The Great Railway Bazaar: By Train Through Asia by Paul Theroux. Boston. 1975. Houghton Mifflin. 0395207088. 342 pages. hardcover. Cover collage by Joe Hendrick.
DESCRIPTION - The Orient Express, The Khyber Pass Local, The Frontier Mail, The Golden Arrow to Kuala Lumpur, The Mandalay Express, The Ozora Limited - a Grand Tour by train, a journey from London to Tokyo and back with as many mishaps as detours. Paul Theroux, novelist and railway lover, set out one day from Victoria Station, bent on boarding every eastbound train that chugged into sight, eventually returning from Japan on the Trans-Siberian Express. The trains he took in his parabola through Asia prove that, in spite of supersonic jets and package tours, travel can still be a serendipitous adventure. He sought trains; he found passengers - any number of travelers eager to unburden themselves to the attentive writer. They ranged from the unfortunate Duffill, destined always to miss his connection, to the admirable Bernard, preserving in the middle of Burma the outmoded ways of British imperialism; and from Mr. Radia, who intoned Hindi songs through his nose, to the mysterious, gun-toting Mr. Pensacola with his stories of opium smuggling. In this unique and vastly entertaining railway odyssey, Paul Theroux's sharp eye catches the telling details of landscape and character that have consistently distinguished his novels. The Great Railway Bazaar is a sometimes hilarious, sometimes shocking report on Asia. It is also the fascinating record of one intrepid traveler's mind as he traversed two continents - through the deserts of Iran, the war zone of Vietnam, the snowfields of Japan and Siberia - on the trains with the wonderful names. ‘In the fine old tradition of travel for fun and adventure compulsive reading.' - Graham Greene.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY - Paul Edward Theroux (born April 10, 1941) is an American travel writer and novelist, whose best known work of travel writing is perhaps The Great Railway Bazaar (1975). He has published numerous works of fiction, some of which were made into feature films. He was awarded the 1981 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his novel The Mosquito Coast. He is the father of British authors and documentary makers Louis Theroux and Marcel Theroux, the brother of authors Alexander Theroux and Peter Theroux, and uncle to the American actor and screenwriter Justin Theroux.
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