Nancy's Reviews > Street of Eternal Happiness: Big City Dreams Along a Shanghai Road

As started to review this book, I found myself choosing many more "bookshelves" than normal. Rob Schmitz introduces the reader to many facets of Chinese life and history through the lives of several families he met during his years as the China correspondent for the radio show Marketplace. China is a huge country with many internal migrants and a complicated bureaucracy. Much of the economy is "off the books."

Reading the book is like following Schmitz as he gossips with his neighbors. We see a China that is rushing forward, sometimes without a clear direction of where it wants to go. I understand China a bit better now, if only to know it is a lot more complicated and diverse than I thought. Rob Schmitz called the Chinese economy "....one of the most perplexing economies in the world to figure out." Still, he gave us a good look at parts of the economy through the day to day lives of his neighbors.

The book is an entertaining way to understand the whole country a bit better.

(I won this book through goodreads. The goodreads giveway program is a great way to take a chance on a book and read something new. )