“The conceit of the professor who has a stoke and raises questions which he then answers in raving fits of madness was a stretch. The idea of a society of people closely watched and controlled certainly lends itself to all kinds of behavior, and perhaps illness could bring something like this about, but I wonder if a more distant point of view could have helped in the telling. There is the sense that the writer is not in control of his own material, and this was indeed crazy making for me, the reader. Furthermore, the professor is too much the puppet for the plot points the writer has worked out, and I wonder why these were not conveyed in scenes instead. The Chekhovian comparisons that have been drawn are sometimes more evident in the scenes away from the hospital, although even some of these scenes are eventually siphoned of their power by melodrama. I was a bit disappointed, but still look forward to reading more of Ha Jin's work.”
