Starting with a rush-hour subway ride to South Station in Boston to catch the Lake Shore Limited to Chicago, Theroux winds up on the poky, wanderin...
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reviews
May 14, 2008
Mike
rated it: 
I am willing to change my mind. Someone said that they liked the descriptions of this travel novel but would hate to have to go anywhere with this author. I would prefer to hear about these places through the perspective of someone else. Theroux is hard to read not due to the complexity of his prose, but because of his voice. He is stuck up, self- aggrandizing, and misanthropic. What distinguishes Theroux from other misanthropes who may be worth reading is that he himself does not offer much to
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Jan 18, 2009
Sarah
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Paul Theroux rocks my world. Sarcastic, at times down right irreverent. Very insightful.
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Nov 04, 2011
Tony
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This book was misnamed. A better title would have been "An East Coast Uppity Goes Into Culture Shock". It was really far from being a travel book. It had very little to do with trains in the sense that being a railfan has. It was more an excuse to take pokes at the U.S., capitalism, religion, and of all things, the CIA. Most everything in the book was blamed on those things, from the poverty stricken to the wealthy to everything in between.
Theroux had an annoying habit of More...
Theroux had an annoying habit of More...
Jan 22, 2011
Sean
rated it:
"The Old Patagonian Express" by Paul Theroux is in some ways the negation of most travel narratives. While most delve deeply in thick, often exotic description of the writer's destination, Theroux decides to make the journey the narrative, writing a book c...oncerned with "the going and the getting there, the poetry of departures." A classic of travel literature, "The Old Patagonian Express" is a deeply engaging book from a keen, talented author and traveler. The id
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Nov 16, 2010
Shahina
rated it: 
From my old blog .... <<Paul Theroux‘s The old Patagonian Express, By Train through the Americas-
It’s a very old book again, first published around 1979, the journey itself undertaken by Theroux in his late thirties – he sounds much older though!
The idea behind the journey - trace a route by train from Boston to the end of where he could go down South.
Next, the journey itself, with an obscure beginning - boarding the subway commuter train from Boston, the author’s supers More...
It’s a very old book again, first published around 1979, the journey itself undertaken by Theroux in his late thirties – he sounds much older though!
The idea behind the journey - trace a route by train from Boston to the end of where he could go down South.
Next, the journey itself, with an obscure beginning - boarding the subway commuter train from Boston, the author’s supers More...
Jul 12, 2011
Chris
rated it:
"It helps to take the train if one wishes to understand. Understanding was like a guarantee of depression, but it was an approach to the truth."
This is the fourth Paul Theroux book I've read. Each was extraordinary, particularly this one. Yet it seems like Theroux doesn't enjoy these adventures at times. Of course, when you consider that a Mexican conductor set him up as a smuggler, a night in Limon, Costa Rica, could have been deadly were it not for an annoying fellow Americ More...
This is the fourth Paul Theroux book I've read. Each was extraordinary, particularly this one. Yet it seems like Theroux doesn't enjoy these adventures at times. Of course, when you consider that a Mexican conductor set him up as a smuggler, a night in Limon, Costa Rica, could have been deadly were it not for an annoying fellow Americ More...
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Nov 27, 2007
Heather
rated it: 
why anybody would want to waste their time reading this judgmental, curmudgeon of a book by a guy who doesn't even want to visit anything, yet is so cocky in calling himself a traveler and not a tourist, is beyond me... reminds me way too much of an old professor i once dated. and, no, i did not continue wasting my time on this book after 100 pages or so. don't bother!
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Feb 08, 2010
Drew
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In a sense, this is a travel story of Theroux' 1978 solo expedition, almost entirely by train from Medford, MA (during the greatest blizzard New England has ever seen) to southern South America. Throughout, he insists that he is searching for personal anonymity and that his destination is emptiness, a physical waste that mirrors the writer's dreaded yet beloved blank page. Nevertheless, Theroux' primary fixation seems to be with Theroux, or at least a self-presentation that feels extremely ficti
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Feb 05, 2012
Stefano
rated it:
Another great travel book by Theroux.
We find the usual style, strong opinions and ideas of the authors. For a lot of people this is a negative point, I guess instead that this is the basic difference from a normal travelogue. The ideas, the biased opinions and the semi-misanthropic attitude of the author they makes this book difficult-to-forget.
The journey itself is epic (from Boston to the south of Argentina by train) and in some parts really precious (first of all the meeting with More...
We find the usual style, strong opinions and ideas of the authors. For a lot of people this is a negative point, I guess instead that this is the basic difference from a normal travelogue. The ideas, the biased opinions and the semi-misanthropic attitude of the author they makes this book difficult-to-forget.
The journey itself is epic (from Boston to the south of Argentina by train) and in some parts really precious (first of all the meeting with More...
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Jan 18, 2012
I first read Paul Theroux's travel books as a socially awkward middle schooler who dreamed of voyages to Borneo and Namibia. And more than a decade later, I'm still a fan. While he's caustic and unforgiving,he's fair. While bitter, his humanism still shines through.
And The Old Patagonian Express is Theroux at his finest. He takes his scalpel to social dysfunction in El Salvador, boorish Yanks in Costa Rica, and the Duck Soup-level absurdity of the Canal Zone. And it concludes with Ther More...
And The Old Patagonian Express is Theroux at his finest. He takes his scalpel to social dysfunction in El Salvador, boorish Yanks in Costa Rica, and the Duck Soup-level absurdity of the Canal Zone. And it concludes with Ther More...
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Jun 04, 2011
Carmen
rated it:
His second nonfiction book was set in America. Not the US but the whole America. He recounts the train trip which started in Boston Massachusetts and ended in Argentina. Only a few months for this trip, but he fits in more in this trip than others I have read. He speaks Spanish and has enough of the look to be mistaken for a gringo Hispanic. I am always amused by his interjections of books he reads on the trips and books the voyage reminds him of. He always meets famous authors. The book had
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Dec 09, 2009
Rebecca
rated it:
Paul Theroux catches a commuter train on an regular weekday morning in Medford, MA . Two and a half months later he steps of a train in Esquel, Argentina. He starts his journey in an ordinary way and it turns into something new and extraordinary. In Theroux's words "But I had known all along that I had no intention of writing about being in a place--that took the skill of a miniaturist. I was more interested in the going and the getting there, the poetry of departures."
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Oct 23, 2011
Eveline
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This is my first Paul Theroux. At first I thought he seemed like an asshole and his nasty comments about everyone around him on the train were interfering with my enjoyment of the book. It took awhile (more than halfway through) but his downbeat-ness finally started to grow on me, and then the book took off for me. I think it was around when he reached Panama and described the weird, dystopian-sounding world of Americans who were working in conjunction with the running of the Canal, before the C
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Sep 20, 2008
Patricia
rated it:
I've been finished with this book for over a month now and have been slowly ... very slowly ... writing down my thoughts on it. If you're a bottom line man, and I know at heart, you are :), Paul Theroux's The Old Patagonian Express is a good read. For what makes it worth a look, read on.
I started to read Paul Theroux's The Old Patagonian Express: By Train Through the Americas (Mariner 1979) because I immediately liked his voice as a writer. Once into the book, I was charmed by Thero More...
I started to read Paul Theroux's The Old Patagonian Express: By Train Through the Americas (Mariner 1979) because I immediately liked his voice as a writer. Once into the book, I was charmed by Thero More...
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Jan 22, 2008
Oceana2602
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This might very well be my favourite book by Paul Theroux, for many reasons. Theroux writes about this journey from Chicago to Patagonia by train (I almost said "describes his journey", but that is never true with Theroux. Patagonia, is of course, one reason why I loved this book so much. Ever since I first read Chatwin when I was 13, Patagonia has held something magical for me.
The second reason is, if I'm honest with myself, the time I read it. Maybe I needed to read some of his More...
The second reason is, if I'm honest with myself, the time I read it. Maybe I needed to read some of his More...
Feb 24, 2010
Sara
rated it:
Admittedly I did just picture Louis Theroux as opposed to the actual author travelling down South America, but I think they have the same fearless curiosity, so I forgave myself. A real hearty read, with so many words crammed into each page, that it takes as long to read as a book twice it's size. Perhaps that's intentional for the convenience of travellers. I liked the honest style of reportage, kind of reminded me of George Orwell 'Down and out in Paris and London' and 'Homage to Catalonia'.
Jan 11, 2011
Marty
rated it:
The weather is always too hot, too cold, or too rainy; the trains are all crowded, late, rackety, and uncomfortable. Theroux crankily endures plague-carrying rats, obnoxious fellow travellers, altitude sickness, flea-bag accomodations, political unrest and tedium, making this a terrific, schadenfreudish read from the comfort of your own home (but fairly off-putting if you are actually contemplating any kind of train journey or travel through Central or South America.)
Oct 10, 2010
Joanmom
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My first time reading this author. He does a good job describing the different countries he travels through by train from New York City to Patagonia in South America - but - he doesn't say much about enjoying the experience. In fact, he writes more about what he doesn't like, the poverty and his discomfort on the trains and in hotel rooms. It does not make me want to duplicate any of the trip, and I had the impression he was an acclaimed travel writer.
Aug 28, 2011
Nextbestthing
rated it:
I remember reading in this one on a tram in rainy Antwerp, must have been around 1990, it made me want to travel. And I did.
Maybe Happy Isles of Oceania: paddling the Pacific is even better, and certainly The Great Railway Bazar is more important, but this is the one that did it for me.
Happy trails.
Maybe Happy Isles of Oceania: paddling the Pacific is even better, and certainly The Great Railway Bazar is more important, but this is the one that did it for me.
Happy trails.
Jul 16, 2009
Risa
rated it:
i love travel narrative and trains so i thought i'd love this but i gave it one star because the author is such a condescending prat to the people he meets. He manages to make sure his ideas stay intact and wipe away their whole philosophies with a puff of pipe smoke. I had to quit reading it. I'll go back to it and update my review when my prat-o-meter gets set back to zero. might take a while.
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Dec 24, 2009
Marc
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Really enjoyed this journey by train south till you can't go no more. Loved his description of the madness of football games in South America and the lock-down during elections. He's a misanthrope, so you can't get mad at him for seeming to insult a culture with his observations because he's not singling out people. He has contempt for all.
Dec 31, 2010
Jim
rated it:
Theroux takes the train from the top of North America to the tip of South America, which should have been a superb trip, but somehow I found this travelogue unengaging. Perhaps it was too interesting for him. Theroux likes desolation, where the nearest person is to be found about a hundred miles distant, and walking away from Theroux.
Sep 04, 2008
Jon
rated it:
Paul Theroux writes great travel books that are more than mere "travel" books. Most modern writers who write travel books write self-indulgent bourgeois cultural tourist crap. In the Victorian era travel books often had more intellectual weight to them and acted as an early literary form of sociology, economics, and political history. Theroux writes travel books in that older more literate and more intellectual vein. Some highlights of Patagonian Express are the way it treats the socia
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Jun 27, 2010
Paul T takes a train from Medford, MA thru USA, Central American and South America ending in Esquel in Pantagonia. I'm thoroughly enjoying this book. The people he meets, the situations he gets into, the way he writes u can envision everything like u r there. If u like these areas, I highly recommend this book.
Jun 19, 2011
El
rated it:
One of Theroux's gentler reads. He is less angry and is more medatative on writing, books, and train travel. The interesting thing about this trip is the snapshot in time - 1978, before the unrest of the 1980's and before many of these trains are completely shut down, traded in for bus and planes.
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Oct 06, 2011
Lawrence
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Theroux has a tendency to compare foreigners to animals and demean foreign cultures. His writing reminds one of 19th century Great Britain which would make him a 20th century Rudyard Kipling wannabe. He certainly has earned quite a bit of money selling books but his compass is off kilter.
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Jun 23, 2010
e.
rated it:
this was the third of theroux's many travel essay's i've read of his illustrious train travels spanning continents. while 'dark star safari' still remains my favorite, it was great to travel through a part of the world i've never seen through the eyes of such a vivid writer.
Oct 06, 2011
Mo
rated it:
I enjoyed this long train trip with Theroux. (But do I like him as a person? No.) His observations are funny and insightful. As with several other books I found his interaction with famous author Borges rather boring and drawn-out. Overall I really enjoyed this.
Oct 18, 2010
Pamela
rated it:
by train through the Americas. Paul Theroux starts on a Boston subway train and ends in Patagonia, the southmost tip of South America - and all the trains and stops between. An enjoyable way to spend a day, the read... not the train trip.
May 11, 2009
Adrian
rated it:
Ok book written by a pompous sod and literary snob!.......
The author is in no way sympathetic and is the worst person possible to write a travel book.....
He regularly derides natives of countries and their countries also.......
The author is in no way sympathetic and is the worst person possible to write a travel book.....
He regularly derides natives of countries and their countries also.......
