Oracle Bones
I just finished reading Oracle Bones by Peter Hessler, and my goodness: what a phenomenal book it is. Unlike Hessler's first work (the wonderful River Town), which functioned mostly as a memoir of his two years spent teaching in a small city, Oracle Bones casts a far wider net into Chinese society. Now working as a journalist in Beijing, Hessler puts a human face on several themes prevailing in contemporary China: the mass migration of peasants from west to east, the destruction of the hutong dwellings in Beijing, the national excitement over the Olympics, the plight of ethnic minorities, and the rise of the Overnight City of Shenzhen. Intertwined with these vignettes is Hessler's investigation into the origins of the Chinese language itself, as well as the various challenges Chinese archaeologists have faced over the years in trying to document their nation's long history.
Hessler's book is apolitical. He doesn't pontificate, make sweeping predictions, or offer prescriptions for what he perceives might ail his adopted homeland. Instead, he mostly watches, listens, and sympathizes, using these observational skills to present an extraordinary clear picture of today's China. A must-read.
January 28th, 2008 - 14:14
Good to hear! I read ‘River Town’ last year and for whatever reason never moved on to ‘Oracel Bones’. I’ll pick it up.
January 29th, 2008 - 04:00
What “plight of ethnic minorities” was he referring to? Couldn’t get a copy here.
January 29th, 2008 - 07:54
The Uighur. One of his characters is a Xinjiang money trader who lives in Beijing.
January 30th, 2008 - 10:52
Matt,
Hessler has a lot of interesting profiles in “Oracle Bones.” Do you remember the female late-night-radio talk-show host? (Yes, English compounds can have, on occasion, some of the same heft as German compounds). I got quite a kick out of the fact that she was inspired by the books of Henry Miller and Raymond Carver. I never would have predicted that.
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