The Bridegroom
Ha Jin sets these twelve stories in the fictional city of Muji, China, where ordinary people try to live decent lives under a watchful state and an unforgiving social order. A factory worker, a teacher, a young couple, a man accused of a crime he does not understand: each story finds the comedy and quiet heartbreak in lives squeezed by rules nobody chose. The title story and Alive, the piece George Saunders singles out, show Ha Jin's gift for plain, clear prose that lets the absurdity and tenderness of these situations speak for themselves. Together the stories form a sharp, humane portrait of life in late twentieth-century China.
What you might want to know about The Bridegroom
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
A collection of stories set in a Chinese city, following ordinary people whose lives bump up against bureaucracy, gossip, and the rules of the state.
Saunders has named the story Alive, from this collection, among the American short stories he thinks will stand the test of time.
Yes. The collection won the Asian American Literary Award and the Townsend Prize for Fiction.
The Bridegroom was written by Ha Jin, published in 2000 by Vintage.
The Bridegroom is 240 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Bridegroom takes most readers 4 to 5 hours to finish.
The Bridegroom is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.