s/t: 28,000 Miles in Search of the Railway Bazaar
Thirty years after his classic The Great Railway Bazaar, Paul Theroux revisits Eastern Europe, C...
read full description
reviews
Dec 20, 2008
Stephanie
rated it: 
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 wh More...
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 wh More...
0 comments
like
(2 people liked it)
Jan 21, 2009
Bob
rated it: 
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 descr More...
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 descr More...
2 comments
like
(2 people liked it)
Oct 06, 2008
Michael
rated it:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
Oct 14, 2009
Mlmlmn
rated it: 
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.
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.
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Aug 07, 2011
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 occasion
More...
Feb 05, 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, 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 tow
More...
Sep 25, 2011
Patrick
rated it:
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 Railw
More...
May 22, 2011
Ms. T
rated it:
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 yo
More...
May 15, 2011
Elaine
rated it: 
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 Mid More...
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 Mid More...
Feb 28, 2011
Keith
rated it:
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 definitiv More...
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 definitiv More...
Jan 30, 2011
Linda
rated it:
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; pr More...
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; pr More...
Nov 27, 2010
Jim
rated it:
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...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Nov 03, 2010
Linda
rated it:
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
More...
Oct 12, 2010
Kiwiflora
rated it:
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...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Jun 09, 2010
Elaine
rated it:
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 author More...
Not many author More...
Jun 19, 2009
Bill
rated it:
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 d More...
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 d More...
Nov 22, 2010
Storey
rated it:
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 More...
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 More...
Mar 05, 2011
Robin K.
rated it:
Theroux retracing his voyage after thirty years, concluding that 'most of the world is worsening, shrinking to a ball of bungled desolation'. But he is a happier man than when he took that first journey. Quite a lot to offend many, including depersonalization of women and rabid criticism of several fellow authors (Naipul among them) yet his observations of the less-visited corners of the world and its masses of people is always fascinating and rich with detail. He reports on visits with Sir A
More...
Jan 26, 2011
Sean
rated it:
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'
More...
Dec 21, 2010
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 More...
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 More...
Mar 07, 2011
International Cat Lady
rated it:
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...
Nov 26, 2009
Zooworld
rated it:
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 suc More...
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 suc More...
Feb 21, 2011
Carmen
rated it:
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 be
More...
Aug 10, 2009
Janet
rated it:
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 philosop More...
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 philosop More...
Apr 27, 2009
Pat
rated it:
I don't like any of Paul Theroux's novels, including The Mosquito Coast - too dark for my liking. However, I do like much of his travel writing. Still, some of his travel writing has been marred by his persona, which is as likely to come across as nasty and with a generally dyspeptic view of the people he meets and the places he goes. However, when his mood is better, I really enjoy his writing. This was one of his better books - a retracing of the Great Railway Bazaar trip which he took ove
More...
0 comments
like
(2 people liked it)
Aug 09, 2009
Carrie
rated it:
Paul Theroux really ticked me off. For one, anyone who spends as much time as he did seeking out the seediest, sluttiest parts of each city he visits can't like women very much. I highly doubt he never once succumbed to the temptations he put himself in proximity of, despite his claims. He also sees himself as sacrificing himself for his art by taking on this lengthy journey, but I really think he's just a self-absorbed blowhard.
It would be easy to dismiss this book on those grounds, More...
It would be easy to dismiss this book on those grounds, More...
May 20, 2011
Cwalker
rated it:
I enjoyed this more than the Great Railway Bazaar and was sorry when it ended. It included more details of Theroux's personal life and philosophy and I found it instructive about countries such as Turkmenistan about which I knew nothing. It includes interesting literary interviews and anecdotes about a range of writers including Arthur C Clarke in Sri Lanka. I now have a long reading list of works mentioned by Theroux in the book to take me to new destinations. One of the highlights for me was r
More...
Dec 16, 2008
Dale
rated it:
This is Theroux's attempt to retrace the route of his first travel book, 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 that he repaired on his more recent journey. This time, however, he was not able to travel in Afghanistan, Iraq, or Iran, for obvious reasons.
I found the book fascinating. Theroux is not af More...
I found the book fascinating. Theroux is not af More...
Feb 02, 2012
Jennifer
rated it: 
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
Jan 22, 2010
Michael
rated it:
In this autumnal book by the skilled novelist and travel writer, the author retraces the trip he took by rail in 1973 from London to India, Southeast Asia and Japan with return to London via the Trans-Siberian Express. To make this trip in 2005 he needs to change the itinerary due to the troubles in Central Asia but hits many of the places he first described with a young man's perspective a generation earlier.
If parts of the earlier book, 'The Great Railway Bazaar: By Train Through More...
If parts of the earlier book, 'The Great Railway Bazaar: By Train Through More...
