Behind the Wall

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a very important book - Rated
After being deeply affected by the horror encountered reading Wild Swans I really wanted to find out more about post-Mao China. What better place to look than this! Although it was written in the eighties, the book does portray flashes of hope for one of the most traumatised nations of modern history. Western influences were already creeping in then - TV, fashion, music... and people were starting to think that there is more to life than communism. (although this was not to be easily discovered!). Yet with quality of life being the poorest of the poor china still has a long way to go!

Mr Thubron has an incredibly perceptive nature. He has an amazing talent to spot a multitude of unspoken words in the tiniest change of expression on someones face, and to describe a multitude of political and emotional concepts in a single sentence. His style of writing may be cumbersome to some, but its well worth getting used to the elaborate words in order to gain one of the most profound western insights into the country imaginable.

Mr Thubron leaves no stone unturned, he remarks on the tiniest details around him and the most trivial of thoughts that would be irrelevant to most, and weaves these into the overall tapestry of his chapter. Nothing is beneath him, he really immerses himself into Chinese culture and engages with Chinese living and thinking. This is what makes him such a unique travel writer. He has so many perspectives. He writes with humour, compassion, detachment, artistic descriptiveness, political knowledge and worldly intelligence, yet he also brings a reassuring touch, human feeling that readers can connect with.

This is the nearest you can get to a virtual trip into China. His books about Russia and Siberia are just as profound, I'm looking forward to reading the rest... !