BEHIND THE WALL: A Journey Through China

by Colin Thubron ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 29, 1988

Veteran travel-writer Thubron (Travels by Car Through Western Russia, 1987) has a meticulous eye for detail, sympathy and passion for his subject here, and a writerly craving for the ""right phrase""--but, unfortunately, in this book (first published in England in 1987), China remains an extended anecdote, a distant relief-map. Thubron begins with a perfunctory tour of ""impersonal and unfinished"" Beijing, a bureaucrat's heaven, then descends via the slow, difficult Chinese railway system through the eastern seaboard: explosive Shanghai--China's commercial Sodom, which inspires Thubron's most exhilirating prose; beautiful Hangzhou, where, Thubron alleges rather unbelievably, human flesh is a restaurant delicacy; the ""garden city"" of Suzhou; colonial port city Amoy; and, finally, Canton. The latter is China's consumption capital: the markets are a culinary bestiary carrying everything frown owl to python, and ""roadside chickens"" (a.k.a. hookers) cruise downtown hotels. But Thubron's impressionistic spontaneity tends to blur rather than cohere this range of experiences. China, he admits, is a complex country in change, yet he doesn't seem to have studied its long history, its Cultural Revolution (which he explores mainly through titillating interviews with terror victims), or its present politics and policies enough to shed more than dim light. It's not enthusiasm or perception that Thubron lacks, but, finally, his book disappoints. Readers looking for a deeper, truer portrait of China should try Orville Schell's recent Discos and Democracy (p. 606).

Pub Date: Sept. 29, 1988

ISBN: 1850894671

Page Count: -

Publisher: Atlantic Monthly--dist. by Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1988

Categories: NONFICTION