This fictional book takes place in China during the 1970s. Lin is a doctor in the Chinese army and agrees to his parents' choice of a wife. His new wife is several years older than he, and she tends to his elderly parents in their home village while he pursues his career in a distant city. He returns every summer to visit, and early on, he and his wife have a daughter.
Embarrassed by his wife's simple background and bound feet, he longs for an educated, modern wife, such as the female army comrades he meets at work. He eventually falls in love with Manna, an army nurse, and they vow to maintain "just" a friendship until he is free to marry.
While he no longer has any relationship with or use for his wife (his parents have long since died), she remains true and faithful to him and to their marriage. Lin continues to return to his rural village every summer, each year asking his wife to agree to a divorce. Each year, she agrees but changes her mind when they go before the judge.
Through a series of circumstances, he is eventually granted a divorce, free to finally marry Manna. Not surprisingly, the marriage does not turn out to be what they'd individually dreamed. Lin remains remote and distant, making no effort to take on the role of husband. Manna continues to be frustrated by his lack of ambition and passion.
This was an unremarkable book. Although the author grew up in China and is now an English professor in the U.S., the story is not particularly well written. There was certainly no attraction to Lin or Manna. They both were selfish and boring, uninspiring, and none of the other characters were well developed. It was an easy, mindless read but not something I would recommend.
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