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River Town by: Peter Hessler List Price: CDN$ 16.50 City Travel Guides Price: CDN$ 12.05 You Save: CDN$4.45 (27%)Prices subject to change. |
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Binding: Paperback Dewey Decimal Number: 910 EAN: 9780060855024 ISBN: 0060855029 Label: Harper Paperback Manufacturer: Harper Paperback Number Of Pages: 432 Publication Date: April 12, 2006 Publisher: Harper Paperback Release Date: April 23, 2006 Studio: Harper Paperback Sales Rank: 31392 Related Items:
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Editorial Review: From Amazon.com: In 1996, 26-year-old Peter Hessler arrived in Fuling, a town on China's Yangtze River, to begin a two-year Peace Corps stint as a teacher at the local college. Along with fellow teacher Adam Meier, the two are the first foreigners to be in this part of the Sichuan province for 50 years. Expecting a calm couple of years, Hessler at first does not realize the social, cultural, and personal implications of being thrust into a such radically different society. In River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze, Hessler tells of his experience with the citizens of Fuling, the political and historical climate, and the feel of the city itself. "Few passengers disembark at Fuling ... and so Fuling appears like a break in a dream--the quiet river, the cabins full of travelers drifting off to sleep, the lights of the city rising from the blackness of the Yangtze," says Hessler. A poor city by Chinese standards, the students at the college are mainly from small villages and are considered very lucky to be continuing their education. As an English teacher, Hessler is delighted with his students' fresh reactions to classic literature. One student says of Hamlet, "I don't admire him and I dislike him. I think he is too sensitive and conservative and selfish." Hessler marvels, You couldn't have said something like that at Oxford. You couldn't simply say: I don't like Hamlet because I think he's a lousy person. Everything had to be more clever than that ... you had to dismantle it ... not just the play itself but everything that had ever been written about it.Over the course of two years, Hessler and Meier learn more they ever guessed about the lives, dreams, and expectations of the Fuling people. Hessler's writing is lovely. His observations are evocative, insightful, and often poignant--and just as often, funny. It's a pleasure to read of his (mis)adventures. Hessler returned to the U.S. with a new perspective on modern China and its people. After reading River Town, you'll have one, too. --Dana Van Nest Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
 Rating:  - Worth ten stars!I am not surprised that there are over one hundred reviews of River Town. It is a superb book. If I could I would give it ten stars. The best book I have read in years. Much is written by others about this book. It is a piece of narrative non-fiction. As such it reads like a novel. A real page turner! My wife is Chinese. I have spent some time in China. But at a different place (Guangxi province) and time (ten years later). I certainly share Mr. Hessing's attitude towards the hospitality and friendliness of the Chinese people. As he mentions: it is hard to imagine that very many Americans (or Canadians) would invite an odd foreigner into their home after meeting him on the street for the first time. Although I don't ... Read More: Rating: - An excellent, apolitical pieceThis is a brilliant book. This young man came to China with an open mind and is fundamentally different from much of the young expatriate population here, both in terms of his intellingence and his goals in coming. (Typical personalities: "I'm a Loser Back at Home, but when I come to China I'm a Big Man on Mulberry Street." Another: "I'm Young and Bored and Trying to Convince Myself That There is a Communist Revolution Somewhere.") Some books that have been written have also tried specifically to address the political issues of this vast country. It is more interesting to someone who is not a professional protestor/ academic to see what happens in practice when some of the Romanticized Sacred Cows of Academics ... Read More: Rating: - Well-written, marvelous, provocative.Peter Hessler spent two years working as a Peace Corps volunteer while teaching literature in the remote Sichuan province in southern China in the late 1990's. Being one the first Peace Corps volunteers in China and possessing an intense curiosity of his new surroundings has resulted in this superb travel memoir that provides the reader with an intimate glimpse into the hill city of Fuling and the history and politics of larger China. During his stay he eyewitnessed the incredible events of the Chinese takeover of Hong Kong and the building of the Three Gorges Dam. Hessler reaches far beyond the average tourist by making a commitment to learn Mandarin and become acquainted with the locals and their individual stories. At the beginning ... Read More: Rating: - Very good readThe man is very good at observing human behavior and even better at writing about it. I was very sad when I hit the last page of this very enjoyable read. 'Nuff said! Rating: - Awesome.This spring I found myself totally engrossed in a New Yorker article by Peter Hessler. I didn't look up throughout the commute - eyes glued to the page as I navigated myself from the train onto a bus and then up the stairs to the couch of my apartment. I immediately checked out his book. What a pleasure. Hessler writes fluidly and his observations are clean and palpable. He offers up a rich book filled with the appropriate amount of selfishness and gives us a wonderful insight into modern China. I look forward to reading more books and articles by him. |
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