Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 39
 Paul Theroux April 25, 2010
Adriannah (Australia)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I like the way this rather sour-puss writer tells it like it is on his travels, on a shoe string budget. In our current culture of materialism, where everything is hyped up into a commercial product, and sanitised and censored, it is refreshing to read Theroux, who tells it like it is. His descriptions of places can be very poetic and vivid, lasting in your mind, about countries far away, that have much beauty and much ugliness, but above all they are raw and real, in the travel writing of Theroux.
 The Old Patagonia Express March 8, 2010
Hal B. Lovett (Memphis,TN)
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Great book..arrived in a few days. No issues at all.
In fact, I have never had any issues with ordering anything through Amazon!
 Unlikable June 9, 2009
Marco DiCola
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
In the "new" introduction, the author talks about this opinion out there that travel books always end up being about the author him/herself. He goes on to imply that his book won't be like that. He also says he intended the book to teach us and illustrate to us the countries he visited. Well, he failed on both counts.
It's full of condescension, self-absorption, and odd, racism-tinged comments.
If you like Paul Theroux February 3, 2009
Bradley F. Smith (Miami Beach, FL)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Though I owned a copy for years, I never read this until now, and it's vintage Theroux. He boards in Boston and is soon stopping in godforsaken outposts in the wilds of Central America, seemingly having an awful time and taking notes along the way. This formula has served him well for decades, and this was one of the earlier efforts. I wonder what's changed today along the route? Probably not much. It didn't make me want to take the same trip, so thanks Theroux for saving me the trouble.
 condescending, judgemental, and refreshingly honest November 13, 2008
Robert Reid (Chicago, IL USA)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
You may find Theroux's openness and directness refreshing, or you may find his brashness, arrogance, condescension, and hypocritical judgementalism revolting. If the latter is true, take heart that this book actually becomes enjoyable once you get past the first hundred pages or so...
Maybe others will better appreciate Theroux's attempts at humor, but the first hundred pages of this book could arguably compete for the most off-putting intro ever written. Before even beginning to prove a thing about himself (unless he's relying on an established reputation?), he devotes a few pages to trashing the state of current travel literature as being formulaic and overly focused on the destination vs. the journey. Beginning his story, he immediately picks a couple of confrontations with fellow passengers: correcting an elderly man who likens the New England winter landscape to Siberia ("Actually, there isn't this much snow in Siberia") and contradicting a 20 year old radical girl ("I wouldn't call them radical... they're smug views, self-important ones. Egocentric, you might say.").
Clearly Theroux is self-aware enough that this impression must be intentional, but it just doesn't work. Theroux is trying too hard to *tell* you to how to regard his work and the people he meets, rather than let you draw the same conclusions by just portraying people and their behaviors. There are so many better travel writers out there today (maybe this wasn't the case in the 70s when this was written) that this is inexcusable. Bryson is far funnier, Dalrymple far more insightful and also pretty funny.
Fortunately, Theroux gets more bearable further into the book. He's most insightful when he reflects on the nature of writing and his reasons for traveling alone, avoiding idle chatter that gets in the way of more thoughtful observation ("I am diverted, but it is discovery not diversion that I seek.") After pages of tolerating idle chatter from a fellow traveler Thornberry, I'm finally able to sympathize with Theroux's cruel fantasy of pushing Thornberry off the train. The stories get more interesting as Theroux's adventurousness and openness lead him into situations where tourists rarely go- a Salvadorean soccer game where the players stop to watch a fight in the stands, the "simmering anarchy" of a Panamian high school (liken to a `50s American high school), the chaos of the utterly untouristy Barranquilla, mass altitude sickness on a train through the Andes... Throughout the journey, Theroux colors the narrative with short excerpts from books he is reading including the Adventure of Gordon Arthur Pym and Life of Johnson. By the end of the journey, Theroux seems a little more humble, reflecting on the pointlessness of his journey, but knowing the story needed to be told.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 39
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