Travelling the World

by Paul Theroux

An illustrated anthology of the travel writings of Paul Theroux who has made his own choice of his favourite people, his most vivid journeys, his most narrow escapes and his most memorable experiences. The author also wrote "The Great Railway Bazaar", "Chicago Loop" and "Riding the Iron Rooster".

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

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 known as a travelogue writer, Theroux has also published numerous works of fiction, some of which were made into feature films. He was awarded the 1981 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his novel The Mosquito Coast.

He is the father of Marcel and Louis Theroux, and the brother of Alexander and Peter. Justin Theroux is his nephew.

Reviews

[Daren · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a clever thing. Theroux has taken six of his excellent travel books (The Great Railway Bazaar(GRB), The Old Patagonian Express: By Train Through the Americas(OPE), The Kingdom by the Sea: A Journey Around the Coast of Great Britain, Riding the Iron Rooster: By Train Through China(RIR), Down the Yangtze, Sunrise With Seamonsters: Travels And Discoveries 1964-1984), and selected a number of excerpts from each, publishing them with quite a lot of photographs.

Where it is clever is that this book of excerpts will appeal to those who don't want a whole book of Theroux, but a highlights package. In this case it isn't an inconsistency that I have rated this book higher than some of the full source books - they really are highlights.

In particular, I like the excerpts that have been chosen which detail a full interaction with someone - these are fantastically amusing in Theroux's full books, but to have them in isolation is even better. These include such memorable people as Mister Duffill (early in the GRB), Mr Bhardwaj (on the way to Simla - GRB), Mr Gopal (in Jaipur - GRB), Mr Thornberry (Costa Rica - OPE), Belles Du Jour (Natasha and Olga, Moscow - RIR), Mr jiang (Endangered species banquet, somewhere in China -RIR), but perhaps my favourite, is Mr Fu driving guide extraordinaire, who drives Theroux to Tibet (well, part of the way until he crashes, when Theroux takes over the driving, except for the last 100m or so of each leg, so that Mr Fu can save face by arriving as the driver) - from Riding the Iron Rooster.

If you are not familiar with these characters (well, people really) then grab a copy of this book, or the source books and track them down, highly recommended. Great photos accompany the writing.

Four stars comfortably. I hesitate to add that nothing I read in The Kingdom by the Sea: A Journey Around the Coast of Great Britain inspires me to pick up a copy. If found Theroux's excerpts from that book pretty flat.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of selected previously published Theroux travel writings is the same book (i.e., the same text) as Theroux's "To the ends of the earth" -- just repackaged with pictures. The pictures don't add much (except that they somehow they make the book seem like a junior high school social studies textbook), but the text is still great, cf. my 4-star rating of "To the ends of the earth."