Having read Ha Jin’s novel “Waiting” and his short-story collection “Ocean of Worlds,” I was ready for more. “The Bridegroom” really hit the spot.

While “Ocean of Worlds” took place on the Russian-Chinese border in the 1970’s, “The Bridegroom” takes place in a present-day fictitious capital as China’s transition from communism to free market dictatorship is complete. The events of marriage and relationships are present in the stories, to greater or lesser degrees. Each story shows the clash that free markets have created. In one story, a TV crew must film a fight between a man and a tiger. In another story, an American businessman fails to read his employees at a fast food restaurant. In another story, a gay man with a good job marries a woman who respects his boundaries, while a man remarries after losing his memory in yet another story.

Ha Jin is truly a master storyteller. His writing is so simple and yet so fluid and exciting that readers will remain interested. ( )

Lives scrambled by the new capitalism, by the old communist puritanic streaks, by relatives, by coworkers. With a little Mao sauce on top. ( )

"A Tiger-Fighter is Hard To Find"
It all starts with a letter from the governor's office, praising a television series about a tiger killer. The show is a good example of a hero but there is one tiny flaw - the tiger doesn't look realistic enough. If they can solve that dilemma their series might be chosen to compete for a national prize. The solution? The hero should battle a real tiger, a real Siberian caught in the mountains. Told from the point of the lowly set clerk who has the responsibility of making each take look like the last, he is witness to the obsession which dominates cast and crew behavior once the idea of competing for a national prize sets in. They go to great lengths to secure the tiger and even greater lengths to find someone to "kill" the tiger. It is a devastating story.

"After Cowboy Chicken Came to Town"
A sad story about an American chain restaurant in China - a culinary culture clash. Five restaurant employees are confused by their Americanized friend. He used to be one of them until he went to America and came back with a changed name and a new attitude. As their resentment towards him grows the five friends set up to sabotage the restaurant only to have their plan backfire horribly.

In both stories the major theme is a loss of control and the lengths people will go to to get it back. ( )

In 'The Bridegroom' the twelve stories capture a China in transition, moving from Maoism towards a more open society. Men and women are starting to feel the influance of the West, but the communist system still controls their every move and thought which makes the stories painful.

Ha Jin celebrates his characters' lives and humanity with simplicity, from an enterpreneur transformed from black market criminal to free market hero, to the homosexuals jailed because of their 'illness'. Brilliantly, Ha Jin arranges the different stories around one theme: all the short stories are related to past or future weddings somehow and the tension of the short stories lies in the bridegrooms.

What I found amazing about this book was that I still was not able to stop thinking about the stories after I finished it. The practices of the Chinese political system weigh you down, and while you feel sorry for the friendly Chinese citizens, you are also glad that you are not led by such a political system.

I am convinced that 'The Bridegroom' has everything a good book calls for; it makes you think, once you start you can't finish it, and last but not least the short stories are likely to break your heart. ( )

Ha Jin writes spare prose about a China that is rapidly changing. His stories always deal with loss and disappointment, and that makes them hard to read at times. Although I was interested enough to finish, I didn't find much that I liked. ( )