Country Driving talks about community, page after page, after page

Might observe that the last thing I expected when I downloaded COUNTRY DRIVING, A JOURNEY THROUGH CHINA FROM FARM TO FACTORY was a book about community building. And, I am not sure what Peter Hessler would think of my describing his new book this way but it is full of observations about community and particularly communities in change. You will find that link taking you to a book review by a professional book reviewer (Jonathan Taylor) and you may want to take that route. Hessler writes for THE NEW YORKER.

My thought as I picked out this read/listen was that I would learn a little about some Chinese geography that I could never have found in other ways. I did, but this book is so much more. Hessler use country driving as the vehicle for discussing the profound changes that have taken place and are taking place in China. At times as I listened I was thinking, this is how it must have been in the USA in the late 1800s and early twentieth century but it really is not. The millions of people that Hessler describes as moving from village to city are not immigrants -- they are Chinese. The millions of people he describes as having cities built right around their small little village are all Chinese -- though he notes they don't exactly see themselves that way. I found this book fascinating because Hessler, like Thomas Friedman, has a knack for telling a big story through individual persons and when you hear the story of the person, you feel the story of a people.

This is one of those books that can open discussions along many tracks. For example, did you know that 2009 was the first year that automobile sales in China exceeded automobile sales in the USA. And, as you read Hessler's book you will begin to notice that that isn't a useless factoid. And, do you have any idea where your recyclables are ending up? Hessler will tell you where, who and how. And, did you know ever really understand that the number of children you have is not up to you -- unless you decide it is up to you -- and are willing to pay the fine.

China change now seems to be almost the norm but after driving with Hessler for a couple of years you have to wonder how the Chinese psyche is adapting to the cataclysmic shift of culture that the Great Wall was erected to protect against.

This may not be a review that gives you great insight into the book but I think you will find the book giving you a thrist for more insight into how China is not only coping but is apparently succeeding in creating a new society with guanjo (favors) and a far too many cigarettes.

This really is a book about community building.