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A review by emilyhan0906
Strange Stones: Dispatches from East and West by Peter Hessler
4.0
Conflicted feelings about this essay collection: many pieces are clearly meant for an audience that know little about China, necessarily sacrificing depth and nuance. In those pieces, China is nothing more than just what the title suggests, a strange stone. Especially the more newsworthy essays were significantly less interesting than pieces by local Chinese journalists from the same time period.
Having said that, the pieces on ordinary people that Hessler had time to get to know better were really fun to read. There, Hessler’s empathy and storytelling ability shine through. My favorite has to be the essay about one of his students from Fuling who became a migrant worker in Shenzhen. The one about Don the pharmacist and one about Three Gorges migrant family also clearly showed how good a writer and journalist he is.
Having said that, the pieces on ordinary people that Hessler had time to get to know better were really fun to read. There, Hessler’s empathy and storytelling ability shine through. My favorite has to be the essay about one of his students from Fuling who became a migrant worker in Shenzhen. The one about Don the pharmacist and one about Three Gorges migrant family also clearly showed how good a writer and journalist he is.