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Ghost Train to the Eastern Star

3.99 of 5 stars 3.99 · rating details · 2,162 ratings · 276 reviews

National Bestseller

In Ghost Train to the Eastern Star, 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...more

Hardcover, 512 pages

Published September 9th 2008 by McClelland & Stewart (first published 2008)

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Dec 20, 2008 Stephanie rated it 3 of 5 stars

IT is said that travel broadens the horizons; but what to make of pounding the same paths again? In his latest book, American author Paul Theroux retraces the journey through Asia which he took back in 1973 and described in The Great Railway Bazaar (1975), the bestseller which established him as a travel writer.
Travelling mostly by train from London through Central Asia, the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, Japan and Russia, the Asia he sees on his second trip is a globalised one in which mo...more IT is said that travel broadens the horizons; but what to make of pounding the same paths again? In his latest book, American author Paul Theroux retraces the journey through Asia which he took back in 1973 and described in The Great Railway Bazaar (1975), the bestseller which established him as a travel writer.
Travelling mostly by train from London through Central Asia, the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, Japan and Russia, the Asia he sees on his second trip is a globalised one in which most societies are keenly aware that there are other, perhaps better, ways of living: “The places I had known... these homebodies whose horizon was their national frontier, had all (it seemed to me) become soured and discontented... It was now a world of travelers, or people dreaming of a life elsewhere – far away.”
Singaporean readers will by turns be angry and amused by his unflattering portrayal of Singapore, one of his stops. Besides the expected criticisms of the chewing gum ban, caning, and the death penalty for drug possession, it also includes his rather dismissive caricature of a people: “Punishment for not toeing the government’s line was always on the Singaporean’s mind. It shows in the Singaporean face, typically an anxious face – pouting kittenish women, frowning nerdish men.”
To his credit, Theroux doesn’t deny that he has a bone to pick with this place: from 1968 to 1971, he taught English literature at the then-University of Singapore, but his contract was not renewed, an act tantamount to a firing.
On the bright side, he does toss out a few grudging, if somewhat inaccurate, compliments: “No one was fat. No one was poor. No one was badly dressed.” The first statement is fairly true, the second obviously not, and the last will certainly come as news to a nation fond of flip-flops and bermudas.
And of course, he bluntly states certain harsh but undeniable truths. Indeed, the reward of reading a travelogue is hearing the honest, if biased, observations about a society by a perceptive visitor, a more personal and heartfelt opinion than that offered by a standard travel guide.
Oddly, despite the fact that he told newspapers during his visit here that Singapore was his last stop before going home, in this travelogue he makes it seem as if his trip continues seamlessly on from here to Cambodia, Vietnam, Japan and Russia, before heading back to England.
But certain liberties with regard to space, time and even experience are not unusual in this genre. As the author writes preemptively and self-deprecatingly at the start of the book: “Most writing about travel takes the form of jumping to conclusions, and so most travel books are superfluous, the thinnest, most transparent monologuing...dishonest complaining, creative mendacity, pointless heroics, and chronic posturing, much of it distorted with Munchansen syndrome.”
Though Theroux would probably balk at being considered a representative American, much of his narrative is tinted with his consciousness of being a citizen of the United States, both a promised land and a global bully. He rather touchingly, if somewhat provincially, repeatedly expresses surprise when people from Turkey to Vietnam don’t hold it against him for being American.
As in Gulliver’s Travels, each country the author visits seems to reflect a certain aspect of human nature and of his own society. In Bangalore, India, young educated Indians are given American names, trained to speak with American accents, and then spend their time cold-calling people in the United States for their American clients.
And the water-torture device on display at Tuol Sleng, the Pol Pot regime torture prison in Cambodia, reminds him of the Bush administration’s “enhaced interrogation techniques” used on suspected terrorists: “The traveller’s conceit is that barbarism is something singular and foreign, to be encountered halfway around the world in some pinched and parochial backwater... And then, to his shame, he realises that they are identical to the ones advocated and dilgently applied by his own government.”
A travelogue isn’t simply a vicarious means to tour the world from the comfort of home. Whether or not you buy the author’s scathing criticisms and earnest praise, his vivid renderings of places and people inspire and provoke, making you wonder what version of the world you would see if you too, hopped on a train to somewhere else.(less)

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Sep 12, 2012 Chuck rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Chuck by: Katie Hocevar

Shelves: asia, europe, adventure, autobiography, non-fiction, review, owned, top-ten-percent, arab-themes, travel

This is an excellent book, which I read on the recommendation of my daughter. Back in the early seventies Paul Theroux documented his trip by rail from London to Paris, Istanbul, much of the middle east, India, southeast Asia, Japan and then back across Asia on the transsiberian railroad. This book, was known as The Great Railway Bazaar. The book was very popular and the author decided over thirty years later to take a nearly identical trip to learn how much the world had changed. After all, Rus...more

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Jan 21, 2009 Bob rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone who wants to write about travel

Dang, there was an awesome quote toward the end of this massive travelogue, where the author addresses the reader directly, congratulating him or her on reading long past the point of comfort and common sense. Only the truly dedicated reader, writer, or traveler will love this book
and if it hadn't been overdue at the library, I would transcribe it here.

Endurance itself is one of the innumerable topics Theroux goes on about for months and miles through evocative and lively descriptions of the peo...more

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Oct 06, 2008 Michael rated it 3 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. 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 original Railway Bazaar focused on the travels in Asia, which I reminded myself when he blazed through Europe and deals with the southeast European countries little attention (and at that, mostly very negative). Once he reaches Turkey and Georgia h...more

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Oct 14, 2009 Mlmlmn rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Paul Theroux reprises his journey around Asia by train, his first journey significant as,I believe, his first travel book and as costing him his marriage. This is a victory lap that stands well on its own. In particular I found interesting the account of change in India
brought by the business outsourced customer service. There is more than this, accounts of travel through haunted Cambodia, and a short structured visit to Singapore. Fuel for Mr. Theroux.

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Aug 07, 2011 Andrew Rosner added it · review of another edition

Paul Theroux's most recent travelogue has him retracing the path of The Great Railway Bazaar thirty years after writing the book that put him on the literary map. Despite that book's jaunty tone, Theroux was feeling miserable, half-broke and trying to cope with a marriage on the rocks. As he's aged and established himself as a writer, it seems odd his writing has become more caustic. Thankfully, he has kept that unpleasant aspect of his character more or less under wraps, although he occasionall...more Paul Theroux's most recent travelogue has him retracing the path of The Great Railway Bazaar thirty years after writing the book that put him on the literary map. Despite that book's jaunty tone, Theroux was feeling miserable, half-broke and trying to cope with a marriage on the rocks. As he's aged and established himself as a writer, it seems odd his writing has become more caustic. Thankfully, he has kept that unpleasant aspect of his character more or less under wraps, although he occasionally feels the need to condemn American foreign policies.

But there is much to discover and take delight in. The book starts rather slowly, as Theroux makes accurate but somewhat obvious observations about Eastern Europe and some former Soviet republics. However, once he hits India, the book really takes off. I am not as pessimistic about India as he seems to be, but he serves as an invaluable witness to the Indian "economic miracle", nonetheless. Strife-riven Sri Lanka, nanny city-state Singapore, dictatorial Burma, ravaged and recovering Cambodia, booming Vietnam, an aging Japan; Theroux has something thought-provoking to say about all of them.

Sprinkled in with all this are delightful tidbits of information, such as the fact the Japanese writer Haruki Murakami enjoys playing American jazz records from his collection of six thousand(!), all vinyl; Bangalore is the call-centre capital of the world; or that Mark Twain once described the Book of Mormon as "chloroform in print." And, as always, reading Theroux is a gateway to the works of other writers, such as the aforementioned Murakami, Kurban Said, Orhan Pamuk, and Leonard Woolf. All this against a backdrop of the decline in the printed word. As he poignantly notes while traveling in Japan, graphic novels are "purely pictorial pleasure, undemanding, without an idea or a challenge... they spell the end of the traditional novel, perhaps the end of writing itself." Here's hoping we come to our senses before it's too late.(less)

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Feb 05, 2009 Bookmarks Magazine added it · review of another edition

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, summarizing the two sides neatly, called Theroux "a compelling writer who is essentially unlikable." Despite this opinion and complaints of unimaginative generalizations and a tendency towards repet

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Sep 23, 2012 Caleb rated it 5 of 5 stars

What makes a 5 star book? It's September and this is the first one I've handed out for the year. To me, it's about quality of writing, interest of topic, engagement, and that extra something. It's when I have a busy week at work but I still squeeze in as many more pages as possible to see what happens next. With this, a travelogue, it's how many times I go to my phone for wikipedia to look up another interesting place in another country that I have never heard of before. It's also the book with...more

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Jul 14, 2012 Ensiform rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: travel, non-fiction, india

Thirty-three years after the first book Theroux returns to the route he took in The Great Railway Bazaar, or as near as an approximation as current politics will let him – by train from France to Turkey (via the now-shabby Orient Express), through India (where he smirks at the idea of the new technological India, as so much seems the same as ever), Thailand, Singapore (which he finds hypocritical and arrogant), Vietnam, Japan, Siberia, and back. As on the previous trip, he meets people who surpr...more

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Jun 11, 2012 Carol Wakefield rated it 3 of 5 stars

Theroux is a conscientious, dutiful serious writer of travel books. His books are readily available in most libraries and as an enthusiastic reader of travel adventures I follow Theroux. But grudgingly. What Theroux isn't is cheerful or optimistic. And in his 60s his already dour look at the world is in no way lessened. He sometimes claims to be happy but briefly as every place has a dark underbelly that must be brought to light. eastern Europe-surly downtrodden populace, the countries surroundi...more

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Sep 25, 2011 Patrick McCoy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: travel

I think the first Paul Theroux book I read was The Great Railway Bazaar about 10 years ago. It was an inspiring book-it made me want to travel more. Over the years I occasionally read some of his other books like Saint Jack, My Secret History, My Other Life, and Kowloon Tong. As good as those books are, I think Theroux really shines in his travel writing. Ghost Train To The Eastern Star is a sort of revisiting of his first publishing triumph-the subtitle is "On The Tracks of the Great Railway Ba...more I think the first Paul Theroux book I read was The Great Railway Bazaar about 10 years ago. It was an inspiring book-it made me want to travel more. Over the years I occasionally read some of his other books like Saint Jack, My Secret History, My Other Life, and Kowloon Tong. As good as those books are, I think Theroux really shines in his travel writing. Ghost Train To The Eastern Star is a sort of revisiting of his first publishing triumph-the subtitle is "On The Tracks of the Great Railway Bazaar." It was interesting to learn that the book caused a major rift in his marriage that took him some time to recover from since he had left his wife and two young sons alone for along period of time and she took up with another man. In the beginning while in London he confronts some past memories and remarks that he was able to survive in England because he wasn't an Anglophile. It turns out the trip he originally planned didn't turn out the way he had thought it would, for example he wasn't able to visit in Cambodia since it was being ruled by Pol Pot and the People's Liberation Army at the time. And on this trip he felt it was better to avoid Pakistan and Afghanistan due to the war and xenophobia.

I like the fact that Theroux is a traveler who isn't afraid to pull any punches. He writes about his experiences truthfully with the good and the bad. He makes judgments about people, places, and things based on his own experience and observations. He travels alone so that he has to confront people and be social-I suspect his curiosity would drive him to do so anyway. He is always looking for the local's perspective on the respective country he is visiting. He likes to check out red light districts and pornography to get a feeling of what the people are really like. He likes to read while traveling and usually chooses books that illuminate the travel experience. I like to do this as well. he reads Philip Short's book Pol Pot, and I read Henry Shawcross' book Sideshow while in Cambodia. We both read Bao Ninh's The Sorrow of War in Vietnam. I also like the fact that he searches out literary acquaintances like Orhan Pamuk in Istanbul, Arthur C. Clarke in Sri Lanka, Haruki Murakmai in Tokyo, and Pico Iyer in Kyoto.

I guess the sections I found most interesting were the places I have been or am interested in going to. He didn't spend much time in eastern Europe, but he makes Istanbul sound very enticing as if I didn't need more enticement to go there. I've already decided that if I go to Kyrgyzstan again I will go via Istanbul. His descriptions of Central Asia in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan were similar to that of Kyrgyzstan. However, Turkmenistan is an entity all itself. India sounds overwhelming and Theroux seems to think so as well-the closest I've been is Bangladesh, but I still think I should go sometime. He is also sceptical about the "Indian Miracle Economy." He is dismayed by Myanmar. The rest of SE Asia seems to have been more to his liking. I have made many visits to SE Asia and he seems to appreciate the mellow people and charms of the region as much as I do. Singapore is of special interest to him because early in his career he taught there for a couple of years in the 60s before they refused to renew his contract. I also remember that his descriptions of Japan were some of the more racy bits in The Great Railway Bazaar. The Trans-Siberian Express also interests me, but I'm not sure his description has sold me quite yet.

I think Theroux has inspired me to do more travel by train. I have always enjoyed it. I traveled many miles backpacking through Europe the summer of 1992 on a Eurorail pass. One of my great travel experiences was taking a sleeper from Ho Chi Mihn to Hue in 2000. I always enjoy taking the shinkansen in Japan-this year I took it to Kobe and will go to Nagoya soon as well. I am planning to attend a conference in Cambodia and I was hoping to visit a Japanese friend in Laos and now I'm thinking of taking a train to the Laos boarder (unfortunately no trains in Laos) from Bangkok this time around. I haven't done it before, but I'm looking forward to the experience.

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May 22, 2011 Ms. T rated it 4 of 5 stars

Theroux retraces a trip he made as a young man, traveling mostly by train from London through Turkey, Central Asia, India, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, and back through Russia and Europe. It's an interesting look at places I've been recently or hope to visit soon. Still, the book is depressing, although I agree with Theroux's ultimate message, that the world--and all of us--are in trouble. Few have traveled as long or as widely as Theroux. Maybe you can't see the long, slow global slide from your o...more

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May 15, 2011 Elaine rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I really wanted to like this book, and I stuck with it until the last 100 pages (there are 496), but it became tiring due to his didacticism. Ars gratis Artis -- but he forgot.
What a gifted writer with fantastic imagery and an amazing vocabulary. 33 years before writing this book (written around 2007-2008)he decided to go away from his first wife and their two young children to follow this quest without an itinerary, in a cell-phoneless age, to penetrate through Eastern Europe, the Middle East,...more I really wanted to like this book, and I stuck with it until the last 100 pages (there are 496), but it became tiring due to his didacticism. Ars gratis Artis -- but he forgot.
What a gifted writer with fantastic imagery and an amazing vocabulary. 33 years before writing this book (written around 2007-2008)he decided to go away from his first wife and their two young children to follow this quest without an itinerary, in a cell-phoneless age, to penetrate through Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and into the Orient for what became four and a half months. So he has to "dis" her before he tells us about his reineactment of this earlier journey which sometimes had different destinations because there were now locations which formerly were not available to visit because of politics, his finances, or travel connections. So, he needed to travel to find more topics for writing in the 1970's, but he was pissed on return because his wife had an affair!! No kidding -- what nerve! Of course, we hear nothing wrong about his choices then or on this new journey of the 21st. century. He must be Mr. Virtue and made of steel even though there are continual descriptions of the various prostitutes available in all these countries, how they exist, what is needed to hire them, etc. I mean, Singapore must be one of the lustiest places in Asia.
Now, this re-visiting started, eventually as a telling of how he made this journey most recently. Now he is remarried, and he can take off as he pleases (I would be happy to tell him to "hit the road" any time he wanted). The countries he visited were so interesting, but he successively lapsed into telling us about the times he was fired from various teaching posts here and there across the world during his long-haired phases, etc. -- he was so picked on (he is a child of the 1960's and his age is the same). Then, he told us, from time to time, about what a great writer he was, and how many in these re-visted countries were acclaiming all his books,and thought he was a great writer. Such humility; guess he had not heard about self-praise is no praise; but he always described his books in stores, etc. throughout his journey.
Of course, all of his non-scientific surveys with people, about this or that, were always in line with his views, while those who didn't agree with him were mis-guided and to be scorned.
Now I don't care to read about politics, economics, religion, medicine, business, and maybe a few other things, but I love literature. When you intend to tell us about your two great journeys, I don't think it's good to get your audience concerned that you, the writer is always right, owns all the correct theses, and everyone else is wrong. Therefore, what wonderful renditions of his journey I read earlier are completely lost to me since I tired of his apologia, theses, and whatever else you want to call it. He is brilliant and fantastically well-read; and he would be the first to tell you this. I'm done.(less)

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Feb 28, 2011 Keith rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is another engaging Paul Theroux travel book that I hated to put down, and didn't want to end. His descriptions of the landscape and encounters with people--traveling (mostly by train) from London, across Europe, to India, SE Asia, and onto Tokyo and back--are engaging.

While I think he sometimes seems to generalize about societies based on less-than-solid evidence, he is like a thoughtful, well-traveled, and well-connected friend: I don't take everything he says as definitive, but I'm alwa...more

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Jan 30, 2011 Linda Roistacher rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: memoirs-travel-etc

Decided to try one of his travel books for which he is famous after reading his novellas in "The Elephanta Suite". This trip was a "return engagement." He more or less retraces his trip by train back in the early 1970s in his book "The Great Railway Bazaar."

People seem to either love or hate him. Based on my two choices, I'm a fan.

The book contains both reflections on the nature of the experience of the Western travellor to foreign lands; practical "tips" on traveling; interesting and appealing,...more

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Nov 27, 2010 Jim rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: travel

Paul, Paul, you’re mellowing way too much. Of, say, the fifty people you meet on this trip, where are the hateful pen portraits of forty-nine of them compared to the grudging likeability of the one exception to the rule? It’s almost the other way ‘round. Giving money to poor rickshaw drivers with hard luck stories? Come on Paul. How about stiffing him and telling him he stinks like a sewer rat? He has a go at a born again American Christian missionary in Thailand, but it is half hearted. Once he...more

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Nov 03, 2010 Linda rated it 5 of 5 stars

Paul Theroux is always such an informed and educating writer. This book re-traces his "tracks" thirty-three years before when he wrote THE GREAT RAILWAY BAZAAR. His reflections upon his old travels, his youth, the difference between this trip and the last, and the sameness, kept me lappping it up and turning pages. I always feel so much more informed after I read about the countries that he stops in and rides through. Vietnam struck me as the sweetest tale, with industrious natives and their che...more

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Oct 12, 2010 Kiwiflora rated it 5 of 5 stars

Twenty five years ago while living in a Pacific tropical paradise, I would visit the two very small English language book/stationery shops at least weekly to feed my reading appetite. Being very small shops there was a very limited range of books, so I had to expand my horizons somewhat and found myself reading books I would never have normally read, like Paul Theoroux's 'The Great Railway Bazaar'. Even though I was quite young still at the time, and it had been written by a sad, grumpy man some...more Twenty five years ago while living in a Pacific tropical paradise, I would visit the two very small English language book/stationery shops at least weekly to feed my reading appetite. Being very small shops there was a very limited range of books, so I had to expand my horizons somewhat and found myself reading books I would never have normally read, like Paul Theoroux's 'The Great Railway Bazaar'. Even though I was quite young still at the time, and it had been written by a sad, grumpy man some 12 years older than me who was going through some very major domestic strife, it left a lasting impression on me. His intense curiosity, his sense of adventure, his cantankerousness, the freedom of a life on a train was such a fantastic combination to read about. He was a grumpy bugger though, opinionated, little patience for many of the different societies and peoples he met, and I don't think he had a great deal of fun!

So thirty three years after that journey in 1975, Paul Theroux, now in a much better head space decides to retrace his steps on that epic train journey. His first journey took him through Italy, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Ceylon, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Japan and across the vast expanse of the USSR. Already you will see that that particular journey would be quite a different undertaking now! Yugoslavia is now a number of different countries; the communist states have been over run by capitalism, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan are off limits to anyone of a Western hue. So the journey takes the author slightly north of these troubled countries through some of the now independent states of the former USSR - all the -stans; India is neck and neck with China as the world's fastest growing economy; the war is over in Cambodia and Vietnam; and is Russia any further ahead than it was some 40 years ago? To top it all off, the journey takes place some 16 months after the devastating Boxing Day tsunami. So a lot to write about!

The author is still cantankerous, obviously does not tolerate fools easily, and as the review in the Los Angeles Times said, "One of the problems Theroux presents to the careful reader is the fact that he's a compelling writer who is essentially unlikable. In part, that's a consequence of his blimpish judgments on everyone upon whom his disapproval settles...". But I think he is a much happier man now, his domestic life would appear to be pretty good, he certainly is not as angry, age would appear to have mellowed him as it does to us all!

His journey by train is, in a word, fantastic. I loved it, loved reading about where he went, what he saw, what he ate, the people he met, the changes he observed from 30 years ago, in particular the impact of technology and Westernisation. But the book is also about his own personal journey, comparing the man he was 30 years ago with the man he is now, and that is also fascinating to read about. He is now somewhat reflective and, shock, horror, traces of humility creeping through!

This is a long book with a lot of reading, but well worth it, and if at all possible, try to read the first book at the same time.

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Jun 09, 2010 Elaine Porteous rated it 4 of 5 stars

Thirty three years after publication of his bestselling book The Great Railway Bazaar in 1973, Paul Theroux undertook another epic journey by train from London across to China through Asia, almost but not quite, following the same route. This time both Iran and Afghanistan were off limits so he took a diversion via countries previously part of USSR, passing through divided Georgia, a dreary and backward Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan, a type of benevolent dictatorship.

Not many authors could hold o...more

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Jun 19, 2009 Bill rated it 4 of 5 stars

Thirty years ago Theroux took the Orient Express and many other trains from London to the Far East and returned. That trip was captured in The Great Railway Bazaar, which made his reputation. Now he is repeating the trip and recording his experiences in the Ghost Train to the Eastern Star

Theroux travels alone, he considers himself to be a ghost. Like ghosts he is revisiting his past life and also like ghosts he is not noticed. He says,

"Travel can induce such a distinct and nameless feeling of s...more

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Jan 12, 2013 Ryan Murdock rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: road-wisdom-top-travel-books

In Ghost Train to the Eastern Star, Theroux sets out to retrace the route of his groundbreaking first travel book, thirty years later. It is a journey that finds him absolutely at the top of his form.

Already an established novelist, Theroux injected new life into the travel genre in 1975 when he published The Great Railway Bazaar. The story of his mammoth train journey from Britain through Europe to India and Sri Lanka, across Southeast Asia, up Japan, and full circle back to England on the Tran...more In Ghost Train to the Eastern Star, Theroux sets out to retrace the route of his groundbreaking first travel book, thirty years later. It is a journey that finds him absolutely at the top of his form.

Already an established novelist, Theroux injected new life into the travel genre in 1975 when he published The Great Railway Bazaar. The story of his mammoth train journey from Britain through Europe to India and Sri Lanka, across Southeast Asia, up Japan, and full circle back to England on the Trans-Siberian Express became an immediate best seller and catapulted the author into the literary big leagues.

That first book was pivotal because it introduced extensive dialogue to a genre that had always tended towards the personal diary, pontification, and self-aggrandizement. Theroux’s gift for allowing strange local characters to reveal a place in their own words, coupled with a keen eye for the telling observation, has made him arguably our greatest living travel writer.

“Writing about travel has become a way of making sense of my life,” Theroux says in the opening chapter, “the nearest I will come to autobiography.” That sense comes across most clearly in this new work. The Theroux of Railway Bazaar was somewhat lost: nearly out of money, a novelist struggling for ideas. He set out on that first journey in 1973 with the vague notion of finding something to write about. And though we only read about it now, three decades later, he was also struggling with desperate loneliness, the constant ache of homesickness, and a deeply troubled marriage. The writer who takes this new journey is a changed man: the highly regarded author of dozens of acclaimed novels and travel books, wealthy, respected, and happily married. He is more relaxed, introspective, open, and with nothing to prove. As the journey unfolds Theroux looks back to confront that earlier self, to relive what he was and to take comfort in what he has become.

The issue at the heart of the book is one I’ve often struggled with: whether to return to a place where you had experiences which fundamentally altered the course of your life.

“The decision to return to any early scene in your life is dangerous but irresistible,” Theroux writes, “not as a search for lost time but for the grotesquerie of what happened since. In most cases it is like meeting an old lover years later and hardly recognizing the object of desire in this funny-looking and bruised old fruit.”

Will revisiting these places and seeing the inevitable changes alter your precious memory of them? Will sadness and nostalgia for what has been lost come to replace what you had there? If so, are those memories better left safely untouched, cherished in the past rather than revised by the present?

In the end, Theroux finds his joyful reunion—one particular episode in Burma was especially moving, a meeting with a family who remembered him and who had waited patiently for his return—and he finds a sense of peace with his past.

[I met that family when I was traveling in Burma back in 2002. When I told them I’d searched out their hotel because Theroux had written about it in Railway Bazaar, they asked if I could give them his phone number. They were always hoping he would return. I was glad to read that he did.]

Readers of The Great Railway Bazaar will be pleased to note that Ghost Train to the Eastern Star also covers new ground. Due to war in Afghanistan and an inability to secure a visa for Iran, Theroux was forced to reroute through the Caucasus nations of Georgia and Azerbaijan, and the Central Asian republics of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, all of which he was visiting for the first time. As he travels through these poverty stricken offshoots of the former USSR, we are reminded of his scrupulous honesty, his firm belief that the bleaker aspects of a country cannot be ignored—as they have been by so many writers of the “isn’t it lovely here” persuasion. Theroux has always sought to produce a balanced view in his travel writing, and while that may not fuel everyone’s ideal dream, I believe that it cuts much closer to the honest reality of the experience.

Fans of Theroux’s work will find all his strengths on display in this new book: his gift for dialogue, precise observation, the well-chosen anecdote or detail which reveals a place, and a full cast of fascinating characters. From the brilliant opening chapter—which startles by calling into question the very practice of travel writing—you can expect to be well and truly hooked.
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Nov 22, 2010 Storey rated it 4 of 5 stars

Great travel writing. What a trip! Starting in England, going through Hungary, Romania, Azerbaijan, Turkey, India, Burma, Vietnam, China, Japan, Russia....you name it, and then back to England! Oh, and all by train of course.

Apparently he did the same trip in the 70s but decided to go back as a much older man and in different life circumstances to see how his perspectives had changed as well as how these developing countries had...well..developed! His conclusion? Not a lot had changed except his...more

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Jan 26, 2011 Sean rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

Paul Theroux is probably one of the most interesting authors I've read and because of this book is now one of my favorite authors. The writing is brilliant, the places visted fascinating, and his journey seemed almost too short while I was reading. "Ghost Train" follows Theroux as he travels along most of the path he took in his first travel book, "The Great Railway Bazaar," written in 1972. He takes the journey in large part to see what it is like to return to the places he'd been thirty years...more

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Dec 21, 2010 Andrew added it

Shelves: travel-nonfiction

Ghost Train to the Eastern Star is Theroux at the least caustic I'd
ever seen him. He's older and soberer now, and has a warmth and a
fondness in his heart for Turkey, Georgia, India, Burma, Thailand,
Vietnam, Cambodia, Azerbaijan... this isn't the same Theroux who gaped
in horror in the Great Railway Bazaar or Riding the Iron Rooster.

Part of the reason I read travel writing (and I suspect a whole lot of
others do too) is so that my heart will warm at a passage of a place I
know. Theroux in Bangkok, i...more

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Mar 07, 2011 International Cat Lady rated it 4 of 5 stars

Having a bit of an obsession with 'ghost trains' I must admit that I was initially drawn to this book because of its title. Upon discovering that the trains in question were taking the author through a large chunk of the former Soviet Union (Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Trans-Siberian), I immediately knew I needed to read it. It was a good book, mostly entertaining, incredibly well-written, and exploring a ridiculous number of locales, many of which (such as Turkmenistan and Myanmar) ar...more

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Nov 26, 2009 Zooworld rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: All lovers of travel writing.

Shelves: travel

Thirty three years ago Paul Theroux started the trip that would make his name, The Great Railway Bazaar. In this book he follows in his footsteps to see how the places and people he saw have changed.

While a second version of a popular travel book sometimes shows a lack of ideas, this one is an exception to the rule. Theroux's vivid and detailed writing style adds depth to the things he sees, and with the benefit of hindsight you get a good look at how rapidly developing countries such as India h...more

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Dec 02, 2012 Martin rated it 3 of 5 stars

Excellent as a sampling of Asia from Azerbaijan to Japan's northern reaches. Theroux's descriptions really put you in the scene and contain amazing amounts of information about the places he is passing through. Since he is traveling almost exclusively by train, it is meant to be a ground-level view of Asia, getting to some real out-of-the-way places and exploring the way people live and what makes them tick. The other aspect is he made this trip once before in the 70s, when he was in his 20s, wh...more Excellent as a sampling of Asia from Azerbaijan to Japan's northern reaches. Theroux's descriptions really put you in the scene and contain amazing amounts of information about the places he is passing through. Since he is traveling almost exclusively by train, it is meant to be a ground-level view of Asia, getting to some real out-of-the-way places and exploring the way people live and what makes them tick. The other aspect is he made this trip once before in the 70s, when he was in his 20s, which gives him a great perspective on the way places have changed - or haven't changed - in the course of 40 years. He doesn't spare criticism when he thinks things have gone badly, and he generally doesn't think things are improving much, but he tempers his pessimism with a real appreciation for people, their quirks and their kindnesses. He is mostly friendly, generous and non-judgmental when it comes to the people he meets.

There were things I didn't like about the book, but these were minor irritations. Like everyone of course Theroux has his biases. He tends to assign blame or disapproval to America's government or to Americans. If something has gone wrong in the developing world, chances are there is some U.S. policy at the root cause of it - he actually gives the French higher marks in Vietnam than the U.S., which is debatable.

His views of certain countries lack nuance. Romania is a hellhole, Turkey is paradise on earth. Sri Lanka is a dream, Singapore is an Orwellian nightmare. Perhaps his most bewildering choice is skipping China all together, dismissing it as a land of "go-getters," where soulless people devote all their energies to trying to get rich.

Lastly, he is obsessed with pornography and prostitution. Even though he insists he is happily married and uninterested on a personal level, this doesn't quite dispel the creepiness of his "journalistic" forays into brothels and sex shops. Especially since it is a theme he can't seem to leave alone. Of course it would be wrong to just turn a blind eye to the pervasiveness of the sex trade in Asia - but Theroux is a little too preoccupied with it. Maybe it's the months he slept alone in hotels and train berths that caused his mind to wander.

Again, I stress that these are minor complaints. It would be hard to find a travel book as well-written and entertaining as this one, that covers as much ground. I recommend it for anyone wanting to learn more about Asia, especially if you are looking for ideas for travel destinations that are off the beaten path, you'll definitely come away with some ideas from this book.(less)

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May 28, 2012 Janet Lynch rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

I am an avid Theroux fan so it was so no surprise that I was thrilled by this book. In it, Theroux takes pretty much the same treck he did in his 1978 The Great Railway Bazaar, my introduction to the author thirty years ago. Theroux constantly makes comparisons between the two times, and since I have a greater knowledge of the world now than I did in 1978, I had a greater appreciation for this book. I think of myself as adventurous , but with Theroux, there’s no comparison as he travels mostly b...more

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Feb 21, 2011 Carmen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: travel

When someone wants to recreate something they did many years ago the phrase you can't go home again comes to mind. But somehow it worked out pretty well for Paul Theroux. In this book, he retakes the train trip from Europe down to Asia, across Russia and back to the starting point. This time he can visit Vietnam, but not Iran and Iraq. Many places have changed but not all for the better. He still writes about the people he meets,the famous and the unknown, and makes you feel like you have been o...more

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Aug 10, 2009 Janet rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: travel

33 years on from The Great Railway Bazaar, the travel book that made his name, Paul Theroux is back on the train. He takes a journey through Europe, Asia, Japan and back through Russia and the former soviet block states.

I really enjoyed going on this journey with Paul Theroux. His scathing edge has mellowed from earlier books. The critics were divided with many opining that it's far too long and rambling. However, I enjoyed the diversions, meetings with other authors and his philosophiziing comm...more

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About Paul Theroux

Paul Edward Theroux is an American travel writer and novelist, whose best known work is The Great Railway Bazaar (1975), a travelogue about a trip he made by train from Great Britain through Western and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, through South Asia, then South-East Asia, up through East Asia, as far east as Japan, and then back across Russia to his point of origin. Although perhaps best know...more

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“I think most serious and omnivorous readers are alike- intense in their dedication to the word, quiet-minded, but relieved and eagerly talkative when they meet other readers and kindred spirits.” — 17 people liked it

“Most travel, and certainly the rewarding kind, involves depending on the kindness of strangers, putting yourself into the hands of people you don't know and trusting them with your life.” — 1 person liked it

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