Wall to Wall: From Beijing to Berlin By Rail

by Mary Morris

Recounts the author's journey from the Great Wall of China, across the arid Mongolian plains, through Siberia to Moscow and then the Berlin Wall. The book offers both a personal narrative and a perspective on the political changes now taking place in China, the USSR and Germany.

Genres: Travel, China, Asia, Russia, Nonfiction, Memoir, Germany

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

I was born in Chicago and, though I have lived in New York for many years, my roots are still in the Midwest and many of my stories are set there. As a writer my closest influences are Willa Cather and F. Scott Fitzgerald. I travel as much as I can and travel fuels everything I do. When I travel, I keep extensive journals which are handwritten and include watercolors, collage as well as text. All my writing begins in these journals. I tend to move between fiction and nonfiction. I spent seventeen years working on my last novel, The Jazz Palace. I think I learned a lot writing that book because the next one only took three years., Gateway to the Moon. Gateway which will be out in March 2018 is historical fiction about the secret Jews of New Mexico. I am also working on my fifth travel memoir about my travels alone. This one is about looking for tigers.

Reviews

[Ashley Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was phenominal - not only is Mary Morris probably the most self-honest person on the planet (I don't think I could read my actions for truth like she does even if I wanted to) but she's a fantastic writer. Her personal struggles combined with the fascinating travel events make this a truly enthralling read. It's set in such a dramatic time in history - Morriw was in China, Russia, and Germany in 1986. Seeing some of those historic events happening through her eyes is unbelievably interesting. Great read!

[Belton Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thinking back on the past 2 years, I realize that the books I loved most were well-written, addressing searches of self and the idea of home, and involved journeys -- whether far or within a hotel. Wall to Wall is an astounding book, fresh, despite the fact that the trip on which it was based took place in 1986. Fresh, despite the fact that the account (book) was written in 1991. And, I am reading it on interlibrary loan almost 30 years later. This book traverses places I've been -- alone as a single woman and years later with my spouse -- which are both exotic (China, Russia) and modern (Germany). The author's honesty and chutzpah shine through this adventure. Her openness to people and situations coupled with her great ability to convey these brings us an intimate view of a viscous yet navigable world. She is travelling with strangers on historic equipment (the Trans-Siberian railroad dates to the early 20th century) through dangerous lands (with KGB and other on-lookers) and barren offerings (despite the menus, the meals were whatever they had, often broth, onions, and maybe some grain). In short, it was a trip of upset expectations, lack of control, and no escapes. Yet it was a trip of discovery and conquest. It was a page-turner with a person I really cared for as she pushed on through an unknown territory.

Why did I read this "old" book? Because I loved Gateway to the Moon. And, surprisingly, she mentions that place early in this book. Also because I've been to both Walls -- The Great Wall of China and the Berlin Wall (albeit after it had fallen). And, finally, though I've been to Russia, including some long tedious and most interesting trips on a 2-lane road from Novrogod to Moscow, the description of what Russia was like then and in Siberia was fascinating and compelling.

What are the other books that I've read that all tie together for me is the amazing quest of self and home? Wall To Wall is a classic -- both history (as I read it years later than the reality that was then and has been overturned) and travel. Gentleman in Moscow -- a long journey through a changing and challenging history from the confines of a hotel "prison". An Odyssey: Father, Son and an Epic -- a journey through the lasting history of literature and the fleeting history and travel of an 80+ year old father and his son. Each discovering the other though they've known each other for many years. Gateway to the Moon -- by the same author of Wall to Wall, a history of the Jewish diaspora in the middle ages and the unconnected remnants found in the isolated culture of southern New Mexico. The Golden Age, about teenagers coming of age in post-WWII Australia while facing the specter of life-sapping polio. These five books have been my favorites. At least one was discussed in both books clubs to which I belong.

What ties them together? The search for meaning in travel to find ancestors (one's "self history"), the yearn for travel to find places to learn and reinvent ourselves into hopefully better selves, or just to survive. The perpetual longing for home/family, though at the end not always blood-related. The triumph of humanity -- in imagination, exploration, perseverance, curiosity, and remembrance of one's history, bad or good. I would add one other book to the list: The War I Finally Won. All embrace the heroism of just moving forward, of changing what can/should be changed; of celebrating the others with whom we interact, sometimes for a single moment, sometimes for a lifetime. All exalt the importance of love and grace from unexpected places, people and situations. All convey joys despite barriers. In a word, all express the human condition at its best.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mary Morris is an excellent writer. She has a way of describing her travels that inspires wanderlust to the point of heartache. Her previous book about her adventures in Mexico and South America (Nothing to Declare) was, in my opinion, a better overall read than Wall to Wall, but the Beijing and Berlin journey was enjoyable nonetheless.

It’s interesting to read these somewhat dated books; so much has happened in these countries since Morris’s exploration in the late 1980’s. It’s astounding the amount of change that can take place in a matter of just 30 years. Freedom comes and goes, borders are closed and opened, leaders are made and destroyed. A few short years and you’re in a whole new world.

My only complaint about this book, if you could even call it a complaint, is Morris’s constant use of the word “perhaps.” I mean, it’s a great word, yes. I’ve been known to throw it in a piece or two. But when you have at least two (sometimes three or four!) of the same word in each paragraph, no matter what word it is, you know you’ve gone too far.

Other than that, the book was a delight. A quick, palate-cleansing read; about 24 hours cover to cover. Fun at times, insightful and solemn at others. Nicely done.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mary Morris details her trip from Beijing to Berlin via the Trans-Siberian Railway with stops in Moscow and Leningrad. Her descriptions and details of Beijing and the Great Wall took me right back to our trip there. Along her journey she intersperses wonderful bits of history without making it sound like a lecture and yet helping us to understand the culture.
I was astonished that she traveled this alone in 1986 and ventured into the cities with people she had just met.

[Lyra · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's been a long time since I read this, but it has stuck with me ever since I first encountered it closing in on 20 years ago.

[Nicki · Rating 4 out of 5]

As is sometimes the case, another writer's book led me to Mary Morris.

What an interesting time to be traveling alone, especially a woman alone, and she is as quick on her feet as she is on the page. She relates a fascinating account of taking the Trans Siberian Railway to Moscow: I'm pretty intrepid, but nothing could have induced me to travel within the borders of what was then east Germany, or try to outmaneuver the KGB and/or her handlers in the former Soviet Union in pursuit of visiting a banished poet or meeting other refuseniks. While she didn't know she was pregnant while on the TSR, she learned shortly thereafter in Moscow, but nevertheless kept wandering into bars anyway. I lost a notch of respect for her there, I have to say. Her original travel plan was to travel to the Ukraine from Moscow to see the place of her grandparents birth, but the horrendous Chernobyl nuclear accident had occurred only weeks before. For awhile, she insanely tries to pursue going there, but the good sense and and tactful steering by her Soviet handlers as well as an entrenched bureaucratic Soviet system keep her from doing the deed. I get a sense that common sense isn't common to Mary Morris. I hope she found what she was longing for -- and conquered that inexplicable restless and unease that afflicts her daily and manages to telegraph into her writing. When she writes about her travels and observations of their people she is interesting and engaging; her forays into memoir are less so. Still in all, a very good read.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wonderful travelogue of Morris' journey by rail across China, Russia and Germany in 1986, a time just before significant socio-political change arrived to all three nations. A highly introspective work, Morris initiated the journey with a goal of visiting the region near Kiev where her ancestors derived but unfortunately, the Chernobyl disaster brought obvious challenges to completing this. Regardless, it is a work, read now thirty years later, which depicts snapshots of how a solo female traveler faced the idiosyncrasies of moving within these environments which were ripe with bureaucracy and suspicion but also peppered with the generosity of strangers and some profound landscape beauty. Quite enjoyable and rather than feeling dated, it was informative and unexpectedly reflective, particularly the portions dedicated to East Germany. A pleasantly introspective travel memoir.

[Dot · Rating 2 out of 5]

Imagine Eat, Pray, Love without the humor and self-awareness. The author seemed to be constantly meeting people who fell all over themselves to worship her because she was American, which began ringing false pretty quickly. And why not give the absent partner a pseudonym, rather than coyly referring to him as the companion, which was a constant reminder that this person didn't occupy enough space in the author's mind to warrant a name? I was relieved when the journey ended and I could move on to another book that didn't make me wince.

[Jane Demuth · Rating 5 out of 5]

"All my life I had imagined this terrain, a country as much within me as without, a landscape that seemed almost of my own making. I could not look at this land and not think about its history. And I could not think of its history without thinking of my own. We crossed frozen ground, ice-trimmed lakes. Peering through the open shade, I saw a world outside that seemed no different from the one I carried within. Cold, hungry, empty, and vast."

This quote alone earns this book five stars.

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Morris gives personal insight into what it was like to travel by train from Beijing to Berlin during the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. She also also gives political, historical, and cultural context to the places she visited. The book is a quick read and I would recommend it to anyone interested in travel memoirs or the Soviet Union in the mid-1980s.

[Rhonda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting to read now to see what these areas were like in the mid 1980s from a Western perspective, including the recent Chernobyl nuclear disaster, and from the perspective of her family history as a Russian Jew. I was expecting more of the book to be about the rail journey, but it was p. 67 before she got on the train. There are lots of references to how tired she was, which only made sense right at the end. A good companion piece to a similar book on travel in remote areas in the 1980s - A Traveller on Horseback by Christina Dodwell, which I read at the same time.

[NORMAN JAMES LEITE · Rating 5 out of 5]

A most heart rending and enjoyable read, best done in one sitting. Although the telling is 39 years ago the message to the world is still very relevant today. The difference is that the antagonists for conflict come from the west, especially America, and the silenced east is in a more powerful and equipped position to resist conflict than it was 39 years ago

[Blaire · Rating 5 out of 5]

I, at first, mistook this author's seeming lack of verve for boredom or apathy....turns out she was exhaustedly, newly pregnant. Judge book, cover...etc.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I recently read a review of what purported to be a travel book which commented that more and more the tendency is for a travelogue to be "autobiographical peregrinations" which expose the writer's mind and heart as well as the countryside. That could be said of Mary Morris and her account of her travel by train across China and Russia, but that does not make the book any less successful in my eyes. A novelist who had wanted for many years to travel to Russia to see the area from where her family had come, she had been in China with her "companion" of many years. When he left to go to a work related conference and then home to New York, she took the train across China, planning to go to Russia and then to Germany and home. This was right after the Chernobyl disaster and there was great question as to whether it was safe to go in that direction. Then she discovered she was pregnant...

[Kristen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't remember reading this, so it must not have made much of an impression.

This was another Peace Corps read as is obvious from the quote I pulled:

p. 138
"Once a year or so when I am gloomy, my parents say why don't you come home? At times the possibility draws me near, but I try to envision this for myself. Lunches at the Country Kitchen with high school friends. Gossip about who will divorce, who will remarry. Girlhood squabbles repeating themselves well into adulthood, over and over again. Sundays spent with my family watching a football game. ... It is a reality that is incomprehensible to me.
"I am caught in this web between a desire for permanence and a deep sense of loss."

[Francesca · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was good, but I think I liked Nothing to Declare a little more. I found I missed the characters and relationships from that book. In Nothing to Declare because she was living in Central America (and not just passing through) she established relationships with some of the people there, deeper than with any of those she encountered on her train trip from China through Russia and to Germany. But because she traveled through Russia during such a historically significant time - right after Chernobyl - it added a certain gravity to her trip.

[Siobhan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the first travel book I read on my own. It was written during the cold war. It was very descriptive. Also I loved the fact she gave her personal reasons to do the journey, which was had to with her family originating from Russia. I would reccomend this to anyone with an interest in travel writing or history.

[Betty · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a travel book with a difference. Mary Morris's personal story is interwoven with the story of her travels. The point in time is pin-pointed by the Chernobyl disaster. I read this book at least ten years ago, but it has stayed clearly in my mind as one of the most involving travel reads I have read.

[Blaine Morrow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mary shares her life, the history of the regions where she travels, and the sites and people she meets in a very readable travelogue. Much has changed since then, but her insights are still interesting and useful.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this was one of the first travel books I ever read. Having picked it up not realizing exactly what it was, I was surprised that travel writing could be so interesting & allow for the exploration of more than just landmarks.

[Monica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just re-read this one, and upped my review to 5 stars. Great book. I'm kind of sorry I gave my old copy of it away.