what those particular people experienced over the weeks and months of occupation. (As noted above, Jin's background material includes diary entries by Ms. Vautrin.)
Hence, for example, one day Minnie and other employees of the school are detained temporarily by some authorities, while soldiers barge into the school grounds from another direction and abuse dozens of the female refugees. On another day, some of the male workers at the school are seized by occupying soldiers, and Ms. Vautrin needs to persuade the Japanese than the men are not fighters but have specific jobs at the school.
This sort of thing goes on, day in any day out. Every new day brings with it another set of risks and of human tragedies. Jin brings home just how relentlessly the evils of the occupation threaten Minnie and her people. One can see how the human spirit could be ground down in such circumstances.
The book also illuminates some of the impossible choices that confront those stuck in a war zone such as Nanking. A worker who refuses to help the Japanese build a road may be executed by the Japanese -- but if he helps then he's a "traitor" and may be killed for that. A man asked to join the provisional city government knows that should he take the job he likely will pay a traitor's price. Yet if he refuses the risks will be mortal as well. The Japanese demand that Minnie supply a hundred refugee women as prostitutes. She can't stop the soldiers; neither can she tell them it's OK.
On top of the physical abuse and resulting injuries (many of them permanent) inflicted on many Nanking residents was a heavy psychological toll. How could anyone live though that sort of period without scars of some sort? Jin amply illustrates the corrosive effect of the occupation on the human spirit.
At the same time, Jim leavens the depressing story of Nanking with tales of selfless humanitarian acts. By and large, the westerners who remained in Nanking to try and protect noncombatants probably could have left. They saved many lives, but of course couldn't save them all. One might see that as a success, but perhaps Ms. Vautrin saw that as a failure.
February 3, 2023
Reading the book was like eating chop suey. Chinese-ish but clearly produced solely for westerners. Where gailan should be, one finds broccoli. The characters are poorly developed. There is basically no plot. The writing is mediocre. As a novel it is nothing, except maybe repetitively gruesome on the topic of rape. As a historical retelling it is a bit more interesting. This was a very interesting historical place and time, and it is based on at least one real westerner's diary, and many of the characters are real people. This said, it focuses rather strongly on christian missionaries, who were a minority, even among westerners, and neglects to include various obvious plausible characters like, say, a German nazi (which Nanjing was full of in the 1930's) who wanted to burnish their reputation and later lied, or at the very least embellished, and said they were great people helping John Rabe protect Chinese, when they were doing no such thing. Or selfish Nationalist government officials fleeing to Wuhan (where they set up government). Or even a Japanese soldier. Anyway, i don't recommend this book.
January 14, 2019
A slow read. An engaging book.
January 31, 2012
Ha Jin’s latest novel, Nanjing Requiem, released last fall, takes on the huge challenge of setting a novel during the Japanese invasion and occupation of China’s Nanjing City. It is not an easy task to write a
book with a foundation based in the torture and slaughter of thousands of civilians, but that is the challenge Jin has set up for himself with this new book.
Jin tells the story of the fall of Nanjing, opening with the heartbreaking tale of Ban, a young boy who serves as an errand-runner for the Western –funded and run Jingli College, who was whisked away by Japanese soldiers and forced to do their bidding, fearing for his life if he didn’t cooperate. After this initial chapter, the rest of the book (with one other short exception at the end) is narrated by Anling, a Chinese woman who works for the college. While she is the primary story-teller, the roles of the foreign citizens are the focus of much of the novel.
Nanjing’s citizens were cruelly treated when the Japanese army overthrew the Chinese government there, as the invading army’s officers allowed their soldiers to run wild, abandoning any sense of
decency and humanity. Countless women, of all ages, were raped and killed. Men were forced to watch their relatives’ endure these heinous acts and then they themselves were slaughtered. Jin doesn’t shy away from the realities of what occurred in city in the late 1930’s. Because of this brutally honest look at those atrocities, Nanjing Requiem can be difficult to read. His writing relays the stark realities of the horrors committed, making the book, at times, painful to endure. It is not a leisurely book, written for the feint-of-heart.
With the focus on the deeds of the foreigners living in Nanjing, I was disappointed that Ha Jin didn’t focus more on the positive aspects of Chinese culture and traditions. Oftentimes, the Chinese women (other than the main narrator herself) are made out to be petty and squabbling and wholly selfish. I would love to have seen him incorporate more Chinese women who sacrificed for the cause of helping others. The characters, both Chinese and foreign, were pretty flatly drawn, making it hard to connect with them while reading the novel.
Nanjing Requiem, while dealing with a terrible period in Chinese history, really focuses on the roles that foreigners played in saving thousands of people from certain death. These characters, mostly American missionaries, put their lives on the line for the people of the country in which they live. They show a basic humanity and dignity which is a direct foil to that characterization of the Japanese forces. With this said, the writing lacks the emotion one would expect from such a horrific event. The writing is sufficient. It describes scenes, it fleshes out characters, it has a clear beginning, middle and end. What it doesn’t do is move the reader to tears or even a conjure of a great amount of anger. If I had not read several other books about the occurrences in Nanjing (I would specifically recommend The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II by Iris Chang), I don’t think the absolute travesty of the situation would have been clear. In several places, Jin provides clear descriptions of varies horrors, and yet they come across as nothing more than flatly written fiction.
Overall, this book fell short of what it could have been. I am disappointed that a book with the potential of this one didn’t create more of an emotional reaction. When I initially started this novel, I
thought I was going to love it, but around the halfway mark I realized that it was going to fall squarely in the “okay” category. Ha Jin’s Nanjing Requiem earns:
2 SHELLS
book with a foundation based in the torture and slaughter of thousands of civilians, but that is the challenge Jin has set up for himself with this new book.
Jin tells the story of the fall of Nanjing, opening with the heartbreaking tale of Ban, a young boy who serves as an errand-runner for the Western –funded and run Jingli College, who was whisked away by Japanese soldiers and forced to do their bidding, fearing for his life if he didn’t cooperate. After this initial chapter, the rest of the book (with one other short exception at the end) is narrated by Anling, a Chinese woman who works for the college. While she is the primary story-teller, the roles of the foreign citizens are the focus of much of the novel.
Nanjing’s citizens were cruelly treated when the Japanese army overthrew the Chinese government there, as the invading army’s officers allowed their soldiers to run wild, abandoning any sense of
decency and humanity. Countless women, of all ages, were raped and killed. Men were forced to watch their relatives’ endure these heinous acts and then they themselves were slaughtered. Jin doesn’t shy away from the realities of what occurred in city in the late 1930’s. Because of this brutally honest look at those atrocities, Nanjing Requiem can be difficult to read. His writing relays the stark realities of the horrors committed, making the book, at times, painful to endure. It is not a leisurely book, written for the feint-of-heart.
With the focus on the deeds of the foreigners living in Nanjing, I was disappointed that Ha Jin didn’t focus more on the positive aspects of Chinese culture and traditions. Oftentimes, the Chinese women (other than the main narrator herself) are made out to be petty and squabbling and wholly selfish. I would love to have seen him incorporate more Chinese women who sacrificed for the cause of helping others. The characters, both Chinese and foreign, were pretty flatly drawn, making it hard to connect with them while reading the novel.
Nanjing Requiem, while dealing with a terrible period in Chinese history, really focuses on the roles that foreigners played in saving thousands of people from certain death. These characters, mostly American missionaries, put their lives on the line for the people of the country in which they live. They show a basic humanity and dignity which is a direct foil to that characterization of the Japanese forces. With this said, the writing lacks the emotion one would expect from such a horrific event. The writing is sufficient. It describes scenes, it fleshes out characters, it has a clear beginning, middle and end. What it doesn’t do is move the reader to tears or even a conjure of a great amount of anger. If I had not read several other books about the occurrences in Nanjing (I would specifically recommend The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II by Iris Chang), I don’t think the absolute travesty of the situation would have been clear. In several places, Jin provides clear descriptions of varies horrors, and yet they come across as nothing more than flatly written fiction.
Overall, this book fell short of what it could have been. I am disappointed that a book with the potential of this one didn’t create more of an emotional reaction. When I initially started this novel, I
thought I was going to love it, but around the halfway mark I realized that it was going to fall squarely in the “okay” category. Ha Jin’s Nanjing Requiem earns:
2 SHELLS
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