Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #106863 in Books
• Published on: 2008-08-18
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 512 pages

Customer Reviews

A Writer Reflects on His Life and Humanity by Revisiting His Past

If you want a book about how to travel by train, skip this one.

If you want a book about what you'll discover about yourself if you revisit old haunts, you may find this book intriguing enough to propel you back to your former hangouts and to review your memories . . . both painful and pleasant.

If you enjoy literary pilgrimages, you'll enjoy several entertaining moments.

If you want keen insights into nations you haven't visited, you won't find enough to warrant reading the book.

If you want a book of great writing, you will probably be disappointed. Mr. Theroux will wow you now and then with brilliant passages . . . particularly in the beginning and end . . . but mostly it's plain vanilla writing.

Why then did I like the book a lot? Mr. Theroux reminded me of a fresh way to look at the world, a way that I used to employ quite often.

Let me explain. When I was growing up, my father worked for the Santa Fe Railway and our family had a pass for free travel from California to Illinois. Most of our long trips were by train. In college, I also traveled across the United States several times to save a few pennies. During those trips, I grew to appreciate places that you never see from an airplane or an interstate highway. Railway travel allowed me to meet many memorable people and to have experiences I otherwise wouldn't have had.

Writers live solitary lives, often more so when they are in a crowd. Railway travel is a buffer between the writer and the world that allows the writer to venture out amongst everyone in a comfortable way. I realized that leaving the writer's cocoon more often is good for the writer and the writer's readers.

Mr. Theroux is generous in sharing his observations during his much earlier trip along a similar route, as well as his feelings as his marriage fell apart. Those perspectives make the observations much more powerful and interesting. He is most comfortable talking about places and times in terms of other authors and conversing with authors. I found those interludes to be particularly intriguing.

Although I didn't learn enough to make me want to organize a particular kind of trip to any of these places, I did gain a sense of how a writer might react to each of the locales. From those observations, I think I know which of these places I would like to visit and which ones not. That aspect was a pleasant surprise.

I was fascinated by the differences in national character demonstrated among the ordinary people he met, most moving in his description of the forgiveness of the Vietnamese people towards ordinary Americans. As he traveled around, people in one country would be happy and enjoying life, while in the next country misery existed regardless of material comforts. As a result, I read the book very slowly. I needed time to digest what he said about each country before I could go on to the next one. To me, that's a sign of good writing: He made me think a lot.

Like many travelers, Mr. Theroux likes to report on some things more than others. I wasn't quite sure why he gives such an encyclopedic description about the sex trade in each nation, but perhaps as a man traveling alone that stood out more than the helpfulness of ordinary people. I could have done with less of that element. I also didn't enjoy his angry dismissal of anyone who is a missionary. What is that all about?

I was especially intrigued to realize that you can get to know people better during a train trip than during other casual contacts in travel. I plan to take advantage of that during my future trips.

All aboard for more understanding!

An exceptional journey
What makes a great travel writer? Is it an understanding that a travel book does not just reflect the places you are privileged enough to visit, the people you meet or the effect they have one you. Is it the ability to convey to the reader your sense of wonder and occasional bemusement at the experiences you gain?

Paul Theroux has written a series of wonderful travel books; here he retraces a journey made thirty-three years previously and records the changes that have taken place. It is a book about the way the world has changed for better and for worse. The young writer worrying about his marriage has become a happier and more content traveller who finds friendship and something of interest wherever he goes. As he ventures through Asia he looks up other distinguished writers, visits sites of sentimental interest and brings to life scenes which affect him whether it is the sight of child prostitues or relentless sprawling cities. Yet his writing also is a celebration of the magic of train travel by a writer who never becomes rushed and is always intrigued by the men and women who share his compartment.