The Old Patagonian Express : By Train Through the Americas

Rating:
Summary: The Old Patagonia Express
Review: Theroux is one of my favorites. "Riding the Iron Rooster" initiated me to his books; the "Patagonia Express" was a good follow-up. He is an intellectual fellow, I suspect, whom I'd enjoy meeting one day. Theroux writes a reliable read. Get it, and enjoy him. <[e-mail]>

Rating:
Summary: Train Through The Americas
Review: This is an excellent read. Theroux engages everything and everyone with a sort of biting-embrace. He doesn't mince words. He tells the story of the Americas as he experiences it. It's not necessarily pretty and it isn't always complimentary.Theroux's mixes observation with historical background and literary references that add to the text. Theroux's power of description can be breathtaking. "Flocks of white herons blew across the grass tips like flecks of paper in a breeze" It is this type of prose juxtaposed the poor living conditions of the people that adds allure to the story. I think Theroux's writing rests on the edge of what people find comfortable, but the reality is traveling to a third world country is not COMFORTABLE. One must fine riches and beauty amongst the squalor.

Rating:
Summary: An experienced traveller and writer
Review: This is my second book of Theroux. I am especially interested in the tone of his writting. Everything special including danger and culture shock in Theroux's tone would be murmuring, complaining and facetiousness. I am a little bit irritated by all of them at first. After some 2 or 3 pages, I am shock cause Theroux writes his deep thought with easy style and everything shows he is an experienced traveller and writer.

Rating:
Summary: An experienced traveller and writer
Review: This is my second book of Theroux. I am especially interested in the tone of his writting. Everything special including danger and culture shock in Theroux's tone would be murmuring, complaining and facetiousness. I am a little bit irritated by all of them at first. After some 2 or 3 pages, I am shock cause Theroux writes his deep thought with easy style and everything shows he is an experienced traveller and writer.

Rating:
Summary: Lack of soul
Review: This is the first time I read Paul Theroux's book. Before that I heard and read that he is one of the greatest travel writers in modern times. Granted, this guy wrote well, but his attitude was insufferable. At the end of it, I wonder is this a traveller writing a book on travel or a writer writing a book on travel.

This book is almost exclusively about a train journey. PT tried to take train throughout the journey for the sake of it, even though everyone told him that bus was faster etc. But of course he was going to take the train so we read about him whining about its poor condition, its delay, how pathetic the people travelling on the train, how godforsaken the towns were etc.

PT had this high and mighty attitude that he scorned about comments by the common tourists (a lower and more superficial class of people on the road whom he was not associating himself with); he had condescending opinion on people reading main-stream books, books which he considered less literarily acclaimed than his own selection on the trip. Oh yes, you get to read about what he read on the trip, with some thoughts and paragraphs included.

Being strictly a journey book, PT travelled from point A to point B, with lots of observations and comments on the way, but don't expect him to write a bit about some of the sights he saw along the way (not even Machu Picchu) or some snippets of the history, culture and politics of the places he passed through. He did not even demonstrate a sense of humour! Worse, he was a first-class hypocrite, saying things he thought what the person would prefer to hear instead of his own unkind opinion.

PT wrote a very vivid account, a very detailed description on colours, sounds and scents of his journey. But there was something lacking. A story that scored high technically but failed in spirit.

Rating:
Summary: Lack of soul
Review: This is the first time I read Paul Theroux's book. Before that I heard and read that he is one of the greatest travel writers in modern times. Granted, this guy wrote well, but his attitude was insufferable. At the end of it, I wonder is this a traveller writing a book on travel or a writer writing a book on travel.

This book is almost exclusively about a train journey. PT tried to take train throughout the journey for the sake of it, even though everyone told him that bus was faster etc. But of course he was going to take the train so we read about him whining about its poor condition, its delay, how pathetic the people travelling on the train, how godforsaken the towns were etc.

PT had this high and mighty attitude that he scorned about comments by the common tourists (a lower and more superficial class of people on the road whom he was not associating himself with); he had condescending opinion on people reading main-stream books, books which he considered less literarily acclaimed than his own selection on the trip. Oh yes, you get to read about what he read on the trip, with some thoughts and paragraphs included.

Being strictly a journey book, PT travelled from point A to point B, with lots of observations and comments on the way, but don't expect him to write a bit about some of the sights he saw along the way (not even Machu Picchu) or some snippets of the history, culture and politics of the places he passed through. He did not even demonstrate a sense of humour! Worse, he was a first-class hypocrite, saying things he thought what the person would prefer to hear instead of his own unkind opinion.

PT wrote a very vivid account, a very detailed description on colours, sounds and scents of his journey. But there was something lacking. A story that scored high technically but failed in spirit.

Rating:
Summary: Dont throw away your time or money
Review: When I saw this book at the bookstore I imagined it would be very good, a train ride trough the continent!, it is really about complaining on everything, he should have stayed home!, I kept reading because I was expecting it to get better, but it really did not, this was the first and last of his books that I buy, I am sorry but as a traveler I expected much more, I could not imagine a more unfriendly person writting about travels.