false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255643300m/2071926.jpg 2071926 8 An unmitigated treat for the hundreds of thousands of fans of the first <b>Bazaar</b>.<br><br>In <b>The New Railway Bazaar</b>, Theroux recreates an epic journey he took thirty years ago, a giant loop by train (mostly) through Eastern Europe, Turkey, the Caucasus, Central Asia, the Indian Subcontinent, China, Japan, and Siberia. In short, he traverses all of Asia top to bottom, and end to end. In the three decades since he first travelled this route, Asia has undergone phenomenal change. The Soviet Union has collapsed, China has risen, India booms, Burma slowly smothers, and Vietnam prospers despite the havoc unleashed upon it the last time Theroux passed through. He witnesses all this and more in a 25,000 mile journey, travelling as the locals do, by train, car, bus, and foot.<br><br>His odyssey takes him from Eastern Europe, still hungover from Communism, through tense but thriving Turkey, into the Caucasus, where Georgia limps back toward feudalism while its neighbour Azerbaijan revels in oil-driven capitalism. As he penetrates deeper into Asia&#8217;s heart, his encounters take on an otherworldly cast. The two chapters that follow show us Turkmenistan, a profoundly isolated society at the mercy of an almost comically egotistical dictator, and Uzbekistan, a ruthless authoritarian state. From there, he retraces his steps through India, Mayanmar, China, and Japan, providing his penetrating observations on the changes these countries have undergone.<br><br>Brilliant, caustic, and totally addictive, <b>The New Railway Bazaar</b> is Theroux at his very best. 2077173 book 9 9 2008 Ghost Train to the Eastern Star total:245|5:63|4:112|3:55|2:12|1:3| 245 955 498 83 3 1 false false Fri Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Dec 20 18:41:40 -0800 2008 Sat Dec 20 18:42:03 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 2 false false Tue Oct 21 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Jan 21 11:37:20 -0800 2009 Wed Jan 21 12:02:56 -0800 2009 1 and if it ha...more...]]> 3 1 false true Mon Oct 06 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Aug 03 13:08:42 -0700 2008 Mon Oct 06 00:54:19 -0700 2008 Paul Theroux gives a book talk at National Book Fair.

One thing I learned from this was that I have been mispronouncing his name - the second syllable rhymes with "blue" not "blow."

I am about 200 pages into this at the moment and it is mostly good. The ori...more...]]> 4 1 false false Thu Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Oct 14 20:24:57 -0700 2009 Wed Oct 14 20:55:58 -0700 2009 brought by the business...more...]]> 0 0 false false Thu Feb 05 09:59:47 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 05 09:59:47 -0800 2009 Paul Theroux has polarized critics with his latest travelogue. His sense of adventure, candid descriptions, and evocative prose notwithstanding, some critics took issue with the unbridled narcissism suffusing the narrative. Others lavished praise on the best-selling author, and the Los Angeles Times...

more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Jan 15 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 19 01:17:55 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 19 03:51:55 -0800 2009 The Great Railway Bazaar, Ghost Train feels completely different than it's predecessor. When I think of The Great Railway Bazaar, I think of cringe-inducing misanthropy and the occasional polite interaction wit...more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Jun 08 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Jun 19 07:29:19 -0700 2009 Fri Jun 19 07:29:56 -0700 2009 ...more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 10 19:04:06 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 10 19:04:56 -0700 2009
I really enjoyed going on this journey with Paul Theroux. His scathi...more...]]> 5 0 false false Wed Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Apr 27 11:00:10 -0700 2009 Mon Apr 27 11:09:23 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri Aug 07 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Aug 09 05:55:51 -0700 2009 Sun Aug 09 06:02:00 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat Dec 13 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Nov 27 09:01:25 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 16 13:19:54 -0800 2008 The Great Railway Bazaar. In his earlier trip, in 1973, he traveled mostly by train from Europe, across southern Asia, to Viet Nam and beyond. He had been unable to travel to Laos and Cambodia because of the war - an omission t...more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Sep 24 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 03 08:00:16 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 24 11:35:41 -0700 2009 The Great Railway Bazaar (whose train journey he retraces 30 years later in this book) first. What was interesting (in a meta-literary way) is to see the seeds of The Elephanta Suite being sowed during the India part of his...more...]]> 0 0 false false Mon Sep 28 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 10 06:20:45 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 02 12:59:28 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon Mar 02 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 26 17:19:29 -0800 2009 Mon Mar 02 17:17:06 -0800 2009
After I graduated from college, Gerry & I went walkabout and traveled out of ba...more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Mar 24 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Mar 09 13:17:07 -0700 2009 Tue Mar 24 23:50:28 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Nov 22 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Wed Aug 26 18:06:05 -0700 2009 Sun Nov 22 10:47:03 -0800 2009 1 -It's a fun adventure, and allowed me to travel by proxy to parts of the world I'll likely never go see.
-Theroux has a unique insight since this was his second time to make most of this trip. The comparisons to 33 years prior were fascinating.
-Theroux has a genuine ap...more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed Apr 29 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 30 21:35:44 -0700 2009 Sun May 03 10:44:38 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Apr 04 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Apr 04 14:52:13 -0700 2009 Sat Apr 04 14:56:19 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri Mar 27 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Mar 27 13:54:59 -0700 2009 Fri Mar 27 13:57:22 -0700 2009
I enjoyed it more often than not, but what I think I missed was the act that I didn't get the sense of place that I might have wished. Especially since I'm obsessed with ex-Iron Curtain countries AND Southeast Asia. What I got instead were...more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Sep 29 06:11:10 -0700 2008 Mon Sep 29 06:11:22 -0700 2008 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=2071926