Books : Ghost Train to the Eastern Star: On the Tracks of the Great Railway Bazaar
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 915.04425092
EAN: 9780618418879
ISBN: 0618418873
Label: Houghton Mifflin
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 512
Publication Date: August 18, 2008
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Sales Rank: 1388
Studio: Houghton Mifflin
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
Thirty years after the epic journey chronicled in his classic work The Great Railway Bazaar, the world's most acclaimed travel writer re-creates his 25,000-mile journey through eastern Europe, central Asia, the Indian subcontinent, China, Japan, and Siberia.
Half a lifetime ago, Paul Theroux virtually invented the modern travel narrative by recounting his grand tour by train through Asia. In the three decades since, the world he recorded in that book has undergone phenomenal change. The Soviet Union has collapsed and China has risen; India booms while Burma smothers under dictatorship; Vietnam flourishes in the aftermath of the havoc America was unleashing on it the last time Theroux passed through. And no one is better able to capture the texture, sights, smells, and sounds of that changing landscape than Theroux.
Theroux's odyssey takes him from eastern Europe, still hung-over from communism, through tense but thriving Turkey into the Caucasus, where Georgia limps back toward feudalism while its neighbor Azerbaijan revels in oil-fueled capitalism. Theroux is firsthand witness to it all, traveling as the locals do—by stifling train, rattletrap bus, illicit taxi, and mud-caked foot—encountering adventures only he could have: from the literary (sparring with the incisive Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk) to the dissolute (surviving a week-long bender on the Trans-Siberian Railroad). And wherever he goes, his omnivorous curiosity and unerring eye for detail never fail to inspire, enlighten, inform, and entertain.
PAUL THEROUX was born in Medford, Massachusetts, in 1941 and published his first novel, Waldo, in 1967. His fiction includes The Mosquito Coast, My Secret History, My Other Life, Kowloon Tong, Blinding Light, and most recently, The Elephanta Suite. His highly acclaimed travel books include Riding the Iron Rooster, The Great Railway Bazaar, The Old Patagonian Express, Fresh Air Fiend, and Dark Star Safari. He has been the guest editor of The Best American Travel Writing and is a frequent contributor to various magazines, including The New Yorker. He lives in Hawaii and on Cape Cod.
Amazon.com Review:
Amazon Best of the Month, August 2008: Way back in the dark pre-Internet, limited-air-travel world of 1975, the way to get from Europe to Asia was by train. A young and ambitious writer named Paul Theroux made his literary mark by taking the 28,000-mile intercontinental journey via rail from London to Tokyo and back home again. His book, The Great Railway Bazaar, became a travel-lit classic. Thirty years later, an older, wiser, and even less sanguine Theroux decided to retrace his steps. The result is Ghost Train to the Eastern Star, a fascinating account of the places you vaguely knew existed (Tbilisi), probably won't ever go to (Bangalore), but definitely should know something about (Mandalay). Get on board Theroux's fast-moving travelogue, which features some of the most astute commentary on our distorted notions of time, space, and each other in the age of jet speed, broadband connections, and cultural extinction. --Lauren Nemroff
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
I have been reading Theroux's travel books for more than 30 years, and I have to say that they and he get better all the time.
This latest book is the funniest, wisest, kindest, most beautifully written of the books. What the author has lost in endurance (he goes to sleep much earlier than ever before) and appetite (he stays pretty much away from the bars), he makes up for in humanness.
Like all the great writers, he's a man on a mission, and the mission is to tell us that there are people in the world who deserve our love and admiration and there are people in the world who don't deserve anything because they are here to hurt us. He tells us this in such a way that we realize that the world isn't such a bad place and that it's a good thing to stick around a little longer.
John Guzlowski
Lightning and Ashes
Rating: -
The book, Ghost Train to the Eastern Star, is an excellent travel book. It does go even further, however, in his many conversations with the people he meets along the way. It is informative and well as entertaining.
Rating: -
Theroux returns for a repeat encounter with the people and places that made him thirty years ago with the Great Railway Bazaar. The protagonist has aged from young turk to an itinerant king who hobnobs with luminaries such as Arthur Clark and Murakami in an 'oh by the way' manner amongst his weekly jaunts. The places have similarly 'grown up' from exotic (not always desirably so) to emerging (with increasing prosperity accompanied with a loss of innocence).
The resulting chemistry (in particular his encounter with the Indian 'outsourcing miracle') has depth, balance, introspection and even a touch of melancholy. You could argue that this is now a more serious man, a more considered view.
But in the hindsight of having made it to the book's back cover - Theroux has lost more gunslinger that he's gained sagacity. The amplitude of his insights have decreased, the observations more palatable but not as trenchantly original. Still a great read, but from a master traveler who's lost a step or two with age.
Rating: -
This book is a great read from one of the best travel writers of the past 35 years. I've read all his travel books and essays and some of his fiction. I voraciously consumed this book in a couple of weeks. If you like travel writing, give this a try. You won't be sorry.
Rating: -
If you like Paul Theroux travel books, then you wont be disappointed - this is a great book. Read it - slowly. Enjoy!
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