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| Author: Peter Hessler |
In the heart of China's Sichuan province, tucked away
amid the terraced hills of the Yangtze River valley,
lies the remote town of Fuling. Like many other small
cities in this vast and ever-evolving country, Fuling
is shifting gears and heading down a new path, one of
change and vitality, tension and reform, disruption
and growth.
Its position at the crossroads came into sharp focus
when 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 ways of Fuling
-- and about the complex process of understanding that
takes 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, much like China itself, is
seeking to understand both what it was and what it someday
will be.
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From Publishers Weekly
In China, the year 1997 was marked by two momentous events: the death of
Deng Xiaoping, the country's leader for two decades, and the return of
Hong Kong after a century and a half of British rule. A young American
who spent two years teaching English literature in a small town on the
Yangtze, Hessler observed these events through two sets of eyes: his own
and those of his alter ego, Ho Wei. Hessler sees China's politics and
ceremony with the detachment of a foreigner, noting how grand political
events affect the lives of ordinary people. The passing of Deng, for example,
provokes a handful of thoughtful and unexpected essays from Hessler's
students. The departure of the British from Hong Kong sparks a conversational "Opium
War" between him and his nationalist Chinese tutor. Meanwhile, Ho
Wei, as Hessler is known to most of the townspeople, adopts a friendly
and unsophisticated persona that allows him to learn the language and
culture of his surroundings even as Hessler's Western self remains estranged.
The author conceives this memoir of his time in China as the collaborative
effort of his double identity. "Ho Wei," he writes, "left
his notebooks on the desk of Peter Hessler, who typed everything into
his computer. The notebooks were the only thing they truly shared." Yet
it's clear that, for Hessler, Ho Wei is more than a literary device: to
live in China, he felt compelled to subjugate his real identity to a character
role. Hessler has already been assured the approval of a select audience
thanks to the New Yorker's recent publication of an excerpt.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. |
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$14.95 (softcover) (originally published
in hardcover in 2001)
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