While *I* am WAITING

For the other book to arrive, (based on my dear friend's recommendation), I am currently reading another book he told me about.

The haunting beauty of these novels is that in so many ways they are so unlike our culture here - yet in so many ways they manage to 'point up' the human condition. I suppose somethings are just universal.

And like this friend the book's message becomes all the more dear - as in his simply knowing that saying 'Xie, Xie' to me in Mandarin (it means Thank You) - means more to me than all the 'thank yous' he could ever say in plain English...