Starting off on the Eurostar from London, Paul Theroux once again sets out on a railway journey through the East, travelling overland through Eastern Europe, and eventually reaching India and Asia. Infused with the changes that have shaped the exterior landscape and enriched with developments to his own perceptions and psychology, "Ghost Train to the Eastern Star" is an absorbing and beautifully written follow-up to "The Great Railway Bazaar". Full of life and impeccably evoked, "Ghost Train to the Eastern Star" is Paul Theroux at his very best.
Ghost Train to the Eastern Star
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The most gifted, most prodigal writer of his generation (Jonathan Raban )
Theroux's prose leaps to life like a mosaic splashed with water (Spectator )
Theroux's prose leaps to life like a mosaic splashed with water (Spectator )
About the Author
Paul Theroux's highly acclaimed books include Dark Star Safari, Riding the Iron Rooster, The Great Railway Bazaar, The Old Patagonian Express, Fresh Air Fiend and The Elephanta Suite. The Mosquito Coast and Dr Slaughter have both been made into successful films. Paul Theroux is also a frequent contributor to magazines, and divides his time between Cape Cod and the Hawaiian islands.
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
By b
Format:Paperback
What makes a great travel writer? Is it an understanding that a travel book does not just reflect the places you are privileged enough to visit, the people you meet or the effect they have one you. Is it the ability to convey to the reader your sense of wonder and occasional bemusement at the experiences you gain?
Paul Theroux has written a series of wonderful travel books; here he retraces a journey made thirty-three years previously and records the changes that have taken place. It is a book about the way the world has changed for better and for worse. The young writer worrying about his marriage has become a happier and more content traveller who finds friendship and something of interest wherever he goes. As he ventures through Asia he looks up other distinguished writers, visits sites of sentimental interest and brings to life scenes which affect him whether it is the sight of child prostitues or relentless sprawling cities. Yet his writing also is a celebration of the magic of train travel by a writer who never becomes rushed and is always intrigued by the men and women who share his compartment.
Paul Theroux has written a series of wonderful travel books; here he retraces a journey made thirty-three years previously and records the changes that have taken place. It is a book about the way the world has changed for better and for worse. The young writer worrying about his marriage has become a happier and more content traveller who finds friendship and something of interest wherever he goes. As he ventures through Asia he looks up other distinguished writers, visits sites of sentimental interest and brings to life scenes which affect him whether it is the sight of child prostitues or relentless sprawling cities. Yet his writing also is a celebration of the magic of train travel by a writer who never becomes rushed and is always intrigued by the men and women who share his compartment.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By M. A. Krul
TOP 1000 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback
In "Ghost Train to the Eastern Star" the famous American travel writer Paul Theroux, now in old age, retraces the route that he took as a young man and which led to his breakthrough book "The Great Railway Bazaar" (The Great Railway Bazaar: By Train Through Asia (Penguin Modern Classics)). This offers an opportunity not just for another travel book about Asia and reflections on what has changed in that mighty continent in the last 30-odd years, but also for reflections on the changes to Theroux himself. The narration for that reason is more personal and more philosophical than most of his works, which gives the book a warm atmosphere.
Theroux generally in this book is as competent, lively and observant as ever, making the book excellent reading for fans of his work. That he reveals more about the circumstances in which he wrote his first great book and the vagaries of his life only add to this. However, there are some flaws also. Theroux gets somewhat too ponderous about being old and the consequences of this, so the endless ruminations on the strength of old people can get on one's nerves, and it also seems to have led to an entirely baseless playing up of the value of Buddhist theology. Aside from that, there are also more and more significant errors than usual. Stalin did not kill 40 million people; Putin was never leader of the KGB (in fact he had a fairly unimportant job); Hitler was not born in Linz, but in Braunau am Inn; and so on. He also seems to have nothing good to say about Europe any more, and his persistently negative tone about it, even Paris, contrasts oddly with his much more upbeat descriptions of much poorer countries like Sri Lanka and Vietnam.
Nonetheless, the book is just as much a pleasurable classic of travel writing as most of Theroux's other masterpieces. Particularly notable is the interview with the late Sir Arthur C. Clarke, just before he died, which gives an interesting and melancholy insight into the difficult life of that famous writer. Also interesting are his trips through Central Asia, a part of the world rarely visited even by travel writers and which is highly underrepresented in world media, despite its increasing strategic importance relative to places like Iran, Afghanistan, Russia and Pakistan. On the whole, I recommend this book to fans of travel writing, if one is willing to take some of his grumpiness with a pinch of salt.
Theroux generally in this book is as competent, lively and observant as ever, making the book excellent reading for fans of his work. That he reveals more about the circumstances in which he wrote his first great book and the vagaries of his life only add to this. However, there are some flaws also. Theroux gets somewhat too ponderous about being old and the consequences of this, so the endless ruminations on the strength of old people can get on one's nerves, and it also seems to have led to an entirely baseless playing up of the value of Buddhist theology. Aside from that, there are also more and more significant errors than usual. Stalin did not kill 40 million people; Putin was never leader of the KGB (in fact he had a fairly unimportant job); Hitler was not born in Linz, but in Braunau am Inn; and so on. He also seems to have nothing good to say about Europe any more, and his persistently negative tone about it, even Paris, contrasts oddly with his much more upbeat descriptions of much poorer countries like Sri Lanka and Vietnam.
Nonetheless, the book is just as much a pleasurable classic of travel writing as most of Theroux's other masterpieces. Particularly notable is the interview with the late Sir Arthur C. Clarke, just before he died, which gives an interesting and melancholy insight into the difficult life of that famous writer. Also interesting are his trips through Central Asia, a part of the world rarely visited even by travel writers and which is highly underrepresented in world media, despite its increasing strategic importance relative to places like Iran, Afghanistan, Russia and Pakistan. On the whole, I recommend this book to fans of travel writing, if one is willing to take some of his grumpiness with a pinch of salt.
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
By E. Woollard
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Reading 'Ghost Train to the Eastern Star' is to be transported immediately into the presence of a master of his craft. Perhaps one of the greatest travel writers alive, Paul Theroux revisits the journey he took through Europe and Asia 33 years ago, musing along the way on how both he, and the countries he travels through, have altered over the years.
But where his writing is undeniably engaging, especially when he relates his talks with fellow authors he meets along the way, the conclusions he draws never ascend from the mire of cliches in which he seems to wallow. Thus India is uniformly hot, oppressive and overpopulated, Thailand is a land of beautiful women and the sex industry, Japan is a living embodiment of manga cartoons, and Russia is replete with hardened alcoholics. Much of his ire is reserved for Singapore, whose citizens are described as being homogenously rude and brash - could this perhaps be because Theroux, who used to lecture there, left the country on a bad note?
To his credit, Theroux acknowledges at the beginning that a travel writer, passing through a place for only a few days, can never aspire to anything other than generalizations. It seems a pity, then, that in his generalizations Theroux seems unwilling to look beyond the stereotypes or to challenge the assumptions so often made by tourists from abroad. One almost wonders if he actively went looking for the cliches, so trite are some of his images.
This, then, is where the book must rest; a travel book not so much about the places themselves, but about the author, a journey not so much of physical distance and travel, but of temporal distance and a philosophical quest. In this, it does not disappoint.
But where his writing is undeniably engaging, especially when he relates his talks with fellow authors he meets along the way, the conclusions he draws never ascend from the mire of cliches in which he seems to wallow. Thus India is uniformly hot, oppressive and overpopulated, Thailand is a land of beautiful women and the sex industry, Japan is a living embodiment of manga cartoons, and Russia is replete with hardened alcoholics. Much of his ire is reserved for Singapore, whose citizens are described as being homogenously rude and brash - could this perhaps be because Theroux, who used to lecture there, left the country on a bad note?
To his credit, Theroux acknowledges at the beginning that a travel writer, passing through a place for only a few days, can never aspire to anything other than generalizations. It seems a pity, then, that in his generalizations Theroux seems unwilling to look beyond the stereotypes or to challenge the assumptions so often made by tourists from abroad. One almost wonders if he actively went looking for the cliches, so trite are some of his images.
This, then, is where the book must rest; a travel book not so much about the places themselves, but about the author, a journey not so much of physical distance and travel, but of temporal distance and a philosophical quest. In this, it does not disappoint.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
He has lost it
I love the early Paul Theroux.
But, I fear, he has lost it.
In his early days he seemed to be a young man out in the world experiencing things and meeting... Read more
But, I fear, he has lost it.
In his early days he seemed to be a young man out in the world experiencing things and meeting... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Mark Hill
3.0 out of 5 stars
The Ghost Train to the Eastern Star
This book is easy to read and entertaining as all Theroux travelogues are. It was fascinating to read of the changes that have taken place in the years since the Great Railway... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Richard Cohen
5.0 out of 5 stars
Encore
Ghost Train to the Eastern Star is one of Paul Theroux's finest travel books. Technically, it's better than the book that inspired it, his own The Great Railway Bazaar, the... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Troy Parfitt
3.0 out of 5 stars
Reliability in question
Paul Theroux is credited with saying "Tourists don't know where they've been, travelers don't know where they're going." PT's style is highly readable. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Gps Rogers
4.0 out of 5 stars
A delight
In 1975 Paul Theroux published The Great Railway Bazaar, his account of travelling across Asia by train. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Douglas
5.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting book in good condition
Although I haven't yet started to read this book properly, it seems to be an interesting take on travel by an experienced author. Read more
Published 18 months ago by asealey
5.0 out of 5 stars
A masterpiece
This book is mind-blowing. Theroux recreates the ambitious journey he made thirty or so years ago - the result of which was The Great Railway Bazaar. Read more
Published on 24 April 2011 by Hector Warrington
4.0 out of 5 stars
Paul's pompous patter
From the moment I started reading I was hooked. I devoured this book, taking any spare moment I had - on the train, a quiet moment at work, even walking home from the station - to... Read more
Published on 18 Mar 2011 by know-nothing-know-it-all
5.0 out of 5 stars
old trails
This is again a really good and readable book by Paul Theroux, whom I deem to be one of the best contemporary travel writers. Read more
Published on 15 April 2010 by Reader
5.0 out of 5 stars
Better than it's prequel
Better than the first book in my opinion, it's a easier, more enjoyable read. Definitely worth it if visiting either Turkey/India/Sri Lanka/South East Asia or Japan. Read more
Published on 14 Mar 2010 by Swampy
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