A Single Pebble

An incredibly simple, moving , not-to-ever-be -forgotten gem Read it after a 5 day (pre-dam) trip up the Yangtze on recomendation of a travel book. So aposite; it is about the laborer's life on the river. Like Buck,the simplicity of the language captures the simplicity of the thought process of the peasant. It is also an eduction in the dark, noir,beautiful past of the river. Martin J Kaplan,Ph.D.

Hershey has written a small, but very powerful book. It is full of whimsey and cultural contrasts. It entertains such questions as what is true progress. Indeed, it is a great book for group discussions.

Although published almost 50 years ago, this book deserves another look using a modern, critical lens. Overshadowed by Hersey's other works, specifically Hiroshima and A Bell for Adano, A Single Pebble offers a great deal to the reader. The book is far more than a fictionalized travelogue of a trip up the Yangtse River. It is a work that documents exposure to the acts and ideas of another culture by an American used to thinking of himself as representative of all that is modern and educated, and therefore all that is to be considered as desireable or superior. As a reader, I came away from the book with the idea that all that I think glitters may not be gold. It should be noted, however, that this is not an American-bashing book; both sides--the narrator and the Chinese people he meets--are guilty of a type of national myopia when viewing the "Other" in their midst. Those interested in Postcolonial and Cultural studies will find plenty to occupy them, whichever side of the debate they fall on.

When I recieved the list of the six books that we had to read for freshmanyear in high school I was devistated. "There goes my summer." But, fortuantley, the first book I picked up was John Hershey's "A Single Pebble." I was drawn in when I read about the American engineer who would travel through China to look for spots to build dams. Then I was touched when I met the cast of characters aboard his junk boat. The owner's wife treated the American engineer with much love, when no one else really did. This eased his homesickness. The others, such as Big Pebble, and the owner, Old Big, were mysterious characters. This book, lathough I had been to China before, helped me understand Chinese culture better. I thought that they would be open to something as useful as a dam, espically after you read all the hard times they have to go through to get through a single river and how long it takes. But I was suprised.

Set against the backdrop of the mighty Yangtze river, A Single Pebble protrays the culture shock experience by an American engineer. The book has great meaning today considering China's dubious efforts in building the Three Gorges dam on the Yangtze which will displace millions, destroy habitat, and perhaps in the end be reclaimed by the wrath of the mighty river itself.