The Boat Rocker: A Novel

Feng Danlin writes for a news agency that publishes online news to the Chinese diaspora world-wide. He is given the assignment to critique his ex-wife's recent novel and expose the fraudulent praise she and her yet-to-be published book are receiving. Danlin's feelings about his ex-wife are tinged with bitterness because of the cold and heartless way she announced her intentions to divorce him the day he arrived in America. A fearless seeker of truth in reporting, Danlin accepts the assignment and gives full vent to his belief that his ex-wife, Yan Haili, has little talent or interest in writing great literature and is interested only in the fame and money success will bring. But Danlin can scarcely imagine the repercussions of his essays. With the backing of the Chinese government, Haili manages to turn Danlin's life into a nightmare. It is hard for an American reader to grasp the extent to which a battle over the quality of a novel becomes a rallying cry for dissident Chinese readers of the blog. To this reader, it seemed like a tempest in a teapot. And it was difficult for me to come to grips with the premise that the Chinese government would take such an interest in promoting the novel. While the philosophical arguments presented by Ha Jin in the course of his narration were enlightening and thought-provoking, they still did not answer for me the central question as to why so much emphasis was placed on the success of Haili's romantic novel.