Paul Theroux
Across Europe and through Asia in the mid seventies! Now that’s what you call travel – time travel for the reader. The journey begins in London, and after a bleak journey on the Trans Siberian express, ends there as well. There are thirty trains in this amazing chronicle, and they are as much about the travel experiences as they are about the culture of the age and the milieu of the countries they pass through. There are some excellent quotes I could identify with too eg. One always begins to forget a place as soon as it’s left behind. At one point, he also begins a short story that I have read in his later works!
Istanbul Tehran, Peshawar, Lahore, Kolkata, Madras, Simla, these are but a few of the cities you get glimpses of. In between, there are characters which the author probably relies on to serve as a representation of the place and culture – the strict, seemingly rational government servant in Simla who also has faith in horoscopes, the Burmese cook who has seen both the world wars, the expats in Thailand and Iran, the Bangladeshi Family planning conference attendees who had 5 children each. There are some places which the author seems to hate eg. Singapore, and in some places like Japan, he is unable to reconcile himself to the customs and behaviour of the populace though he is sometimes impressed by their inefficiency and unique culture. In Vietnam he is awed by the natural beauty of the place despite it being ravaged by war. All of these have changed much over time, and it is delightful to read a perspective from more than 30 years back. It really is time travel when the author writes about posters of Bobby!
For anyone who loves travel, especially in trains, this is a must read, a passage into an earlier era when these rail machines were the heroes of transportation, and offered journeys that had character built into them.
P.S. I’ve read quite a few reviews which are scathing on the racism that they accuse the author of. I have to wonder though, if times were just simpler then, without a lot of labels we seem to perceive now.