Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-06-03

Mr.. Hersey's new novel. A
not like anything he has writ
ten. 1t is a story of China in
the 1920s.
This was long before the
Red regime. But the story is
not concerned with govern
ments 1t is so timeless in its
conception of simple, primitive
life among some river people
that it might as well have
happened a thousand years
ago.
American Engineer
A young American engineer
tells the story. He has been
commissioned by a great firm
Of contractors to 60 up the
Yangtze River, study the
gorges and report on the FEAST
bility of trying to sell the
Chinese government on the
idea of building a dam that
would control the floods, with
their fearful tolls. and provide
power for a vast hydro-electric
development.
At Ichang the American con-
sui advises the young man to
take native junk up the river
and the consul arrangeS pass
age. The narrator is the only
foreigner aboard. The junk's
sails propel her while the
Great River, as the Chinese
call it. is broad, but when they
enter the gorges, moving
through a landscape, the
engineer recalls. 'of such Wild
ness as I had never before even
imagined" the sails are USE
less. Trackers must move the
craft, with tow lines from
ashore where possible: when
the walls Of the narrow stream
are too steep. from aboard the
junk with poles.
There is the owner, called
the Old Big: the head tracker,
known as the Noise Suppress
sor,, the owners pretty wife,
Su-ling; the cook.
Memorable Character
The head tracker, a man of
prodigious strength, is a mem
orable character. He sings as
he tugs at the front harness,
and the crackers behind him
answer with a steady chant as
they risk their lives on the
dizzy mountain paths above
the river and work like mules
for a few pennies a day. The
head tracker. who is ragged
and will never have more than
a bowl of rice and a little wine
after each day of back-strain-
ing toll, finds a fierce exulta-
ton in his work; the rougher,
more hazardous the going, the
happier he is.
The American has studied
the language; he can talk to
these people and understand
at least much of what they
say. AS. day after day, the
junk makes a slow, tortuous,
perilous passage through two
thousand-foot gorges. running
into rapids and whirlpools
that could wreck her in a
careless moment, he learns to
know these people.
Grim Opposition
They are suspicious of him.
When he tells the head tracker
of his plans for a dam. the
strong man is enraged. Would
he destroy their great river,
spoil the way of life their
fathers have followed for
thousands of years? 1t is hard
for the young engineer to
understand.
And yet. in a way, he does
understand. How could I
span a gap Of thousand years
"a millennium in a day?
These people on the junk could
be said to be living in the era
between Charlemagne and
William the Conqueror, in the
time Of serfs and villeins, be-
fore the .Crusades, before
Western printing and gun
powder. long. long before
Chaucer and Giotto and
Thomas Aquinas and Dante.
And they were satisfied (or so
I thought) to exist in the Dark
Ages, while / lived in a time of
enlightenment and was not
satisfied"
There came a time when
the Junk entered the most
dangerous gorge of all and the
crackers pulled from a narrow
ledge carved over the centuries
in a sheer cliff high above the
water. This. everyone senSed,
was the crisis in their voyage.
Classic Simplicity
Mr.. Hersey has written this
timeless story with classic sim
plicity and admirable concise
ness. There is a lyrical line,
sometimes poignant, sometimes
gay. in an older mans memory
Of this voyage in his youth. at