Ghost Train to the Eastern Star: On the Tracks of the Great Railway Bazaar
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- ISBN13: 9780547237930
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
Half a lifetime ago, Paul Theroux virtually invented the modern travel narrative by recounting his grand tour by train through Asia. In the three decades since, the world he recorded in that book has undergone phenomenal change.The Soviet Union has collapsed and China has risen; India booms while Burma smothers under dictatorship; Vietnam flourishes in the aftermath of the havoc America was unleashing on it the last time he passed through.
In Ghost Train to the Eastern Star, Theroux re-makes that earlier journey. His odyssey takes him from eastern Europe, still hung-over from communism, through tense but thriving Turkey into the Caucasus, where Georgia limps back toward feudalism while its national Azerbaijan revels in oil-fueled capitalism.Theroux is firsthand witness to it all, encountering adventures only he could have: from the literary (sparring with the sharp Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk) to the dissolute (extant a week-long bender on the Trans-Siberian Railroad).Wherever he goes, his omnivorous curiosity and unerring eye for detail never fail to inspire, enlighten, inform, and entertain.
Amazon Best of the Month, August 2008: Way back in the dark pre-Internet, limited-air-travel world of 1975, the way to get from Europe to Asia was by train. A young and ambitious writer named Paul Theroux made his literary mark by taking the 28,000-mile intercontinental journey via rail from London to Tokyo and back home again. His book, The Fantastic Railway Bazaar, became a travel-lit classic. Thirty years later, an older, wiser, and even less sanguine Theroux chose to retrace his steps. The result is Ghost Train to the Eastern Star, a fascinating account of the places you abstractedly knew existed (Tbilisi), probably won’t ever go to (Bangalore), but certainly should know something about (Mandalay). Get on board Theroux’s quick-moving travelogue, which features some of the most astute commentary on our distorted notions of time, space, and each additional in the age of jet speed, broadband relations, and cultural extinction. –Lauren Nemroff
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I will spare few minutes of my precious time to write persons lines.
I was born and raised in France, then stirred to Singapore in 1992 where my daughters and I became proud Singaporean in 2006.
Yesterday I was a Limits and my eyes got caught by Mr Theroux’s book “Ghost Train to the Eastern Star: On the track of the Fantastic Railway Bazar” latest edition. I was in the intention of purchasing this book until I read what he said regarding his pause in Singapore.
I was shocked by such critics, clichés and really incorrect analyses. Mr Theroux understood absolutely nothing of our country, our people, our values etc…. and reflect he is in position of despising us and our gorgeous island.
After reading persons pages with sadness and even disgust, I chose that I will not buy this book as his testimony was so incorrect for Singapore that I can’t trust what he will say about others countries. As a matter of fact, I will never buy another book from this leader who is not worse reading.
As for Mr Theroux, it is excellent in a way that he did not appreciate our country so at least he will not be around as we don’t need people like him.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
If what Paul Theroux mentions in the rest of his book is as far from fact as the part he writes on Vietnam and Cambodia; then this book should be in the fiction section of book stores.
Hanoi was never daily bombed by B52s for years on end as he states. Pot Pol and his reign of terror can not in any way be compared with the American Anti-Terroist Effort by any right headed thinking individual, as he states.
I reflect Paul Theroux should have quit writting when he became senile. This book is long, it is tedious and it a misrepresentation of fact. For the first time in my long life I will throw a book into the trash can.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
I keenly anticipated this book as I painstakingly appreciated “Dark Star Safari”. I was, but, disappointed and turned off in the extreme by this hateful Theroux effort.
Theroux seems to want to bash America at every opportunity. He waxes on rhapsodically about modern Viet Nam and its rising prosperity. He juxtaposes the bombing of Hanoi with a picture of the Vietnamese as all kind and forgiving. He relates in a joyful fashion the tale of a 17 year ancient that was sent off by his family tree to fight the Americans. Of course, Vietnamese women are gorgeous and noble. But, when the Vietnamese are questioned, they want to come to America. Theroux manages to equate water boarding with the torture and extremes of the Pol Pot regime in Cambodia. Never mind that the ex- kills no one nor does it place lasting physical hurt, while the latter nearly permanently resulted in the long, excruciating death of its victims. Theroux distills Bin Laden’s hatred of America down to our support of the Saudi royal family tree. No deep thinking here.
The writer’s obsession with prostitution is disturbing. He seems to seek out the most depraved areas of a land as if this in some way tells something about that society. I reflect that it says more about Theroux himself and I do not like what it says. Pages upon pages are devoted to this topic while wonderfully, there is about one-half of one page devoted to China. China, the most populous land in the world and the country destined to be one of the two, if not the most vital of this century. This can only be because of his fantastic disdain for a modern China which has embraced Capitalism in place of the strict Communist doctrine which Theroux, the unrepentant ancient lefty that he is, cannot tolerate.
Theroux does take us to places that few of us will ever see. For that the book gets an added star. But, one must remember the misanthropic, condescending prism that Theroux sees the world through.
Reader’s Rating: 2 / 5
I was so looking forwards to his new book, but i must say, its a struggle to get through it.. yes,sex seems to be the criteria for his new book and he doesn;t seemed to be enjoying his travels very much, It comes though in the book…
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
Open Letter to Paul Theroux on his latest book “Ghost Train to the Eastern Star,” on the Tracks of the Fantastic Railway Bazaar, Published iu 2008
Dear Paul,
I read the first 5 sections of your new book while stuck at home during the worst rain storm that hit Istanbul , the town that you have written about and seem to like very much. It is a very appealing book like many that you have written before, including the Fantastic Railway Bazaar which is re-made in the new book with additional comments. I had read Fantastic Railway Bazaar in 1988 while effective in Atlanta , Georgia , more then 21 years ago and will keep referring to it as I read the “Ghost Train” which may take some time.. But, I want to point out several issues with your book now, which are reasonably bothersome and puts you in the same category of authors who tell only one side of the tales.
The first of thirty two chapters of “Ghost Train” is on the Eurostar and the second chapter on the Orient Prompt, which incidentally was in Istanbul just last week, despite the rumours that it will be discontinued. In Chapter three, the Ferry to Besiktas, you write about Orhan Pamuk and refer to his book “Istanbul” and his comments on the Armenians and the Kurds. Then on page 43, you make the following statement:
“The massacre of Armenians a century ago, the later expulsion of Greeks, and the Kurdish outrages and Turkish reprisals are lamentable facts of Turkish history; still, no city in Asia is so self-consciously reform-minded.”
First, dear Paul, don’t you reflect you should have also mentioned the Armenian rebellions and uprisings all over eastern Anatolia and the massacre of Turks by the Armenians which resulted in the death of Armenians as well when many Armenians revolted against their government with the support of the British Empire , the French the Russians and others. I would recommend you to watch a documentary called “Revolt” that will show you the additional side of the Tale. The Greeks invaded Anatolia in 1919 and the Greeks of Anatolia joined the Greek army in the hurt of cities and the massacre of Turks across western Anatolia which resulted in the population exchange of Greeks, not expulsions. I am sure you are aware of the thousands of killings by the Kurdish terrorists since 1984 which took the lives of 7 soldiers just two days ago.
In the following paragraph you state:
“This (Istanbul) is the most easily negotiated and hospitable cities in the world makes me a mild Turkophile”. Well, why then don’t you tell the truth about the Armenian, Greek and Kurdish issues.
In the next chapter 4, “Night Train to Ankara” you write about your encounter with Prof. Talat Halman, the Culture man of Turkey . I am glad you were enlightened on some aspects of Turkish issues thanks to Prof. Halman.
It is a pity that you had to take a bus from Ankara to Trabzon as a replacement for of taking a train from Ankara to Erzurum and bus on to Trabzon . This trip in train carriages made in Turkey (which you do not mention in your book) would have agreed you a chance to stop in Sivas where Ataturk held a talks on September 4 1919 during his incredible trip from Samsun to Ankara which lay the foundation of the Turkish Republic . A visit to Ataturk’s Mosaleum in Ankara would have also helped you to really know Turkey , which you have not mentioned in your book, a monument like no additional in the world. You mention Elif Safak with affection and state that you had her book with you during the journey, which is fine. I read many of her books, including “Baba ve Pic”, which I did not care for and wrote to her about it. But how about Merry Lee Settle’s “Turkish Reflections”, a book that very traveller to Turkey should read. Also, “The Birds Lacking Wings” by Lous Bergier which tells the tale of the Greeks and Armenians in turkey truthfully. Of course the book by Gazi Mustafa kemal Ataturk himself, “Nutuk – The Speech.” If you had read these books, you would not have made the statement on page 43.
In a review of your book, “Riding the Iron Rooster”, Mark Salzman wrote on June 19, 1988 that, although you saw every confront of the country ( China ), rumor has it that didn’t make any Chinese friends. Having read many of your books (27 fiction and 14 nonfiction – book of criticism on V.S. Naiapul is something else altogether), I can also state that you have made friends with the incorrect people in Turkey except Prof. Emel Dogramaci of Cankaya University and Prof. Talat Halman of Bilkent University, one of my and many Turk’s hero.
I hope you will consider revising the above paragraph because it does not tell the whole tale and please come and stay longer in Turkey to really know this nation of Turks better.
Regards.
Yuksel Oktay
Washington , NJ
Reader’s Rating: 3 / 5