Rating: 
Summary: An annoying tale of a midlife crisis by a book reviewer
Review: Writing books is harder than reviewing them. Richard Bernstein is a book reviewer for the New York Times, and with "Ultimate Journey," he tries to write a book about a journey he took in Asia retracing the steps of Xuanzang (Hsuan Tsang). A Chinese Buddhist monk who was one of the world's greatest explorers, Xuanzang travelled over 16 years in the 7th century A.D. from China through Central Asia to India and back to China to bring back numerous Buddhist scriptures. Bernstein, a China "scholar" in his graduate student days and former New York Times correspondent in China, tried to recreate that journey in 1999. However, the book is a major disappointment, as it is MORE about Bernstein's own Manhattan-aging-yuppie-midlife crisis than about Buddhism, Xuanzang or Asian travels. To start with, he mixes transliteration systems (pinyin and Wades-Giles, and even Grousset's unorthodox system, i.e., Hiouan-Tsang), going back and forth among all three with no consistency. He is careless about spelling, using Urumqi and Urumchi alternatively, and careless with people's names and places. The whole book, although chronological, is disjointed, as it digresses about his childhood, his current life in Manhattan, his love life (or lack of), spiritual and philosophical musings, and other assorted subjects. One comes away with very little understanding of Xuanzang's life or what was the importance of his travels. It works better as a travelogue, but ultimately all those digressions about Bernstein's life, rather than the places he's visiting, make this a very unsatisfying and annoying read.For more on the life of Xuanzang, Sally Hovey Wriggins' "Xuanzang: A Buddhist Pilgrim on the Silk Road" is a far superior book.
Rating:
Summary: An annoying tale of a midlife crisis by a book reviewer
Review: Writing books is harder than reviewing them. Richard Bernstein is a book reviewer for the New York Times, and with "Ultimate Journey," he tries to write a book about a journey he took in Asia retracing the steps of Xuanzang (Hsuan Tsang). A Chinese Buddhist monk who was one of the world's greatest explorers, Xuanzang travelled over 16 years in the 7th century A.D. from China through Central Asia to India and back to China to bring back numerous Buddhist scriptures. Bernstein, a China "scholar" in his graduate student days and former New York Times correspondent in China, tried to recreate that journey in 1999. However, the book is a major disappointment, as it is MORE about Bernstein's own Manhattan-aging-yuppie-midlife crisis than about Buddhism, Xuanzang or Asian travels. To start with, he mixes transliteration systems (pinyin and Wades-Giles, and even Grousset's unorthodox system, i.e., Hiouan-Tsang), going back and forth among all three with no consistency. He is careless about spelling, using Urumqi and Urumchi alternatively, and careless with people's names and places. The whole book, although chronological, is disjointed, as it digresses about his childhood, his current life in Manhattan, his love life (or lack of), spiritual and philosophical musings, and other assorted subjects. One comes away with very little understanding of Xuanzang's life or what was the importance of his travels. It works better as a travelogue, but ultimately all those digressions about Bernstein's life, rather than the places he's visiting, make this a very unsatisfying and annoying read. For more on the life of Xuanzang, Sally Hovey Wriggins' "Xuanzang: A Buddhist Pilgrim on the Silk Road" is a far superior book.
Rating: 
Summary: travellogue and social commentary
Review: _The ultimate Journey_
retracing the path of an ancient buddhist monk who crosses asia in search of enlightment by richard bernstein I bought the book in HongKong several summers ago, as i waited for my Chinese visa, knowing this would be the last new English bookstore for awhile.
It was a good choice, well written, interesting and really to the point. For it is a combination of travelogue and spiritual adventure in trying to retrace the path of Hsuan Tsang .
Mixed up are the author's thoughts about the reading about Hsuan Tsang and his journey, the physical places that both visit as Bernstein follows the ancient monk's path, and social commentary not just on the places and people but reflects a lifetime of a newspaperman's experiences in this part of the world. What could be a very disjointed and fragmented 'stream of consciousness' travelogue turns out to be a rather organized investigation into not just the author's current travels but the relationship of the monks journey and what happened in the intervening years from the mid 7th C. Well written as the author is a successful and introspective newspaper writer, thoughtful as this is really a work from the heart for him, and for me very much to the point as i had the book with me in Xian as the Big Goose pagoda.
Because of the dearth of english reading material that summer travelling, i think i read it twice, once straight through and at least once more a page or chapter at a time as i was starving for anything to read, even something i had already finished. I was not disappointed, for his writing and insights are deep and bear close reading. but most of all it was worth the weight in my already overloaded pack, a true recommendation from the heart and shoulders. enjoy.
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