Good Travel Writing

books:


	• River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze (P.S.) Peter Hessler Harper Perennial, 2006 - 432 pages average customer review:based on 161 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Good Travel Writing

I originally purchased this book because of my interest in the Peace Corps. It is more than just an account of life as a Peace Corps volunteer, it is an account of life in modern rural China. I did find it a little slow moving but such is the life of a Peace Corps volunteer and it is a good read nonetheless. This is a great book for anyone interested in China or in travel writing.

The real China

This is truly a classic. A wonderfully detailed close-up look at the real China. Peter Hessler is a master writer This is a book to be recommended to everyone.

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Fantastic

"River Town" is not only an entertaining read but an educational one as well. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in China, travel, Peace Corps, or biographies. I was very impressed with Hessler's writing and I can't wait to read his new book "Oracle Bones"

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Up A Buzy River

I have been to China twice, the first being in 1989 -- right at the beginning of the era when Americans could visit most parts of China without being part of an organized tour. My wife made arrangements for us to fly to Guangzhou for two days, thence to Wuhan for two days, and from there a 1000-mile Yangtze river trip to Chongqing for two days (where there were already student demonstrations), ending up in Beijing for a week, our hotel being only a couple of blocks from the Tien An Men Square demonstrations, during which we were confined to our hotel. On that Yangtze trip, our river boat stopped at the little village of Fuling, allowing the passengers to roam there for a short while. Thus, when I happened across this book about that village, written by a Peace Corps volunteer, I could hardly wait to read it.

Author Peter Kessler, son of professors, is from my home State of Missouri. Being a writer was his High School dream, and he joined the Peace Corps in 1996 probably for the usual humanitarian and idealistic motives, having behind him a degree in English from Princeton followed by a Rhodes scholarship. So he was certainly well prepared to teach English literature in a small, out-of-the-way rural Teachers College for two years. The book relates his varied and extremely interesting experiences over the course of a year.

The Peace Corps gave Peter the basics of conversational Chinese, and he assiduously studies that language while teaching, assisted of course by his social intercourse with his students and with his Chinese colleagues. And his students were evidently equipped with about that same level of expertise with English. The stories that arise from the resulting linguistic "near-blind leading the near-blind" are very humorous, as you can imagine. The vignettes of life in China are insightful, humorous, credulous, and filled with his clear sense that he was doing what he wanted and thought useful. Accounts of his relationships with students and faculty are delicious.

I give this a rating of 5 despite the inability of the author to practice what he surely must have warned his students against in his assigned writing assignments: grammatical improprieties such as, "he can run faster than me" and "(they) speak better Chinese than me." There are English professors who label this comment picky and an impediment to creativity, and to them I plead guilty, though I think they are just plain wrong. Never mind, for otherwise the writing is fine.

The author has published a sequel to this book, Oracle Bones, and I will read it as soon as I can, partly because I want to learn what the title really means, but also because I want to read more by Peter Kessler, especially material about China.

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Well Done

Very well written. Enjoyable reading. Interesting look inside the small town feelings of the Chinese people. Looking forward to reading Peter Heller's next book Oracle Bones.

reviews: 1, 2, 3, page 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13

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