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| Oracle Bones: A Journey Through Time in China (P.S.) | 
 enlarge | Author: Peter Hessler
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Category: Book
List Price: $15.95
Buy New: $4.50
You Save: $11.45 (72%)
Buy New/Used/Collectible from $4.30
Avg. Customer Rating:  (27 reviews)
Sales Rank: 9953
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 528
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.4 x 1.2
ISBN: 0060826592
Dewey Decimal Number: 951
EAN: 9780060826598
ASIN: 0060826592
Publication Date: May 1, 2007
Release Date: May 8, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 A brilliant commentary on modern China November 4, 2007
14 out of 14 found this review helpful
Nothing particular in Peter Hessler's middle-American Missouri background particularly fits him to be a brilliant commentator on modern China. In college at Princeton and later at Oxford he studied English and creative writing, focusing largely on fiction. His first contact with China was a trans-Siberian train trip in 1994, which ignited an interest in travel writing. When he arrived in the Yangtze River town of Fuling two years later as a volunteer English teacher for the Peace Corps, he spoke no Chinese. By the time Oracle Bones was published in 2006, Hessler, who has lived in Beijing since leaving the Peace Corps, had become an accomplished Chinese speaker with a wide-ranging knowledge of both traditional and modern Chinese society. And yes, he is a brilliant commentator on modern China. This book picks up where his first book, River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze (P.S.), leaves off.
Oracle Bones is loosely built around a trio of narrative themes that spin out independently: the lives of several of his students after they leave school and enter the Chinese workforce; the struggle of his Uighur friend Polat, a Muslim dissident, to succeed first in Beijing and then in the United States; and his research into the life of Chen Mengjia, an oracle bone scholar who committed suicide during the Cultural Revolution.
Hessler's life in China is organized loosely around clipping articles for the Wall Street Journal, writing news and features for the Boston Globe, and writing articles for the New Yorker, in all three cases about China. The cost of living is so low in Beijing compared to the US that he has plenty of money to travel around the country visiting former students, camping out at the Great Wall (and getting arrested in the process), journeying in Xinjiang, the home territory of the Uighur Muslim minority, flying to Taiwan to visit a retired professor who studied oracle bones with Chen Mengjia during the Kuomintang period, and even visiting the set of a Chinese Western movie on the north rim of the Tarim Basin, at the edge of the Flaming Mountains. Periodically Hessler flies back to the States to visit family and later his Uighur friend Polat who is living in Washington, DC after receiving asylum from the US government.
The book follows several recurrent themes related to the study of modern China, notably, the changes in Chinese society since Deng Xiaoping's Reform and Opening, particularly the migration of young people from the countryside to overnight factory cities such as Shenzhen (in the Pearl River area) and the growing gap between the perspectives of the young and the old. In Hessler's narrative we see educated young people abandoning families and traditional lifestyles for the more lucrative, faster-paced life of the new cities. Among middle-aged people Hessler finds the ghosts of the Rightist denunciations of the 50s and the Cultural Revolution of the 60s lurking just beneath the surface. The very old recall traditional China in the unstable years under the Kuomintang.
It's my hope that Peter Hessler will continue his Chinese narrative in another, yet-unwritten book. The Chinese story is changing yearly now, and Hessler's perceptive eyes and ears are recording all of it. I eagerly await his next installment.
 Oracle Bones : a journey through time November 2, 2007
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I'm preparing for a month's journey to China and I found this book a great introduction to China, it's people and it's customs. It is well written and interesting. It should be on the required reading list for anyone going to China.
Deeper understanding of China October 18, 2007
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
This is a great read for anyone but especially those who have lived or spent a significant period of time in China. Hessler gives the story behind the story to several parts of China. He's got a keen understanding of China that I really appreciated and learned from.
Great read...at once both epic and personal. October 16, 2007
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
I really enjoyed this book from every angle. The individual chapter length makes for great bedtime reading - one chapter a night. It blends epic Chinese history with wonderful personal accounts of the present. Very informative of the subtleties of modern day Chinese culture and how the events of the past have affected the present.
I am currently reading Hessler's other book, River Town, which he wrote prior to Oracle Bones. It is amazing to see how his narrative storytelling has improved. Oracle Bones is very cleverly crafted and he writes with a confident, mature voice (but River Town is still quite good).
Oracle Bones combines all the best elements of history, personal accounts, travel writing and social analysis in one book. I believe there is something enjoyable for everyone in this book, and his self-deprecating humor as a stranger in a strange land keeps the mood light.
Don't miss this book. August 6, 2007
68 out of 69 found this review helpful
Having read and enjoyed Hessler's first book, and because I am an ESOL teacher, I looked forward to receiving this one. Since I am not a history buff, the book provided me a good overview of the past of an emerging world power without ever becoming tedious with names and dates. The ancient past is covered, and the major eras of the twentieth century are presented from different points of view, so that a feel for the lives of modern Chinese people emerges without "studying" the main events which shaped their lives. The description (above, by the publisher) of the book is totally apt; it weaves past and present with stories of interesting, ordinary people, including one who emigrates to the U.S. I read many books and have a high literary standard. Hessler meets it. He is an informed, well-researched story-teller with a true artist's eye and ear. His attention to detail delights. While he does not aim for poetry, he writes with a graceful precision that is almost poetic. I found every part of this book fascinating. One caveat: nothing here is wasted, so pay attention to each character; the reappearances of many characters give the book rare depth and fullness. You may be disappointed only if you have already studied China extensively; I am fairly well-informed in general but wanted to learn more about this country. Oracle Bones provided both information and insight. I found it to be one of the most satisfying books I have ever read in any category.
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