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ricksilva's review against another edition
4.0
The author, Jean Fritz, was born in what is now Hankou, China, in 1915, and lived there with her American parents until age 13. She went on to write the Newbery Honor book Homesick, about her childhood there. I haven't read Homesick, but found this follow-up to be interesting enough that I plan to seek it out.
China Homecoming details the author's efforts to travel back to China in the mid-1980s. Accompanied by her husband, she uncovered many childhood memories in the Hankou and Wuhan area, while getting a chance to explore how the China of her childhood had changed after about half a century, much of it spent in war and hardship.
Much of the book is a fairly straightforward travelogue, but the author's enthusiasm really won me over. This is very much a love-letter to the city of Wuhan (which made it a particularly compelling read at this time), and there is a great sense of wonder and discovery in even the simplest details.
Fritz also does a good job of incorporating Chinese history into the narrative, and she does not shy away from the realities of war and the Cultural Revolution. There are not a lot of twists or what would be considered major plot developments, but there are lots of unexpected and touching small moments.
China Homecoming details the author's efforts to travel back to China in the mid-1980s. Accompanied by her husband, she uncovered many childhood memories in the Hankou and Wuhan area, while getting a chance to explore how the China of her childhood had changed after about half a century, much of it spent in war and hardship.
Much of the book is a fairly straightforward travelogue, but the author's enthusiasm really won me over. This is very much a love-letter to the city of Wuhan (which made it a particularly compelling read at this time), and there is a great sense of wonder and discovery in even the simplest details.
Fritz also does a good job of incorporating Chinese history into the narrative, and she does not shy away from the realities of war and the Cultural Revolution. There are not a lot of twists or what would be considered major plot developments, but there are lots of unexpected and touching small moments.
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