Featured Book: River Town -- Peter Hessler

River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze -- Peter Hessler


Publisher: Harper Perennial
Format: Trade paperback
Pages: 416 pages
Published: 2001

Synopsis: In 1996, 26-year-old American Peter Hessler relocated to a small town on the Yangtze River in China, as part of a Peace Corps mission. There, he taught English at a local college, learned Chinese, reached out to the community, and immersed himself in recording his experiences and observations, which became this book.

Review: Travelogues are a tricky genre, an arena in which there are two competing forces for the reader's attention: the narrator and the place. A successful travelogue is one in which both forces are compelling. Too many travelogues are dulled by a fantastic sense of place but an obnoxious narrator, especially a foreigner who bumbles into a new locale and demands joy and satisfaction without paying due respect. This is especially true when it comes to westerners traveling in developing countries, as is the case in this book, when Peter Hessler goes to China in 1996. The 90s were a turning point in Chinese history, an uneasy threshold between post-Mao China in poverty and a China gearing up to become the developing powerhouse it is today.

As someone who grew up partly in China during the 90s, Hessler captures a slice of a China that I remember from my childhood. Hessler isn't concerned with the grand political machinations of Beijing. Rather, he brings us to a small town on the Yangtze, exposing provincial life and the everyday experiences of his students as they learn English and dream for the future. There are several interesting characters that Hessler comes across, each with their own story to tell, and each student navigating their own precarious position in the new and emerging China.

Hessler is a sensitive, charming writer. He is personable without being judgemental, and his genuine desire to reach into the lives of his Chinese students and understand them makes him an excellent narrator. He isn't without his preconceptions, but he recognizes his own biases. He's respectful of the culture he enters, but he isn't afraid to point out negatives as well. For one, Hessler lived in a part of China where he was the first foreigner many locals ever saw, and he drew attention, good and bed, wherever he went.

I've read a number of travelogues similar to this one, stories about Americans who embark on Peace Corps-type missions and write down their experiences of cultures vastly different from their own. Many are flops, but some, such as this one, are rare successes.

 - N.S