Product Description

The Great Railway Bazaar is Paul Theroux’s account of his epic journey by rail through Asia. Filled with evocative names of legendary train routes – the Direct-Orient Express, the Khyber Pass Local, the Delhi Mail from Jaipur, the Golden Arrow to Kuala Lumpur, the Hikari Super Express to Kyoto and the Trans-Siberian Express – it describes the many places, cultures, sights and sounds he experienced and the fascinating people he met. Here he overhears snippets of chat and occasional monologues, and is drawn into conversation with fellow passengers, from Molesworth, a British theatrical agent, and Sadik, a shabby Turkish tycoon, while avoiding the forceful approaches of pimps and drug dealers. This wonderfully entertaining travelogue pays loving tribute to the romantic joys of railways and train travel.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14142 in Books
• Published on: 2008-03-27
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

About the Author
Paul Theroux was born and educated in the United States. His many books include Picture Palace, which won the 1978 Whitbread Literary Award; The Mosquito Coast, which was also made into a feature film; Riding the Iron Rooster, which won the 1988 Thomas Cook Travel Book Award; The Pillars of Hercules, shortlisted for the 1996 Thomas Cook Travel Book Award; My Other Life: A Novel, Kowloon Tong, Sir Vidia's Shadow, Fresh-air Fiend and Hotel Honolulu. Most of his books are published by Penguin. Paul Theroux lives in the United States, but he continues to travel widely.

Customer Reviews

Around the world in a train
I read this book during a couple of train rides through India. It really captures the meatings you encounter on a train ride in such a country and the feelings you have both before, during and after the trip. The trip kicks off on Victoria Station in London and the authour has this idea about travelling around the world in train, since he realises that they all connects to a giant network. In the beginning he is very enthusiastic about everything, but as time passes by he gets tired and bored. This is especially clear in the last couple of chapters where he simply crosses Russia by almost not mentioning is and all off a sudden he is home. The core of this trip is the meetings with the people and the description of them in the book. The authous is very good at capturing the details and discuss them inside and out.

Overall this book captures a great trip and is both fun, teaching and interesting to read. Entertaining.

Vintage Theroux
From London to Tokyo by train (where possible) and back through Siberia - it's one hell of a journey, and sometimes it feels like it. The latter chapters especially are written in a kind of "Oh, let's get this over with" style, and you don't learn much about either Russia or Russians, except that there's so much snow and cold it drives everyone to drink. The earlier chapters are more enjoyable, and his account of Japan's sex and death fascination is quite an insight. The chapters on Vietnam and India are also enjoyable, and you have the impression that he wasn't as bored and lonely in these places as he becomes later.
Although this book was written in 1975, there are very few references to contemporary events, so I didn't have the feeling (reading it in 2002) that it was nearly thirty years old. No doubt everything has changed since then, and I'd like to read a more up to date account of the trip. Having read quite a few of Theroux's travelogues, I think he's mellowed with age and maybe if he went the other way 'round next time, London - Moscow - Tokyo - Calcutta - Kabul, he'd be kinder to many of those that he meets. Of course, it wouldn't be quite as entertaining then!

An intruiging fly on the wall account on a lot of trains!
Theroux sets off again in search of a distant destination - back home again - with the aim of observing life at all levels on the way. Leaving London, with a touch of intrepidation and a group of oddball passengers as companions, Theroux embarks on a trip involving stamina, audacity, several timetables and an insatiable nosiness. He penetrates into individual lives as if they represent newsagents magazines - picking them up, describing 2 or 3 pages of colour and animation, as well as the occasional irreverent advertisement - before leaving them unopened, picking up another. This window into the lives of those he stumbles across gives us glimpses into each culture encountered, though his questioning becomes a little repetitive, unifying some of the answers artificially. Overall a fascinating book, if only for the accounts of the terrifying nature of having to share a railway compartment with others, especially at night....