A Good Fall Book

OK - I just cannot get along too well with Ha Jin. I heard so many great things about his award winning novel, the Waiting, that I thought I should give him a try... This was the second book by him I finished this month (the previous one was "The Boat Rocker"), and... no and no again.
A Good Fall is a short story collection. The stories themselves (all about Chinese immigrants in Flushing, NYC) are not bad, some of them are even very intriguing but the endings... I know Ha Jin writes them in this way on purpose but it really, really annoyed and frustrated me in spite of the fact that after the second one I knew they would end similarly. So here it is: he is writing a complete story, with good characters, finds an adequate ending to them, and then... he adds another sentence that carries on the events/story, except... it does not. Because that is where he really ends them. As if the film broke in the middle of a scene and there is just the dark room afterwards, the audience looking at each other, "...so now what?" This technique seemed simply pretentious and completely forced, as if he wanted to find something that made the stories more appealing or interesting or memorable...? God knows.

Anyhow, I don't think I will read any more Ha Jin soon if ever.

Gave it 3 stars as again, the stories would be excellent without those stupid endings.