Book Review - Country Driving, by Peter Hessler

Country Driving is Peter Hessler’s third book on China, following on from the award winning River Town (2001) and Oracle Bones (2006). The book is split into three sections, all loosely based around the theme of driving. In the first section, he drives a 4*4 across North China, tracing the Great Wall, both physically and historically. The second section documents the years he spent living in a small village two hours north of Beijing. In the third section, he spends time in an economic development zone in the southern province of Zhejiang, getting to know the people and the region.

For anyone who has read the previous two books, they will know Hessler is an elegant and meticulous writer, and Country Driving is another triumph. Trained at Princeton and Oxford, Hessler shows us again the refined style that is the hallmark of his work. For a book on China, this is another must-read, superior to many of these ‘where is China going’ or ‘cracking the enigma of China’ books. By just living there and talking to people and working hard on his stories, he understands a great deal about the country, and presents it in a fashion familiar to those with and without experience of living in China.

I find a lot of books about China tend to be quite ‘shouty’, where the author goes out of his way to look for things that can be exaggerated to show the difference and/or similarity with his own country. This tends to overplay or underplay certain issues. In what can be quite a manic country, Hessler’s writing has a tremendously calming effect, with no hyperbole and few sweeping and unfounded generalisations, producing a very nuanced and accurate appreciation of China and his subjects.

Besides the elegant prose, another feature of Hessler’s writing is the time he spent on his projects. He has certainly been there, done that, and got the T shirt. The book covers a period of around 6 years. As he rightly notes, for a foreigner looking to accomplish something in China, the biggest investment is time. He spent a long time in China, and knows his subjects extremely well.

In writing this type of book, it’s very easy to be judgemental, and Hessler is refreshingly free from such statements. He displays a meekness not generally associated with his countryman. His research on issues such as the Great Wall and the developmental zone in section three is thorough and sensibly arranged alongside personal stories. Statements such as ‘for some reason’, or ‘who knows why…’ do not appear in the book. Everything in the book is researched as much as possible. For example, speed cameras on Chinese highways - it might sound simple enough, but finding out the real deal in China is often time consuming and very difficult, but Hessler sticks at it.

Anyone who has been to a developmental zone in China might find it hard to write something interesting about it. However, Hessler delves deeper, beyond the faceless concrete and steel, to talk to the people involved, understand the behind-the-scenes, and produce a rounded account of this time spent there. This type of ‘fieldwork’, done with an open mind and sense of curiosity, is certainly very conducive to appreciating China (or anywhere else for that matter). He tends to steer clear of political issues. Yet, funnily enough, by taking a sort of anthropological, detached view of his subjects and speaking to them in depth, he actually has a very, very sound understanding of general trends in the ‘macro’ issues facing China today.

Like many Westerners in China, he also has an eye for the absurd, and tells stories such as meeting Chairman Mao on an aeroplane and the driving licence test questions in a fairly centrist fashion, allowing the reader to see the funny side for themselves. Many of his personal tales are presented in this low-key, matter-of-fact way, which allows the inherent interest of them to shine through. It’s not laugh out loud material, but certainly makes for fine reading.

There is nothing particularly ground breaking about this book. Anyone who has spent a long time in China and makes an effort to get to know people around him will identify with everything Hessler says. What Hessler does, though, is combine this knowledge with great writing. This book is a winner on all accounts.