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Review
“A fascinating road trip through a land in transition. . . . Hessler’s description of China’s new drivers is hilarious. . . . Country Driving tells us as much about contemporary China even when Hessler is not on the road.” (The Christian Science Monitor )
“The best yet from Peter Hessler, whose two earlier books, River Town and Oracle Bones, were exemplary forays into the genre. . . . Told with his characteristic blend of empathy, insight, and self-deprecating humor.” (Time )
“Peter Hessler, a modern Marco Polo crossing China in a rented Jeep Cherokee, has witnessed signs and wonders worthy of a Coen brothers film. . . . Every so often, I read a book that upends my perceptions about a place. This is one of them.” (Bloomberg News )
“Hessler has made a career of interpreting contemporary China and, for my money, nobody does it better. . . . Hessler is a magnificent guide to this largely uncharted territory, witty, insightful, keenly aware of the ironies of this communist-capitalist society.” (The Minneapolis Star Tribune )
“If you want to understand today’s China, and the forces changing it, you need to read Country Driving.” (The Huffington Post )
“Hessler is a keen observer of mind-catching details and an engaging storyteller. . . . Full of exotic detail, solid reporting, and ironic observation, Country Driving offers a personal snapshot of the world’s second superpower hurtling through the 21st century.” (The Boston Globe )
“Lively. . . . Engaging. . . . Hessler sets out with some suspect maps and a great deal of bravado. . . . He shows the effects China’s ever expanding network of roads exerts on individual lives. . . . Hessler [has an] irresistible urge to follow a story.” (The New York Times Book Review )
“Delightful. . . . Epic. . . . The reporting in Country Driving is impressive in its scope. . . . Hessler delivers eloquent disquisitions on everything from how to buy a used car in China to the history of the Mongol conquest.” (Dwight Garner, The New York Times )
“Hessler’s genius has always been in his wry commentary and ability to transcribe the rhythms of his environment onto the page. . . . From this cast of thousands emerges a picture of great hopes tinged with sadness at what is being cast aside without second thought.” (The Wall Street Journal )
“Extraordinary. . . . Country Driving, like Hessler’s previous works, tells the story of China’s transformation powerfully and poetically.” (The Economist )
“Exceptionally moving. . . . Hilarious. . . . An absolutely terrific book, at once highly entertaining and deeply instructive. . . . Country Driving is a wonderful book about China that also happens to be a terrific book about the human race. (Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post )
“The best yet from Peter Hessler, whose two earlier books, River Town and Oracle Bones, were exemplary forays into the genre. . . . Told with his characteristic blend of empathy, insight, and self-deprecating humor.” (Time )
“Peter Hessler, a modern Marco Polo crossing China in a rented Jeep Cherokee, has witnessed signs and wonders worthy of a Coen brothers film. . . . Every so often, I read a book that upends my perceptions about a place. This is one of them.” (Bloomberg News )
“Hessler has made a career of interpreting contemporary China and, for my money, nobody does it better. . . . Hessler is a magnificent guide to this largely uncharted territory, witty, insightful, keenly aware of the ironies of this communist-capitalist society.” (The Minneapolis Star Tribune )
“If you want to understand today’s China, and the forces changing it, you need to read Country Driving.” (The Huffington Post )
“Hessler is a keen observer of mind-catching details and an engaging storyteller. . . . Full of exotic detail, solid reporting, and ironic observation, Country Driving offers a personal snapshot of the world’s second superpower hurtling through the 21st century.” (The Boston Globe )
“Lively. . . . Engaging. . . . Hessler sets out with some suspect maps and a great deal of bravado. . . . He shows the effects China’s ever expanding network of roads exerts on individual lives. . . . Hessler [has an] irresistible urge to follow a story.” (The New York Times Book Review )
“Delightful. . . . Epic. . . . The reporting in Country Driving is impressive in its scope. . . . Hessler delivers eloquent disquisitions on everything from how to buy a used car in China to the history of the Mongol conquest.” (Dwight Garner, The New York Times )
“Hessler’s genius has always been in his wry commentary and ability to transcribe the rhythms of his environment onto the page. . . . From this cast of thousands emerges a picture of great hopes tinged with sadness at what is being cast aside without second thought.” (The Wall Street Journal )
“Extraordinary. . . . Country Driving, like Hessler’s previous works, tells the story of China’s transformation powerfully and poetically.” (The Economist )
“Exceptionally moving. . . . Hilarious. . . . An absolutely terrific book, at once highly entertaining and deeply instructive. . . . Country Driving is a wonderful book about China that also happens to be a terrific book about the human race. (Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post )
Book Description
From the bestselling author of Oracle Bones and River Town comes the final book in his award-winning trilogy, on the human side of the economic revolution in China.
In the summer of 2001, Peter Hessler, the longtime Beijing correspondent for The New Yorker, acquired his Chinese driver's license. For the next seven years, he traveled the country, tracking how the automobile and improved roads were transforming China. Hessler writes movingly of the average people—farmers, migrant workers, entrepreneurs—who have reshaped the nation during one of the most critical periods in its modern history.
Country Driving begins with Hessler's 7,000-mile trip across northern China, following the Great Wall, from the East China Sea to the Tibetan plateau. He investigates a historically important rural region being abandoned, as young people migrate to jobs in the southeast. Next Hessler spends six years in Sancha, a small farming village in the mountains north of Beijing, which changes dramatically after the local road is paved and the capital's auto boom brings new tourism. Finally, he turns his attention to urban China, researching development over a period of more than two years in Lishui, a small southeastern city where officials hope that a new government-built expressway will transform a farm region into a major industrial center.
Peter Hessler, whom The Wall Street Journal calls "one of the Western world's most thoughtful writers on modern China," deftly illuminates the vast, shifting landscape of a traditionally rural nation that, having once built walls against foreigners, is now building roads and factory towns that look to the outside world.
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Most helpful customer reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best description of contemporary China I have read,
By
This review is from: Country Driving: A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory (Hardcover)
I am a Sinophile (three visits starting in 2007; studying Chinese, etc.), so I've read dozens of books about contemporary China in the last three years. This is the best. And there are some great books out there: Susan Shirk's book on Chinese politics (China: Fragile Superpower); Fuchsia Dunlap's amusing and insightful view of China from a culinary perspective (Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper); Nicole Mones' excellent Chinese fiction (especially Lost in Translation); the Inspector Chen mystery series by Qiu Xiaolong; and Sam Goodman's book on doing business in China (Where East Eats West). But no book I've read better captures the contradictions and complexities of contemporary reality in China.Don't let the title fool you. Only the first part uses Hessler's driving experiences throughout China as a focus. The first part is wildly amusing as he recounts China's adaptation to the automobile, from roadside statutes of traffic policeman (in lieu of actual police), to his car rental's agency requirement that the gas tank be brought back in exactly the same condition as it left (if you get 3/8 of a tank, that's what they want back), to the habit of settling traffic accidents through on the spot financial settlements between drivers. The second part is the best description of Chinese village life I have yet read. In addition to living in Beijing, Hessler rented a second home in a completely undeveloped village around 100 miles outside of China. He is completely fluent in Chinese and over time became intimate with the villagers and the rhythms of country life. What makes this part of the book fascinating is that the village he lived in, Sancha, became integrated with greater Beijing to some degree over the course of the book, so the book actually recounts the process by which a completely rural town began to adopt the customs of larger cities, capturing the inevitable gains and losses in the process. The third part of the book is set in Zhejiang province and captures what life is like in a Chinese factory, viewed from the microcosm of a small factory making part of the wiring for brassieres (Hessler's ability to capture details like this is amazing). He uses this setting to capture the aspirations of peasants moving from the farm to factory life, the relations of business to government, the politics and mechanics of redevelopment, the entrepeneurial process in China, and a host of other issues that are brillantly translated into practical (and humorous) terms in this last part. I can't overpraise the book. This is essential reading for anyone trying to make sense of China. Country Driving: A Journey Through China From Farm To Factory
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A good listener to roadside locals,
By
This review is from: Country Driving: A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory (Hardcover)
I think Hessler is the best kind of journalist, and the opposite of a sensationalist. He just hangs out with local people and conveys their struggles to completely change things. He must be a friendly guy to be allowed such access to people's family and business lives. They let him listen in as they conduct job interviews, discipline kids, handle tax inspectors, plan factories from the ground up, or have dinner with their families.Part of the book concerns road trips. But most of it is about getting to know groups of ordinary people. Their intense pragmatism and determination to improvise give Hessler his opening to learn. We see how development areas are funded, how factories are thrown together, how police buy shares in speed traps, and traveling circus shows operate outside the law. Mostly, Hessler shows us common people taking huge risks, flying by the seats of their pants, making mistakes that are both dangerous and hilarious, clawing their way to a slightly better day.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
A boook I will read again,
By C. J. Thompson "Arctic John" (Pond Inlet, Nunavut Canada) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Country Driving: A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory (Hardcover)
I have an interest in many things Chinese and I enjoy reading about the experiences of others who have traveled or lived there. Paul Theroux has given me a great glimpse into this enigmatic country as it existed in the 1980's (Riding the Iron Rooster), and Simon Winchester followed up with a look at life along the Yangtze in the 1990's in The River At The Center Of The World. As a matter of fact, Hessler himself also wrote about China in the 1990's in River Town: Two Years On The Yangtze, but he has now given us a great expose on the new and fast-changing China in the new millenium. I cannot help but feel, after reading this book, that Theroux would scarcely be able to recognize the country he wrote about two decades ago. The pictures Hessler paints of Chinese life is colorful and fascinating and I now intend to purchase and read his other 'Chinese' book entitled Oracle Bones: A Journey Through Time In China. There were a few parts of the book that I found just slightly uninteresting (the detailed look at the automotive industry, comes to mind), but these parts were more than balanced by sections that were hugely entertaining and often humorous.
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