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Summary: Interesting View of Modern China...
Review: Peter Hesslers River Town provides a unique view on an increasingly important part of the world. China is viewed as neither a competitor nor partner. Hessler describes his two years in the Peace Corps as an inside observer, without passing judgement on the people or the system but at the same time expressing the frustration he feels as a foreigner. If anything, I think he shows how little the typical American knows about China. River Town gives us a picture of the people and culture of a Chinese city, Fuling, and recounts events that an average American gives a moment?s notice. But things like the Chinese governments Three Gorges Project dam project, and the death of Deng Xiaoping, have profound effects on the people and create enlightening interactions between he and his students. More than the events that occur during his two-year stint as an English teacher, the people he lives with fascinated me. Over time the people of Fuling begin to accept the presence of "Ho Wei", as he is known, and open up to him as much as they can to a foreigner. Hessler uses this opportunity to explore the history and societal environment that effects modern Chinese culture. He depicts an interesting picture of the people of Fuling and his Chinese students: a confused transition between the communist teachings of Mao and the wealth that can be made in newly reacquired Hong Kong.
Rating: 
Summary: River Town
Review: Instead of taking a trip to China to learn about their culture, just read River Town by Peter Hessler. Experiences of the modern Chinese culture will become alive through the pages of the novel. By being an English teacher in the small town of Fuling, Hessler points out the many differences between the American and Chinese culture, while also taking note on the beautiful scenery of China. One of the things that he notes is that in the Chinese culture, family obedience is most important, while the American culture focuses more on individuality. Hessler also humorously points out how the American culture is portrayed through the eyes of the Chinese. I recommend this book to anyone who likes to travel and learn about the rest of the world, or to simply enjoy a well-written novel.
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Summary: An Excellent Read
Review: I just finished River Town and found it to be absolutely fascinating. I couldn't put it down and read most of the book in one sitting. Peter Hessler provides a wonderful depiction of his life as an English teacher in a small town in China. He depicts his students, friends, the cadres, the citizens of Fuling, and the small town itself in such a way that they come to life. The cultural differences between China and the United States are starkly represented. His tales of adjusting to life in place where foreigners are rarely seen and often treated in a way that Americans (or westerners in general) would deem rude, are both touching and amusing. I highly recommend this book to anyone: whether you are looking for a book for it's historical value, it entertainment worth, or it's political insight. River Town is brilliantly all three and much more.
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Summary: It brought it all back
Review: As one who lived in China teaching English on a university campus for one academic year, and also as one who had the memorable experience of a cruise on the Yangtze, I found this book a true delight. It brought back wonderful memories of choice experiences with students (I wished I could have done "high fives" with the author)and allowed me to relive the sound, the feel and the sights of the river trip. The author with great sensitivity has put into words much of what is unique, deeply satisfying and also exhilerating about life among these remarkable and soul-touching Chinese people.
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Summary: great portrait of rural China
Review: Imagine being thrown into a small town in the remote area of China, where you are one of the only two foreigners in town, you don't speak Chinese, no train or flight reaches the town, and you willb e there for two years. It could be tough life, but Peter Hessler made the best out of the experience. This book is his story of living in Fuling, a poor, dirty, small town (by Chinese standard) on the bank of Yangtze River, where he spent two years teaching at the local college. Many people will find the stories in the book funny, and will be amazed by Hessler's beautiful writing and his ability to observe details in the daily life of the local people. But to me, a native Chinese, what's impressive is the lack of arrogance and lack of judgment in the book that strikes me. Hessler observes the local people, he tries to understand how history and the environment shaped the personalities and the culture, but he does not judge. And believe me, this is not an easy feat. Granted, this book focuses only on Fuling, and as a result does not provide a comprehensive picture of modern China. But this is a valuable addition to the many books that already exist particularly because it is about a remote area of China that not many people know about. In a sense, Fuling is a more accurate representation of modern China than Beijing is. As someone from Beijing, I think the difference between Beijing and Fuling is much bigger than the difference between Beijing and New York City. But few cities in China are like Beijing, hundreds are like Fuling. The major weakness of the book is in its interpretation and analysis of Chinese politics and current events. The events mentioned in the book (for example, the Three Gorges Dam) are usually more complicated than Hessler's description. This is understandable--China is a complex country, and two years' time will only allow a superficial understanding of it. So I wouldn't suggest readers to take this book seriously as a history or politics or current events book. But it's a darn good travel monologue.
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Summary: Hessler update
Review: To answer the reader who wondered about where the author is now, I can tell you he lives in Beijing and writes for The New Yorker. The book is a joy to read, with chapters that investigate various parts of life in China (and could stand on their own) woven through a narrative that shows how his outlook changed the longer he spent in the country.
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Summary: Like a Two Year stopover on your Yangtze River cruise
Review: By now there must be tens of thousands of us who have cruised the Yangtze River, in the luxury of the Chinese River Boats, wondering what life is really like in those hundreds of towns along the river bank. Here's a book by someone who knows. A Peace Corps volunteer who spent two years teaching. I highly recommend it to anyone who has taken the Yangtze River Cruise or has plans to.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: I am not an expert on China but have lived and travelled extensively in countries undergoing rapid social and economic change. This book provides an excellent introduction to life in a small Chinese City which is off the beaten track for foreigners, as well as the surrounding country side. Hessler teaches English in a teacher's college in which most students are from a village back ground. The book is not only very well written with beautiful descriptions of everday scenes and events in the daily life of the college and the town, but it also provides many insights into a complex and changing culture. I recommend this book highly to anybody who wants a view of every day life in modern China.
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Summary: River Town - A Magnificent Book
Review: On October, I had a one month trip to China that included Sichuan province. The beautiful scenery, the dusty smell, the people and their strange reaction to foreigners - everything came back to me while I was reading Hessler's book. I read it for two days without putting it down. Reading with enlarging interest the stories and thoughts that Hessler had during his stay in Fuling, laughing so much at events that he had in the college were he was teaching and especially understanding (a bit) more about the unique Chinese character. But above all I was admiring and envying Hessler for the great adventure that he had and wrote of, with such a great talent. I recommend this book to every one that was in China and wants to remember and to every body that wants to go to China and like to know more before his journey.
Rating:
Summary: Almost superb but with odd omissions
Review: Excellent writers praise this book as extravagantly as I would have after having read the first half. The descriptions of the countryside in particular are superb. Then questions began to arise, and I concluded that this is written by a pious man, for precocious children. If in those two years the author of this highly autobiographical account ever succumbed to or struggled with sexual impulses, he omitted mention. Certainly any normal young man would have had them, and recognized their importance in evaluating his response to the sights and sounds he encountered and recounted. His few allusions to even hints of Chinese women's sexual interest are, almost without exception, contemptuous dismissal of prostitutes. Not, perhaps, too remote from the above: I believe that the word "stink" was used a few times, and nightsoil was mentioned, but not the toilet on a long train ride. The relation of the associated stench was never drawn , and was never absent in any experience or discussion of life in China in which I participated. The "outhouses"--even for tourists at many sites, were unforgettably pungent. A more striking omission, for me, was Hessler's failure to relate--perhaps to experience--full appreciation of the awe to which the Great River gives rise in its majesty, its power, and especially its history. The subtitle of his book focusses our attention on it, but in contrast to his account of village life, what he writes about the Yangtze is shallow and superficial. Hessler is, obviously, a scholar. He should read Bodard's "The Consul," about life on the YangTze a century ago. In ten pages of this old book, I found more emotional power and more graphic description than in all of "River Town."
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