Land of Big Numbers
Ten stories about contemporary China: surveillance, prosperity, desire, control. Written by a Wall Street Journal Beijing correspondent with the precision of a reporter and the sensibility of an artist.
Ten independent stories, and the ones after the strong opening run start to blend: one reader admits “the remaining 8 easily blur together,” unable days later to tell them apart. Characterization is the recurring soft spot; another reviewer calls the dialogue flat, finding “their conversations uninteresting, their motives unconvincing,” especially in the back half. Political critique of the Chinese state can feel asserted rather than dramatized, and at least one reader who expected an insider’s view instead says the collection “felt like it was written by an outsider.” The open endings that admirers call a mark of craft read, to a colder reviewer, as stories that simply stop: “the end is deflating,” verdict delivered story after story.
The case for it and the rest of the canon open with Pro.
