In the heart of China's Sichuan province, amid the terraced hills of the Yangtze River valley, lies the remote town of Fuling. Like many other small cities in this ever-evolving country, Fuling is heading down a new path of change and growth, which came into remarkably sharp focus when Peter Hessler arrived as a Peace Corps volunteer, marking the first time in more than half a century that the city had an American resident. Hessler taught English and American literature at the local college, but it was his students who taught him about the complex processes of understanding that take place when one is immersed in a radically different society.

Poignant, thoughtful, funny, and enormously compelling, River Town is an unforgettable portrait of a city that is seeking to understand both what it was and what it someday will be.

Amazon.com Review
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 Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 165 reviews)

beautifully written

This is a wonderful book. The book follows Peter Hessler through his two years teaching English in a small teaching college in a small town in China. It's interesting to read as Peter gets more and more comfortable with the environment and language. In fact, one of the things that's so special about this book is that the author and location essentially stay the same throughout. The book's movement comes through layering and rediscovery as the author becomes more-and-more familiar with the people, language, and culture. I tend to find books like this (i.e. authors immersed in a new culture) somewhat unsatisfying since I think they often become either comedies with eccentric characters or they become more about self-exploration than anything else. This book has neither of these failings. It's simply an account of the author's experiences, impressions, and limitations as he becomes more-and-more a part of the community. The people are three-dimensional and I felt like I got a little understanding of the culture as I met more-and-more of them and started seeing patterns.
December 24, 2008

Peter Hessler chronicles growth and change in China (and himself)

China is indeed currently undergoing the largest, fastest modernization and transformation of a major country in human history. The scale of change in all areas (buildings, infrastructure, geography, economics, social, cultural) is vast. Yet the current transformation is but one in a series of major historical changes in the past century, as China has gone from empirical rule through civil war to the expulsion of foreign colonial influences, to the excesses of communism including the Cultural Revolution, to the current transformation, officially called "Reform and Opening".

What does this change look like on the "ground level" of average Chinese citizens, and how do they feel about it? What tensions and conflicts arise as the Chinese people are forced to (again) change their attitudes, behaviors and values? What beliefs and practices persist through the change? What might all this change lead to for these people? These are the questions that interest Peter Hessler, and that he focuses on in "River Town".

After completing graduate studies, Hessler signs up for a two year stint in the Peace Corps, and is assigned to teach English literature to Chinese teachers-in-training at a college in a relatively small, out of the way Yangtze River city. "River Town" chronicles these two years of Hessler's life, as he explores the city, learns Mandarin, and tries to get to know as many different people as possible. I found "River Town" to be a fascinating book, as Hessler does a superb job of describing people's thoughts and actions, and putting them into the greater context of China's politics, culture and the ongoing transformation of the country. The stories Hessler includes are engaging and entertaining, and sometimes funny. Hessler has a real love for the Chinese people (although not for many aspects of the political system), and it shows in his writing.

I read Hessler's second China book ("Oracle Bones") first, and thoroughly enjoyed each. Although it is preferable to read the first book first, I don't feel I missed out on much by reading them in reverse order. If you only have the time or inclination to read one, I recommend "River Town" as the slightly better of the two, but both are highly enjoyable and educational.

November 21, 2008

China, both Complex and Fascinating

I picked up this book whilst on a business trip in China. It tells the tale of a 26yr old American Graduate (Peter Hessler) heading to rural China for 2yrs to help teach English. His portrayal of China is beautiful, complex and fascinating. You learn a little of how the people are influenced by the communist regime, their lifestyles, attitudes to the western world and of course their inner beauty. You can almost inhale the Chinese environment as he navigates you from industrial China with it's bellowing smog to the natural beauty of the rugged landscapes. Where this book wins for me is it's portrayal of the Chinese people, warm, curious and captivating. If you have a passing interest in Chinese culture, then you should read this. A very easy and enjoyable read.
October 20, 2008

The Adventure of an American in China

Peter Hessler is today a well known American correspondent and free lance journalist living in Beijing. He has written two books and many articles on modern China and can be defined ad an "Old China hand", an honorary title given to Chinese speaking foreigners who truly understand the country, which even in this era of globalization knows how to keep many of its secrets.
River Town was published in 2001, after a two year experience (1996-1998) as a Peace Corps English teacher in Sichuanese Fuling, a city on the Yangtze River that has since been transformed by the Three Gorges Dam activated in 2003.
The book is a Bildungsroman or better "Bildungsmemoir" centered on the relationship that builds up between a man and a country. Even though many other have lived through similar experiences, no one has attempted the same type of identification and empathic comprehension of the impacted culture or has shown the honesty of this Author. In some ways he reminds us of Hearn, the American who became Japanese in the Nineteenth Century.
Young Peter in over 400 pages goes through cultural shock, frustration of being seen as a "waigouren" (foreigner), true episodes of physical and verbal aggression, great satisfaction in his teaching experience of mostly peasant born college students, a moment of glory during a 4 km race and basically all his life experiences in two years. But the main characteristics that make this book such a joy to read are the Authors curiosity, honesty, irony, all signs of his great intelligence and the precise rendition of the sense of place and of the Chinese mentality in all its hues. The impression is that of living with a friend. However the book is also a travelogue and a socialogue because it goes into the geography, landscapes, historical sites and history of Sichuan, the Yangtze River and a few other places visited in China during the two years, together with the analysis of the rapidly transforming Chinese society. These aspects are very interesting and make the book especially valuable, since the Yangtze River region and population have changed from the activation of the Three Gorges Dam. This longstanding important landscape modifying project is explained and described in depth, evaluating the pro's and con's considering also the Fuling's inhabitants surprisingly calm and passive reaction to this epochal transformation. At one point Hessler visits the Water Crane Ridge an important Tang Dynasty monument and a landscape mark that today is completely underwater and in a few years will be destroyed by the river sediments.
Since other reviewers have inserted personal reasons for relating to the book. I want to communicate a very personal reason. Hessler tells of how his grandfather, then a Benedictine monk, went to Rome to study in the S. Anselm Abbey and he met a monk returning from China who inflamed his spirit with the wish of working there. Well I live right next to the Abbey and daily see monks from all over the world that carry stories of other countries.
Another episode that remains in my memory is when Hessler's visiting father speaks Latin (the last Century's pass partout language) with the Chinese priest and he is excluded from the conversation. There is a similar beautiful episode in Primo Levi's "The Truce" were the Author liberated from concentration camp after WWII, not knowing the language of the country he is traveling through can only communicate with a priest in Latin asking for something to eat.
Communication is a guideline of this beautiful book: English/Chinese, Chinese/English, Latin/Chinese, through the teaching of literature (do the Chinese identify or understand Hamlet? They don't. What if Robin Hood came to China? Redistribution of riches and justice is rather complicated.) and theatre (Shakespeare's plays re-enacted in China). The endless conversations, sitting in parks and in restaurants, striking up a discussion in trains and during trekking in the hills, relating life stories of the many people he met all build up the texture of the book. What comes through as we get to know Hessler is his determination, honesty and the satisfaction of his success in mastering the language.
I really loved this book and I recommend reading Hessler's other book "Oracle Bones" and his many articles that can be found on line (one of them on China's perspective on Tibet is really mind opening).

September 06, 2008

River Town

Reading this narrative, one feels a sense of both Mr. Hessler's sense of adverture and his eye for detail in all things. His sense of humor is crisp and dry. Having just returned from China myself, I can vouch for his extraordinarily accurate descriptions,even in spots where the armchair traveller would shake his head in disbelief. And I was immediately transported back to the Yangtze River--I could smell it, see it, and observe the uniquely Chinese character of everything around. His ability to capture the essence of Chinese personality and expression while avoiding stereotype is amazing. When I left, I thought that there was something, well, different about all Chinese, not a racial thing but a cultural and perhaps historical thing. But I could not really say what it was. Fortunately for me and for all readers who enjoy travel and cultural subjects, there is this book.
September 06, 2008

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