As jt is used in line 83, the phrase the "real" world most nearly refers to: expanding into animal habitats. G暴 the current living conditions for animals in urban cnVIronmcntS． animal behavior. human activity. GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE. Passag. III HUMANITIES: This passage Is adapted from t归 article 叩or trait of the Artist as an Immigrant: Ha Jln's Qulnte眨enti邕lly Chine还American Novel" by Ruth_Fran�ln (02叩7 冈 Wa,sh勿 lngton Post.N的SW的kInteractiveCo. LLC). It is a liter叩 tru均m that writers ought to write in their native 血guage. E江a Pound, Paul Cclan, Thomas Mann,Isaac Basbcvis Singer、 Cz.cslaw Milosz: They au spent much of their lives far from their homelands, but 5 their work is inconceivable in any language other than its original. With few exceptions, wri比rs who break this mold are met with incredulity. Creativity, so the mythology goes, can spring only ftom an original source. 10 The work of Ha Jin, who bas lived in the United States for more than 20 years and now teaches creative wriUng at Boston Universi盓', bas beeo greeted with similar wonderment. With the publication of A Free Life, his 血h novel (there have also been three boo比 of 15 poetry 扭d two of short stories), be is still fielding the ial question: Why does be choose to write i h? A Free life—Jin's most personal novel,though not exactly autobiogr-ap缸cal--c:onfronts the taboo bead on. 20 This meandering yet deeply affecting novel is at �nee a version of the classic saga of an imroigra,nt family adjusting to life in the Unitcd Stalcs and a highly unconventional portrait of the artist 邸血 imm!grant, family man, and all-around ordi叩guy..while Jin has 25 always b氏n polite to Ws interviewers. it seems quite clear that Nan Wu,the poet wbo is the protagonist ofA .Free Life, speaks for his creator in response.to a maga 血e editor who asks, "Can you imagine your work becoming part of our language?''Nan bristles: "I have so no answer to that xenophobic que-stioo, wbicb ignores ,he fact that the vitality of English h“Panly resul亿d from its ability to assimilate all kinds of alien energies. In. a relaxed narrative,A Free Life follows Nan 35 over the course of a_double Journey: his guest to pro勿 vide his family with financial stability while simultane, ously realizing his dream. of becoming a poet He starts off working odd jobs, but soon he and his wifc, Pingping, have saved up enough money t0 buy a C证 40 nese restaurant and a house of the江 own. By all the benchmarks of the American dream, they arc sue心ss ful. But Nan worries that the banality of 压s daily ex.is tence is stifling him as a writer. "Do you have to live a l�iterary life to produce_literary work?" he asks a poet 45 friend. By closely tracking every step.of No.n's creative genesis, Jin's novel offers an al比mative vision of imag inative growth inspired precisely by the most mundane circumstances. Ha Jin has said that he sees himself as a Chinese- 50 American writer:'1 need the hyphen."A Free Life i tbe quintcsseotialChinese多American book, in which 伽 dilemma of how to exist simultaneously in two worlds一on both sides of that hyphen一animates every T 荨 www.loviact.com 34 page. Like the famously four-toned Chinese dialccl of 55 Mandarin, the novel t吐cs place in multiple registers. First there is the dominant narrative voice, at times fluid and evocative. but also idiosyncratic and clunky: Though it is disguised as a conventional third-person narrator, this is Nan's literary voice struggling to find 切 its way in English. Sometimes he overdoes the literary effects, as wbeo he describes a Chinese restaurant as "gl釭ed entirely with mirror, on which so.me sea crea tures were blazon吐 “ And sometimes he overshoots in 1earch of the right word ordrops in ajarri 65 ism. T应 is the work of a man who he had learned it from the dictionary—...... ,IM..""""'• often glimpse Nan studying his dictionary during lulls on the job. N血s literary voice contrasts dr皿atically w池 bis 70 heavily accented speech, a device that works to empha size the gap between Nan's fluent thoughts and his )ugb hc will come close to r lish in bis head, be will never sound fully competent to other... 75 Somewhat less convincing is Jin's other major stylistic choice. While his other wor比 have 如n rigor ously s叩ctured,A FreeLife is loose and bag.gy, witb episodes that lead down d_cad ends and'digre�sions that amount to little. The Wus'life is full of 如.matic 80 events,but they arc presented in a tone of almost c-0mi会 cal understatement. This artlessness feels jntentiooal, an appro,.imation of how.a talented but unschooled writer likc Nan 面gbt tell his own story. It is a testimony to Jin's abilities that the novel 85 n诅nages to be engrossing despite its total disregard for narrative tension.The <:barm ofA Free Life comes from its cheerful subversiveness, its gentle upending of the most persistent myths about the creation of 血．
