War Trash by Ha Jin

It's always a disappointment to be more interested in a book's subject matter than its story.

War Trash is about a Chinese soldier that is captured by the Americans during the Korean War. Written as a fictional memoir, it chronicles his time in the POW camps.

I liked the book when it touched on the protagonist's disagreeing with Communist doctrine, but pretending to be on board with it so he could get home to see his family. Problem is, that doesn't make up a lot of the book.

War Trash reads like it is more about getting from A to B than what was going on in between. Many, many events at the camps are touched on, but nothing more is being said than "this is what happened."

I'll go ahead and say this was a good read. Jin kept me reading until the end. But that's about it.