372 pages
English language
Published June 21, 2011 by Penguin Books, Limited.
In 1973, Paul Theroux embarked on a four-month journey by train from the United Kingdom through Europe, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. In The Great Railway Bazaar, he records in vivid detail and penetrating insight the many fascinating incidents, adventures, and encounters of his grand, intercontinental tour.
Asia's fabled trains—the Orient Express, the Khyber Pass Local, the Frontier Mail, the Golden Arrow to Kuala Lumpur, the Mandalay Express, the Trans-Siberian Express—are the stars of a journey that takes Theroux on a loop eastbound from London's Victoria Station to Tokyo Central, then back from Japan on the Trans-Siberian. Brimming with Theroux's signature humor and wry observations, this engrossing chronicle is essential reading for both the ardent adventurer and the armchair traveler.
The writing is beautiful, and the experiences and settings make me yearn to head out into the world again, but this review is definitely tempered by racist and sexist comments in the book by the author, that I think would have made some people cringe even at the time.
"The Great Railway Bazaar" by Paul Theroux was the progenitor of a different type of travel literature. Finally reading the book I can see why it considered a classic in the genre. Theroux has a distinctive voice, good writing, and a eye for observations. He is someone I've enjoyed "traveling" with. Many reviews complain about his disdain for others. Many call him a misanthrope. But I've never quite accepted those critiques completely. And I certainly don't see him as eternally gloomy. He is not unbiased but he never claims to be - I think that he portrays everyone as he sees them. Not everyone or everything can or should be portrayed in a flattering light.
The premise of the book is that the author decides to travel from London and back through the old Orient Express, the Middle East, South Asia, Japan, and Russia. Unlike many travel books that go …
"The Great Railway Bazaar" by Paul Theroux was the progenitor of a different type of travel literature. Finally reading the book I can see why it considered a classic in the genre. Theroux has a distinctive voice, good writing, and a eye for observations. He is someone I've enjoyed "traveling" with. Many reviews complain about his disdain for others. Many call him a misanthrope. But I've never quite accepted those critiques completely. And I certainly don't see him as eternally gloomy. He is not unbiased but he never claims to be - I think that he portrays everyone as he sees them. Not everyone or everything can or should be portrayed in a flattering light.
The premise of the book is that the author decides to travel from London and back through the old Orient Express, the Middle East, South Asia, Japan, and Russia. Unlike many travel books that go to a site, look around, and report on the "local color," this book would focus on the train itself and the people he met along the journey as a person on the ground. The train itself could be the site of the mixing and mingling of humanity, with all its contradictions and variations. You see all the hallmarks of his other works: detailed sketches of unique characters, commentary on the books he readings along the way, boorish white travelers and expats, perceptive observations about the mood of a place and, of course, trains.
Written in 1973, the book embodies one of Theroux's conceits about travel writing - its should be prescient without being predictive. Some of the strongest chapters include his travels through Iran before the Revolution and South Vietnam before the end of the war. Having lived in India for nearly five years, I found myself nodding along in recognition of some of the characters he observed and the characterizations of the place.
It is not my favorite of his works (I like its sequel "Ghost Train to the Eastern Star" and "The Old Patagonian Express more) but I think it is worth reading.
