| |  | Author: Paul Theroux
Publisher: Washington Square Press
Category: Book
List Price: $5.95
Buy Used: $0.01
You Save: $5.94 (100%)
New (1) Used (14) from $0.01
Avg. Customer Rating:  32 reviews
Sales Rank: 5682148
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 6.6 x 3.9 x 1.4
ISBN: 0671648497
EAN: 9780671648497
ASIN: 0671648497
Publication Date: December 1980
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
An obnoxious but fun book. June 2, 2000
23 out of 26 found this review helpful
As a venezuelan I thank god that there is no train to my country and that Paul Theroux didn't stop in Venezuela because almost everywhere that he went , including part of the U.S.A, he had the ability, the gift to find only the negative things. So you should ask me, then why did I give this book 4 stars, because its fun to read. Paul Theroux, a young writer in the seventies, one day decides to leave his wife and kids in their home in London, go back to his parents house in Massachussets and from there take a train to the Patagonia: the farthest south that he could go. Sounds fun for an adventurous man, but all the time, all the places he keeps bitching about everything: The people on the trains, the people in the cities, how he misses his family, what is he doing there, about the food, about the hotels. Well you name it, but in the middle of all this bitching you can almost find yourself in the forest, in the middle of a civil war, in the top of the mountain, meeting Borges, every day completely different from the other.Paul Theroux can be real obnoxious, but he sure can write.
The Old Patagonia Express May 28, 2000
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
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.
 Theroux hits the mark March 21, 2000
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
I very much like Theroux's writing. To me his sometimes acerbic observations get towards the truth of a place AS HE PERCEIVES IT. When I read travel books I likt to hear the author's point of view. That may or may not accord with my own or others'. I like also to compare them to other writers' experiences of the same place, whether it somewhere I will travel to by aircraft or mind's eye via the armchair only. How does Theroux strike up conversations with such odd collections of people? Partly because he travels alone, and partly because he is open to hearing the stories of others. Either he hits on the most interesting people in every place, or he endures more mundane conversations than anyone in order to cull the best! He must keep assiduous notes - really WORK at travelling to be able to relate in such detail. I know he gives us glimpses of his working modus operandi -references to the books he is reading, and the note-taking. A few times on the train I wished he had looked up longer i9n order to be able to tell us a little more about what was a bit further away from the track.
ideosyncratic but powerful descriptions March 19, 2000
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
The descriptions of what Paul observed while on the trains, under varying conditions, are what I enjoyed the most- they are clear and powerful. Better yet, he lets you in on what he is experiencing while he is describing, so you can perceive his state of mind at the time (which often has a very strong influence on how he describes various places), and what he is reading. He also focuses in on the most quirky "characters" that he meets in the towns and on the trains. His writing style is highly entertaining thoughout the entire book. I liked the fact that he didn't travel first class, but "mucked in" (as Michael Palin said in his TV travel series).
 SAVOUR SLOWLY October 31, 1999
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Reading Theroux is like drinking whiskey - it is an aquired taste. Sipped slowly it can be very pleasant but there are times when too much be quite nauseating.
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