Ghost Train to the Eastern Star: On the Tracks of the Great Railway Bazaar Reviews

• Classic Theroux - This Time Revealing More of the Man Himself

  
  By A2G4PTSPYDX9IC on 2008-08-19
  I assume everyone reading this is familiar with Theroux's latest premise, to retrace the trail he took over thirty years ago when he wrote "The Great Railway Bazaar."
  
  His latest is classic Theroux - observant, infinitely inquisitive (almost nosy), insatiably curious. Few can afford the time, money or emotional strain it would take to complete a journey like this. Consequently, it's wonderful to have a traveler (the author's familiar reference to himself) of this caliber to do it for us. Mostly by land from London, through Eastern Europe, the Subcontinent, Southeast Asia, Japan and home across Russia. I, for one, don't know how he manages to leave his loving wife for that long.
  
  Some have called the author a misanthrope. I don't think that at all. One particular act, which I won't spoil by revealing, distinguishes the man from your average humanity-hater. I appreciated how he usually searched out the oldest rickshaw-wallahs and taxi drivers, people his age who haven't been as fortunate.
  
  I take his observations of annoying people as part of the landscape of a trip of this magnitude. It was inevitable that he'd come across slovenly, boorish, clueless tourists that deservedly reaped the wrath of his rapier wit. I particularly enjoy Theroux's slicing and dicing of holier-than-thou missionaries. When he begins a description of someone he runs into with sly, almost vicious adjectives, look out. You know the game is about to begin.
  
  I share a lot of the author's opinions, especially when he compares lawyers to prostitutes and expresses nothing but disdain for weak-handed politicians and substance-less celebrities. He seems to explore an inordinate number of sex trade sites around the world, shining the light of day on the cockroaches that reap profits from the suffering of others. As a single Western man, I suppose he's bound to be a target for the profiteers trying to separate him from his money. For those of us curious about how such things work in these far-off places, thankfully we have Theroux to describe them for us. Look out, Japan! Your weird fascination with school girls and French maids has been captured in print by one of the best travel writers in the biz!
  
  Theroux seems to reserve special animosity for Singapore. Despite the city-state's facade of prosperity and glamor, wrapped in a mantle of super-security, the author manages to delve below the surface and reveal that here too there is an underworld, seedy sex trade and community of low-life individuals who deal in flesh, including that of the very young. It seems that Theroux is accomplishing a bit of payback here - as he was sacked from a teaching job there way back in the 1960s. From what I can tell, the despotic prime minister and all the mealy-mouthed underlings deserve everything they get.
  
  Paul doesn't seem to hold back on descriptions of people he meets, including some famous writers. I often wonder what they think when they read what he has written about them. He is a bit of a name dropper, managing to rub elbows and spend time with some of today's most famous authors, including Orhan Pamuk, Sir Arthur Clarke and Murakami Haruki, as well as Prince Charles and Camilla. Oh, well. At least we get a bit of insight as to what they're like. I'll never get to talk to them so I'm glad he did. I admit that some I'd never heard of before reading the book so the author has provided another service - to broaden horizons.
  
  I've been to many of the places Theroux describes (Eastern Europe, India, Burma, Southeast Asia, Russia) and it's interesting to read his take on things. He has a habit of looking at places differently, describing and visiting little known sights that, though I was there, never got to. I suppose that's another of his differences between tourists and travelers.
  
  In summary, I'd very highly recommend "Ghost Train." It reveals more of the author than anything he's written thus far; mulling regrets about past mistakes and the inevitable disasters we are all confronted with at some point in life. His sentimental journey, like "Dark Star Safari," allows the reader to understand a lot about why he is the way he is - and where he's coming from.
  
  

• His Best Yet. In My Opinion!

  
  By AFYHI7VU26AWL on 2008-08-04
  I am not done reading this book yet, but I felt compelled to write a review. I have read all of his nonfiction work except Riding The Iron Rooster and in my opinion, this is his best nonfiction work to date. Followed VERY closely by The Pillars of Hercules and then The Old Patagonian Express.
  
  Paul is his usual misanthropic self on this long trip and it's wonderful! He recounts his divorce as he's going through London and remembering when he lived there and taking us back to before he became the Paul Theroux we know today. It's a rather rare insight into the man and I can only assume as he has gotten older he has become a bit more open about these types of feelings. And I appreciate him sharing it with the reader.
  
  There is a magical sense of juxtaposition between the first time he made this journey and this time. And he recounts it in very enjoyable terms. I feel his writing is much tighter in this novel than in some of his other works. He captured my attention from the first page when he described how the average traveler is performing one of the laziest activities on Earth. For, to him, traveling in comfort and "sightseeing" is a lazy man's idea of fun. And I agree. Although, I am not brave enough, nor do I have the time to go on these long train journeys, I admire Paul for opening up my eyes to a very different way of traveling and seeing the world.
  
  I'm not even done with this book yet, but I can tell that this is one of those books you don't want to finish. I wish it would just go on and on. Oh well...
  
  
  
  
  

• Theroux hits his note again

  
  By AGMRIOF4DS8UP on 2008-07-30
  Paul Theroux delivers in Ghost Train to the Eastern Star what the Theroux fan expects: entertaining travelogue laced with acerbic wit, cultural context and social commentary. And, it maintains Theroux's high literary standard; keep a dictionary by your side. The "plot," if one could call it that, is to retrace his steps of 30 years before, when he wrote The Great Railway Bizarre. But, just as you can't really go home again, you can't really go away again, at least on the same path. Fortunately, this obvious point is not a main focus of Ghost Train. Theroux's result this time is closer in style and content to his Dark Star Safari than to any of his other travel works. Coincidentally, the same device of going away again to a place he'd been 30 years before was employed in Dark Star Safari. However, his commentary for Ghost Train is a bit thinner, since it does not benefit from a prolonged earlier stay as he had in Africa. Readers of his Elephanta Suite will benefit from following a subplot: finding the inspirations for the three Elephanta Suite novellas in the Indian portion of his travels.
  
  Small portions of Ghost Train are a bit trite: a place is developed or more populous, so it is not as nice as in the good old days; another place is still great (for the traveler) because it hasn't been modernized. Some of Theroux's favorite villain types appear as in earlier works: the shallow young backpacker, the boorish inconsiderate traveler, the overconfident ignoramus; on the political level the villains include dictators, Chinese government exploitation of third world countries, and soulless bureaucrats. There are wonderful, dark broodings on the nature of travel and specifically Theroux's kind of travel, especially at the beginning where they serve like Dante's warning at the gates of hell. The warnings to young whippersnappers not to try to follow him or one-up him are also pretty amusing. The ambivalent commentary on the nature of solitary travel is successfully carried through the whole book, along with commentary on his experience of aging. Readers in Theroux's approximate age cadre - the 60 to 75 year olds who still get around - will find this aging theme particularly worthwhile; he will serve as your foil, or more likely you will find plenty of material to apply to yourself. As with other Theroux travel works, you are not encouraged to go, and you will not want to use this book as a travel guide. Instead, it prompts the moderately experienced traveler to think, "I'm glad I didn't step in that.... but I'm glad I read about it."
  
  
  

• a sequel worth waiting for

  
  By A3R6PI47EF3F83 on 2008-08-19
  Paul Theroux published his classic travel book the Great Railway Bazaar in 1975. He had traveled by train across Europe and Asia in 1973. That book gave notice that Theroux was a literary force. The success of that book made Theroux the comfortable writer that we have known ever since.
  
  This new book re-traces that epic adventure. Theroux is older, wiser, more affluent but still like a small boy in many ways. His observations regarding what is different now and what has stayed the same are thorough and entertaining. His interactions with the people he meets along the way are little treasures.
  
  As Theroux passes from place to place we get a sense of the world that informs us at the deepest level. The devastation the tsunami brought to Sri Lanka becomes real to us. Cambodia is truly a country of ghosts.Vietnam is vibrant and youthful. Laos is primitive. Singapore a repressive zombie state. The country formerly known as Burma is simply repressive but Theroux is delighted to meet people there who remember him from his first time through.
  
  He tracks down his peers, writers like Orhan Pamuk in Turkey, Arthur C. Clarke in Sri Lanka, Haruki Murakami and Pico Iyer in Japan. And he sees people reading his books. He watches with voyeuristic delight as a fellow passenger peruses "The Mosquito Coast." He can't resist informing this young female backpacker that I WROTE THAT.
  
  An amazing adventure - Theroux is at the top of his game here. He devotes only a half page to China. This omission is by design. Theroux doesn't conceal his feelings or his opinions.
  
  

• Yet Another Winner...

  
  By A32PO2TBRRQMA7 on 2008-08-27
  This thoughtful book reflects the next level in the literary evolution of the incomparable Paul Theroux --- he's more vunerable, more reflective, and more compassionate (and less the rogue and rascal) --- now that he is in his 67th year. For his many fans, this is a good thing, as we get to know him more deeply. The "ghost train" referred to in the book's title is actually Theroux's inner travels in both mind and spirit. While re-tracing, mostly in 2006, much of the route of his 1973 classic "The Great Railway Bazaar", he now focuses on the theme of "change": not only do the physical locations look different, but of course the author is different as well. Theroux is a "ghost" of his younger self, traveling like a ghost through the past of his memories, while feeling nearly invisible as he re-visits many of his old haunts (excuse the pun). However, this book has all the Theroux trademarks that the devoted reader loves and expects: exotic locales, humor, grittiness, the unexpected, the insights, the observations, the interesting local people and wacky fellow travelers. Theroux is a true master of detail and description. The sights-smells-sounds of extensive and exhaustive travel are all there, as if you were right beside him. But unlike his other non-fiction travel books, this one is specially tinged with some sadness and melancholy. Can/will he do another epic travel journey to share with us? I certainly hope so. Paul, please keep giving us your unique and valued "scribble, scribble..."
  
  
• Sixty plus, well off, and he still travels like a college kid
  By A2KP95QQSICDTO on 2008-08-28
  Throughout this latest Theroux book I kept asking myself, why does he do it? Why does he punish himself with decrepit trains, filthy toilets, near poisonous food, crummy hotels, lonliness, a constant stream of strangers met on the way and never seen again? He is an old man, presumably well to do, perhaps really rich, who needs all that punishment? Obviously he does. This travel book (though like all of his books it is not a travel guide, no hotel recommendations, no must do restaurants or sights) simply is fascinating reading, although by now, having written 41 books, 17 of them travel books, there is a certain sameness that is I guess unavoidable. The names and places change but the experiences remain the same.
  Still, he never bores. And while this may be his last travel book (he hints so) it is a terrific one with which to exit the stage. JDP
  
  
• A Sentimental and an Unsentimental Journey
  By A1171EUB1GRP3H on 2008-09-01
  A love "Ghost Train'. I love that some places did not change in 33 years. I love that, as a man of a certain age, he spent somewhat less time in bars and more time with nature. I love that he found people he had met 33 years ago. I love that the people were so happy to see him again.
  
  I fantisize that I am reading 'Ghost Train', I look up and there he is sitting across from me on the train.
  
  And, I love that he supports Barack Obama. Fired Up!
  
  
• Theroux only gets better
  By A19PZXGBNK8FZS on 2008-09-10
  This is a travel book that revisits the settings of the Great Railway Bazaar. Although he constantly refers to the earlier book, you don't need to have read it to enjoy this one. It might actually be just as interesting to read this first and then read the Great Railway Bazaar.
  
  Theroux has always been my favorite travel writer, but I am happy to say that he is only getting better. Maybe with age he is getting a little less cynical, a little more sentimental and empathetic with the locals in these far off places. As always good descriptions, a lot of interesting references to books and history. His best travel book.
  
  
  
• Star Traveler
  By AN4ZE5MO8Z1IU on 2008-09-14
  Probably will be enjoyed best by those who have read Paul Theroux's previous book "On the Tracks of the Great Railway Bazaar." I have not, but have read a few of his other travel books, such as "Dark Star Safari." He is an educated traveler, not an idle tourist.
  
  The author's style is to be highly descriptive of the minor sights and sounds of the actual hard movement across space, usually by seedy but interesting trains, with a focus on conversations with particular people (some famous, like Arthur C. Clarke; most not) along the way. Mr. Theroux expresses strong personal opinions on many subjects, for example opposition to U.S. policy--now in Iraq, then in Vietnam and Cambodia. He also seems fixated on the dark side of sexual practices in a number of the countries he visits (for example, those of Thailand, Singapore, and Japan.)
  
  All in all, a book for most serious readers on their own long voyages.
  
  
• theroux gets older
  By A1EZVFZKGUKXUD on 2008-09-01
  Mr. Theroux is over 65 but still doing the hard road. He is cranky as usual but more erudite, in other words he refers to Larkin, Buddhism, etc. I didnt agree with all his perceptions, especially concerning Romania where I have spent some time. I liked the Romanians and thought Bucharest a very interesting city, and Transylvania has some beautiful landscapes, but then he only spent few hours there. However, I also thought he was very good on India, where I have also travelled. He has been criticized for being egocentric in this book and, of course, he has his quirks, but he is a great writer, especially of travel literature, and as he himself would say, writers are a bit mad (or they wouldnt be writers).
  
  
• Not worse your attention and money
  By A1NRT2MEQLXEOS on 2008-09-04
  I will spare few minutes of my precious time to write those lines.
  I was born and raised in France, then moved to Singapore in 1992 where my daughters and I became proud Singaporean in 2006.
  Yesterday I was a Borders and my eyes got caught by Mr Theroux's book "Ghost Train to the Eastern Star: On the track of the Great Railway Bazar" latest edition. I was in the intention of purchasing this book until I read what he said regarding his stopover in Singapore.
  I was shocked by such critics, clichés and totally wrong analyses. Mr Theroux understood absolutely nothing of our country, our people, our values etc.... and think he is in position of despising us and our beautiful island.
  After reading those pages with sadness and even disgust, I decided that I will not buy this book as his testimony was so wrong 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 author who is not worse reading.
  
  As for Mr Theroux, it is good 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.
  
  
  
• Theroux Being Theroux
  By A1IEX3PW9Z92IR on 2008-09-08
  Reviewers complain that there is too much about the author in Paul
  Theroux's travel books. Longtime readers know the whole point is
  hearing about him,especially his frequent disdain for what he sees.
  
  Those of us who have stuck with him have grown old too. It is
  immensely enjoyable to read about him retracing the tracks
  of his first great travel book "The Great Railway Bazaar".
  
  He is older, but no less curious and his fame precedes him. No longer an unknown young traveler, he is recognized by Prince Charles in a receiving line.
  
  If you liked the previous books, definitely pick up this one.
  If it's your first time get on board, you won't be sorry.
  
  
• Good, but exasperating at times
  By A1SN0JN3I1RVSD on 2008-10-12
  Look, I enjoy reading travel books and Theroux is always interesting and worth the read.
  
  But it struck me while reading this book that it must pain Theroux to ever say something nice about the U.S. This is a book that is about the other side of the world so, with the exception of his chapter on Vietnam, I didn't really expect to read much about America. I wanted to read what people thought of their own countries, their own realities, and so forth.
  
  However, what shocked me was an exchange Theroux had with a man in Perm named Sergei. Theroux, Sergei, V. Shmirov (a historian of the gulag system), and a woman who served as the translator were heading to Perm 36, the only intact gulag prison in Russia. On the way there, the three Russians were talking to Theroux about what the Russians had experienced over the decades: the spying, murder, fear, torture, imprisonment, terror, and quashing of any hint of freedom or rights.
  
  And what did Theroux say in response?
  
  "The paradox is that at exactly the same time - the 1950s - we had McCarthy in the U.S. persecuting people for sympathizing with the Soviet Union."
  
  Sergei did not let Theroux go on and reminded him that the comparison was not the same.
  
  But Theroux would not be deterred. He agreed but still put forth that, ". . . the motives, the witch-hunts, the betrayals, the stink of fear - of ruined lives and lost jobs and disgrace - that hung over McCarthyism were similar." (pp. 477-478).
  
  Please.
  
  My jaw fell open when I read that. I was embarrassed. You would have thought that, if for no other reason than politeness, Theroux would have simply listened to what these three Russians had to say and not try to minimize the severity of their reality by making some ridiculous comparison to a brief and limited moment in American history. Anyone with just a cursory understanding of Soviet history during the 20th century would have been humbled and appreciative of what those poor people endured. The fact that they survived is a testament to their spirit and strength.
  
  If Theroux feels it so necessary to highlight America's sins, then he should write a book about that subject. But he shouldn't go abroad and try to ingratiate himself with people from other countries by attempting to equate our experiences with theirs. These people are not ignorant - they know American history and know that we have not experienced the horrors that many countries have experienced.
  
  
  
  
• Entertaining return trip to the Eastern world
  By AU0OXTYA3SL1Q on 2008-10-22
  Having loved his first book, "The Great Railway Bazaar", I was eager to read his follow up book retracing the route,as far as possible, he took so many years ago. Since I love train travel which he also clearly does as well, I could not help but enjoy the book. However, he seems to have become something of a grouch in the intervening years between the two books. Travel into tough terrain is much more of challenge for a 60 year old than a thirty year old. That's for sure. The book for content over and above the train travel experience was a bit of a downer. He seemed to feel the need to solicit opinion from his hapless interviewees in the most dangerous countries about their "views" on the Bush administration. What bothered me is that he never seems to question that people living in Russia, Vietnam, and even more fraught places would only provide answers that keep them out of trouble, long after he is gone from the scene. He is so obviously happy that they join him in Bashing the Bush Regime, not even the smallest doubt seems to enter his mind that they are being careful of their continued existence in a dangerous world rather than saying what they think to a stranger, maybe a police spy, in their scary world.
  
  
• More of the Same
  By AUG7Y9O4IK5H8 on 2008-09-09
  Paul Theroux is getting on. This book is largely repetitive and should have been much better edited. Theroux is still cranky, still sees everything darkly except himself, is fixated on his own left-wing politics. The lowest part of the book is when Theroux meets Pico Iyer in Japan and they have what Theroux undoubtedly thinks is a fascinating intellectual conversation, when actually it is a tedious pseudo-intellectual many-page bore. That and his constant harping about manga and Japanese men. The interesting parts are the travels through the "stans", a place where many will never go.
  
  
• Not the classic Theroux
  By ABMT8GDVSW66F on 2008-09-16
  I'm a big Theroux fan, but this was tedious read. If not for his name, I doubt the book would have been published. There are a few high points, such as the section when he was in Myanmar, but typically his observations and descriptions provide unexceptional reading.
  
  
• Travel writing as an act of personal illumination
  By A12MZKD80BQI2K on 2008-09-17
  I am a great fan of Paul Theroux's travel writing (interesting to note that I have never read one of his novels). His last two travel books, GHOST TRAIN and DARK STAR SAFARI, have an added unique pleasure to them. In each he re-visits a prior trip. In the case of GHOST TRAIN he attempts to retrace his route taken and written about in his first travel book, THE GREAT RAILWAY BAZAAR (1975). Want to talk about inflation my copy of BAZAAR sold for $10, GHOST is $28. Theroux is now 66 and twice as old as he was when he took the journey last at the age of 33. It is always great fun to read Theroux's rifts on countries revisited and here you have the added treat that he is a bit more honest about what makes him tick. Theroux is always the unique everyman who never seems to really enjoy traveling as a tourist, but he behaves more as an observer with a critical eye. I'm not sure this latest book is quite up to the high standards of DARK STAR SAFARI which was just outstanding, but GHOST is certainly high among his finest journals because it is an act of self discovery and of personal illumination. If you have any interest at all in the very finest travel writing today you must add GHOST TRAIN to your library.
  
  
• The Classic Misanthrope
  By A2LX082PLIV0LV on 2008-09-23
  Ghost Train to the Eastern Star represents nothing new for Mr. Thoreau, but it reminds us in all the best ways just what a wonderful and quirky writer he is. in retracing the steps that started his series of shared journeys as well as inspiring some of his best writing, he reminds us constantly of the changes that life has brought socially, economically and personally.
  Mr. Thoreau's insights into himself and the ways that his views have changed with age are compelling and as usual, his observations of the cities and cultures he passes through as well as his tellingly misanthropic views of his fellow passengers are ironic and amusing. As one who has read nearly all the Thoreau "travel" books, this was a welcome addition and I am slowly savoring it as one lingers over the last bites of a deep and complex meal.
  
  
• A Writer Reflects on His Life and Humanity by Revisiting His Past
  By A1K1JW1C5CUSUZ on 2008-10-04
  If you want a book about how to travel by train, skip this one.
  
  If you want a book about what you'll discover about yourself if you revisit old haunts, you may find this book intriguing enough to propel you back to your former hangouts and to review your memories . . . both painful and pleasant.
  
  If you enjoy literary pilgrimages, you'll enjoy several entertaining moments.
  
  If you want keen insights into nations you haven't visited, you won't find enough to warrant reading the book.
  
  If you want a book of great writing, you will probably be disappointed. Mr. Theroux will wow you now and then with brilliant passages . . . particularly in the beginning and end . . . but mostly it's plain vanilla writing.
  
  Why then did I like the book a lot? Mr. Theroux reminded me of a fresh way to look at the world, a way that I used to employ quite often.
  
  Let me explain. When I was growing up, my father worked for the Santa Fe Railway and our family had a pass for free travel from California to Illinois. Most of our long trips were by train. In college, I also traveled across the United States several times to save a few pennies. During those trips, I grew to appreciate places that you never see from an airplane or an interstate highway. Railway travel allowed me to meet many memorable people and to have experiences I otherwise wouldn't have had.
  
  Writers live solitary lives, often more so when they are in a crowd. Railway travel is a buffer between the writer and the world that allows the writer to venture out amongst everyone in a comfortable way. I realized that leaving the writer's cocoon more often is good for the writer and the writer's readers.
  
  Mr. Theroux is generous in sharing his observations during his much earlier trip along a similar route, as well as his feelings as his marriage fell apart. Those perspectives make the observations much more powerful and interesting. He is most comfortable talking about places and times in terms of other authors and conversing with authors. I found those interludes to be particularly intriguing.
  
  Although I didn't learn enough to make me want to organize a particular kind of trip to any of these places, I did gain a sense of how a writer might react to each of the locales. From those observations, I think I know which of these places I would like to visit and which ones not. That aspect was a pleasant surprise.
  
  I was fascinated by the differences in national character demonstrated among the ordinary people he met, most moving in his description of the forgiveness of the Vietnamese people towards ordinary Americans. As he traveled around, people in one country would be happy and enjoying life, while in the next country misery existed regardless of material comforts. As a result, I read the book very slowly. I needed time to digest what he said about each country before I could go on to the next one. To me, that's a sign of good writing: He made me think a lot.
  
  Like many travelers, Mr. Theroux likes to report on some things more than others. I wasn't quite sure why he gives such an encyclopedic description about the sex trade in each nation, but perhaps as a man traveling alone that stood out more than the helpfulness of ordinary people. I could have done with less of that element. I also didn't enjoy his angry dismissal of anyone who is a missionary. What is that all about?
  
  I was especially intrigued to realize that you can get to know people better during a train trip than during other casual contacts in travel. I plan to take advantage of that during my future trips.
  
  All aboard for more understanding!
  
  
  
  
• ghost train to the eastern star
  By AZI55UJYAQJVX on 2008-10-05
  Anyone who enjoyed Paul Theroux's "The Great Raiway Bazaar" will find this book a faszinating read.In his attempt to retrace the train journey he undertook more than 30 years ago we learn about the great changes Europe and Asia have undergone ,and the changes he himself experienced in that time.His great curiosity and eye for detail make him the most interesting and -in my opinion -the greatest travel writer today ,and the most literary.His candid comments about himself,other writers and the world around him add delicious spice and made me wish this book would have no ending.
  
  
• how the mighty have fallen
  By A2MAU1EJF4PJWB on 2008-10-09
  i picked up this book because as a reprise of his first book, The Great Railway Bazaar, it happened to take in many countries that i had visited in a seven week trip across Asia from Bucharest in summer 2007. I was deeply saddened by what i read especially in his comments on Budapest, Hungary and Romania. He seened to set our to say as many ugly surface things as he possible could about his journey which began in March 2006...and he dismissed both countries in a few awful pages choosing to see only the tawdry, corrupt, and dirty aspects. He continues in this vein and comes across as very condescending in everything. he almost seems to have gotten too old to travel, as he kvetches like an old man at everything...while intermittently dropping into first-class travel and luxury hotels which rarely show the real face of the countries he is visiting. Throughout the book, which i struggle to finish, he seems obsessed about sex-for-sale as if this is some important barometer of the places he visits. Altogether, a huge disappointment and not a book to be recommended. Interestingly, i have been concurrently reading another 'travel' book, 'River Town..Two Years on the Yangste' by Peter Hessler which is about his two years as a TEFL Peace Corps Volunteer in China. This book is very good and completely un-condescending as the author describes his struggles to learn the language and to really understand China and the Chinese. it is such a welcome relief to read this after struggling with Theroux's bile-driven offering.
  
  
• Ghost Train To The Eastern Star
  By A1RZD2BUWYOAZL on 2008-10-14
  I had been looking forward to reading this book, however his feeling of futility in how the world looks, the various countries, seemed quite prnounced. I felt discouraged when I finished. Not what I was hoping for.
  
  
• Synergy
  By A1F8GH7CR68P59 on 2008-10-15
  Many years ago I viewed a television program called 'Great Rail Journeys of the World' and was rather taken by an episode describing the train journey to Simla in northern India. I have always enjoyed train travel from when I was a boy and my father worked for the state railway. We didn't have a car but part of his salary package was free rail travel during holidays, so we travelled a lot locally by train. When my wife and I took a world tour and passed through India we took the train from Simla to New Delhi, as well as many other train trips in India. So, when 'The Great Railway Bazaar' appeared and Mr Theroux told his own experience of the journey I had an immediate connection.
  
  Since then it seems to me that Mr Theroux and I have strange synergistic connections although I have never met the man. When I read 'Dark Star Safari' I realised that, as he was taking his journey south, I was working briefly in Johannesburg - perhaps we would meet? (But we didn't, as far as I know.)
  
  When I read 'The Happy Isles of Oceania' and came across Mr Theroux's description of spending time at Nabouwalu in Fiji (a ferry pier and nothing much else) I was surprised because my wife and I and our two boys got stranded at Nabouwalu and spent a very uncomfortable night amongst some of the friendilest people in the world.
  
  I have immensely enjoyed all of Mr Theroux's travel books (although I do think his sense of humour has diminished since 'Dark Star Safari'). I like his description of the landscape, his observations of people, and especially his insightful reflections about himself. His novels, on the other hand, I don't care for much at all - too much violence, too much sex. It's not that he doesn't reflect on these in his travels, but it seems to me that their profile in his fiction is too graphic, unnecessarily over-described. But that is just my view. The novellas and short stories fare little better for me than the novels.
  
  Going through a challenging time in my own life (my 60th birthday) I found myself losing all interest in reading, but 'Ghost Train' changed that. How surprising was it, then, to discover that Mr Theroux, on his travels through Cambodia and Vietnam was going in exactly the opposite direction to my family at about the same time! We may well have passed in night trains going opposite directions between Hue and Hanoi! Or we may have passed in the streets of Siem Reap (our hotels were next door to each other)!
  
  I also realised that I had already taken the train journey from Rangoon beyond Mandalay in Myanmar that Mr Theroux describes, not only with Mr Theroux in 'The Great Railway Bazaar' but also with Anna Kavan (in the 1920s - but not a lot may have changed) in her autobiographical novel 'Let Me Alone'.
  
  Of course, common experiences give us the opportunity to validate or object. Certainly I found my reflections stimulating. Violence and sex are never far away from Mr Theroux's thoughts, not that he tells us anything about his personal experiences in either - wisely avoiding trouble spots such as Cambodia had been in the time of 'The Great Railway Bazaar', or Afghanistan is in the time of 'Ghost Train'.
  
  It has always been a wonder to me that a country like Germany could produce Mozart, Gauss, Geothe, Caspar David Friedrich, ETA Hoffmann .... and Hitler. And that that wellspring of civilisation had been so corrupted by that one man. For me there is only one solution - every individual has a responsibility to think things out for themselves, to evaluate and not to blindly follow. I am reminded of Einstein saying that the trouble with the world is not the bad people in it, but the good people who won't do anything about it. I guess he meant that whatever we do there will be bad people - people who are mentally 'deformed', psychopaths and the like. These people will exist - they need to be managed. To put them in armies, or police forces, to make them security guards or bouncers where they can practice their violence and intimidation just won't do. If the leader is themselves psychologically abnormal (like Hitler?), or weak like Mr Theroux discovered Pol Pot in Cambodia apparently was, it leaves everyone vulnerable. No matter where Mr Theroux travels - or any of us - there will be the vulnerable and the crushed. As well as naturally or otherwise degraded environments.
  
  Mr Theroux, after experiencing the smiling faces of the Bayon at Angkor Thom, but remembering the recent atrocities in Cambodia, imposes something sinister on the smiles. And after learning more about the atrocities at Phnom Penh, he suggests that the Khmer culture had a dark side that came out with Pol Pot. This I disagree with entirely - there is a dark side to all people, and I doubt that it was systemic in the Khmer culture in any way comparable to, say, the Aztec or Mayan civilisations.
  
  But Mr Theroux is very balanced in his observations - almost ashamed of the great treatment he received from the Vietnamese despite what his country had inflicted on the people of Vietnam. As an Australian, almost as culpable in that situation, I had the same feeling.
  
  This is a great read, a great adventure - not only in its events, but also in the responses an attentive reader is likely to experience.
  
  Other recommendations:
  'The Great Railway Bazaar', 'Riding the Iron Rooster', 'The Happy Isles of Oceania', 'Dark Star Safari', 'Milroy the Magician' - Paul Theroux
  'Let Me Alone' - Anna Kavan
  train travel in Australia (Cairns-Kuranda-Cairns, Cairns-Brisbane, Brisbane-Sydney, Sydney-Blue Mountains-Sydney, Sydney-Perth ('The Indian Pacific'), Darwin-Port Augusta ('The Ghan'), The Picchi Ricchi railway, Port Augusta-Adelaide, Adelaide-Melbourne, Puffing Billy, Melbourne-Sydney)
  
  
  
  
• Theroux Retraces His Steps
  By ARJSFHNVV7RG5 on 2008-10-16
  The famous and grumpy travel writer takes the route he took 30 years ago in The Great Railway Bazaar. A good, but not great read. Spends an awful lot of time looking into the prostitution trade - far too much for my liking. Some interesting observations in general, but not a compelling read.
  
  
• sorry , but not very good
  By A3N7PMIRE305NC on 2008-10-23
  I was so looking forward 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...
  
  
• Classic Paul Theroux travel book
  By A3IEGW90YX13UF on 2008-11-08
  This book is a great read from one of the best travel writers of the past 35 years. I've read all his travel books and essays and some of his fiction. I voraciously consumed this book in a couple of weeks. If you like travel writing, give this a try. You won't be sorry.
  
  
• Return of the king
  By A1GGUHSPV70FDX on 2008-11-10
  Theroux returns for a repeat encounter with the people and places that made him thirty years ago with the Great Railway Bazaar. The protagonist has aged from young turk to an itinerant king who hobnobs with luminaries such as Arthur Clark and Murakami in an 'oh by the way' manner amongst his weekly jaunts. The places have similarly 'grown up' from exotic (not always desirably so) to emerging (with increasing prosperity accompanied with a loss of innocence).
  
  The resulting chemistry (in particular his encounter with the Indian 'outsourcing miracle') has depth, balance, introspection and even a touch of melancholy. You could argue that this is now a more serious man, a more considered view.
  
  But in the hindsight of having made it to the book's back cover - Theroux has lost more gunslinger that he's gained sagacity. The amplitude of his insights have decreased, the observations more palatable but not as trenchantly original. Still a great read, but from a master traveler who's lost a step or two with age.
  
  
  
• Ghost Train to the Eastern Star
  By A18SYAY6Z3L6FU on 2008-09-09
  You can feel and get a sense of these far off places that few will ever get the chance to visit.
  
  
• Should Be Rated Fiction
  By A6JIVYR6PDO1O on 2008-10-06
  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 think 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.
  
  
• The Return of an Old Friend
  By A2VGKOLYQ0BAM7 on 2008-10-08
  I'm a big fan of Paul Theroux. I like both his fiction and his travel books. Having read the Great Railway Bazaar years ago, I reread it to refresh my memory before I read Ghost Train. Paul shows a bit of sentimentality on this trip, but it is not overdone or maudlin in any way. He's trying to reconnect with his past and his youth, taking stock of his life. He's does so in such a successful way. The chapter on Burma broke my heart: Paul's generosity and humanity shone through in his effort to turn one life around. The most memorable chapters for me are of his travels through Japan. I'm also a big fan of Haruki Murakami; so, what an added value to the book to hear Murakami expound on Japan and Japanese modernity! Paul is also a perceptive observer and reader of literature. There are several books that he mentioned throughout his travels that I will soon purchase and read. I cannot say enough good things about Paul Theroux. I'm eagerly awaiting his next book, and so should you. He is one of our our most underrated writers in America.
  
  

• The Great Railway Bazaar
• Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Capetown
• Shadow of the Silk Road (P.S.)
• The Elephanta Suite: Three Novellas
• Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution--and How It Can Renew America