This book describes the everyday life of Chinese POWs held by the US during the Korean War. The chronicler of the story -- Feng Yan -- is telling his tale many years later from the perspective of a 79-year-old man. He starts the story while he is visiting his son and grandchildren in America. He will be returning to China where he has spent most of his life. He does not think he will ever get back to America.
Feng Yan -- as a soldier and a POW -- was smart and reserved but had not fear of fighting for his life if necessary. His goal was simple: survival: survival under inhumane conditions and the constant threat of violence.
Many of the POWs were in his situation. They were not Communists. Actually they feared the Communists, with good reason. But they wanted to return to Mainland China to help their families. For Feng Yan, it was his mother and his fiancée.
During their confinement the POWs were adept at keeping themselves occupied and scrounging for food and communicating with each other. At times they resorted to protests, hunger strikes, or even the kidnapping of a US officer to protest the conditions of their confinement. Yet they were aware of the strong probability of retribution.
This novel portrays men under stress in impossible situations with great psychological acuity. The reader is transported to a barbarous world with very few good guys. The plot is believable and suspenseful. There is no way to know how any of the characters will end up -- wounded physically or mentally, murdered -- and where he will go when released: to mainland China or to Taiwan.
The Los Angeles Times describes War Trash as a work of profound humanism, and this is an apt description. Ha Jin's artistry lies in his ability to detect humanity among starving desparate men, and to make the reader care deeply about their fate.