Theroux, Paul "Riding the Iron Rooster"

Theroux, Paul "Riding the Iron Rooster" - 1988

The name Theroux is well known in the United Kingdom. Though not with the first name Paul but with that of his son, Louis. So, I had never read anything by the elder Theroux until I was given this book by one of our book club members.

I love travel books and this one doesn't make an exception. The author travelled through China in the 1980s, first with a travel group, then on his own. The members or the travel group are described the way that I would probably see them, as well. I have always preferred to travel with family or some good friends rather than some strangers that might turn out to be real bores or terribly annoying. But also when he carries on on his own, he is hardly ever alone as the Chinese like to give him a babysitter.

In any case, the descriptions of the voyage is interesting, the people he meets on the train, one is more weird than the other, the landscape is depicted to well that you can imagine seeing it yourself, the food seems to stand just in front of you.

I liked the interaction with the Chinese people and the exploring of areas where they hardly let any foreigner travel. A good book about a country still very unknown to us. I wonder what Paul Theroux would see today?

Some books, Paul Theroux was reading while "Riding the Iron Rooster":
Avedon, John "In Exile from the Land of Snows" - 1984 (Goodreads)
Balzac "Old Goriot" (FR: Le Père Goriot) - 1834 (Goodreads)
Lewis, Sinclair "Elmer Gantry" - 1927 (Nobel Prize in Literature 1930) (Goodreads)
Lewis, Sinclair "Main Street" - 1920 (Goodreads)
Morrison, Arthur "The Hole in the Wall" - 1902 (Goodreads)
Stevenson, Robert Louis "Kidnapped" - 1886 (Goodreads)

From the back cover:

"An eye-opening and entertaining account of travels in old and new China, by the author of The Great Railway Bazaar

Paul Theroux left Victoria Station on a rainy Saturday in April thinking that taking eight trains across Europe, Eastern Europe, the USSR and Mongolia would be the easy way to get to the Chinese border - the relaxing way, even. He would read a little, take notes, eat regular meals and gaze contentedly out of windows. The reality, of course, was very different. In fact, Theroux experienced a decidedly odd and unexpected trip to China that set the challenging tone for his epic year-long rail journey around that vast, inscrutable land - a journey which involved riding nearly every train in the country."

Engberding, Hans; Thöns, Bodo "Transsib Reader"

Engberding, Hans; Thöns, Bodo (Ed.) "Transsib-Lesebuch: Reiseerlebnisse auf der längsten Bahnstrecke der Welt" [Transsib Reader: Travel Experiences On The Longest Railway Line In The World] - 2002

Usually, I don't review books that have not been translated into English. But I promised to do so in this case. And some of the articles have been written in English. Whenever I found the original title (or the translation into English), I added it in bold.

I found this collection at an antiquarian bookstore. It contains articles, excerpts from books, short stories by well-known writers who have all at some point traveled the Trans-Siberian Railway and recorded their experiences in writing. The first description is from 1901, the last from 2001, i.e. a report that goes back over a hundred years in which a lot has happened.

The authors all have an interesting point of view, everyone experiences the trip differently, even if they travel around the same time. While some accept any inconvenience as if it were the most natural thing in the world and are happy to be able to gain this insight into a culture that is foreign to them, others get upset about small things that would probably have happened to them on other routes, as well. And then there are those who support communism (or rather Stalinism) a hundred percent that everything is glorified.

In any case, it is fascinating to see how the railway was built, how it has changed over time, especially when the political situation has changed.

John Foster Fraser, Sir, UK, 1868-1936
Das wahre Sibirien (1901)
The Real Siberia

Eugen Zabel, D, 1851-1925
Auf der sibirischen Bahn nach China (1903)

Karl Tanera, D, 1849-1904
Zur Kriegszeit auf der sibirischen Bahn und durch Rußland (1904)

O.T. Tuck, UK, 1876-?
Tagebuch (1909)

Marcus Lorenzo Taft, US,
Fremdes Sibirien (1909)

Fridtjof Nansen, N, 1861-1930 - Nobel Prize for Peace 1922
Sibirien ein Zukunftsland (1913)
Through Siberia the Land of the Future/Gjennem Sibirien

Otto Goebel, D, 1872-1955
Über Sibirien nach Ostasien (1914)

Sven Hedin, S, 1865-1952
Von Peking nach Moskau (1923)

Richard Tröger, D, 1879-1965
Tagebuch über eine Rußland-Japan-Reise (1929)

Kurt Faber, D, 1883-1929
Weltwanderers letzte Fahrten und Abenteuer (1930)

Peter Fleming, UK, 1907-74 (Ian Fleming's brother)
Mit mir allein. Eine Reise nach China (1933)
One's Company: A Journey to China in 1933

Erik Bergengren, S, 1900-1977
Gelbe Gesichter. Sibirische Nächte und japanische Tage (1936)

Mildred Widmer Marshall, US
Zwei Schullehrerinnen aus Oregon reisen um die Welt (1937)

Sławomir Rawicz, PL/BY, 1915-2004
Flucht durch Steppe und Wüste (1939)
The Long Walk?

Sigrid Undset, DK, 1882-1949 - Nobel Prize for Literature 1928
Wieder in die Zukunft (1940)
Back to the future/Tilbake til fremtiden

Ryszard Kapuscinski, PL/BY, 1932-2007
Imperium. Sowjetische Streifzüge (1958)
Imperium

Siegfried Meissgeier, D, 1924-1988 and Günter Linde, D, 1925-1992
Sibirien ohne Geheimnisse (1959)

Paul Theroux, USA, 1922-
Abenteuer Eisenbahn. Auf Schienen um die halbe Welt (1965)
The Great Railway Bazaar

Hugo Portisch, SLK, 1927-2021
So sah ich Sibirien (1966)

Vittorio Lojacono, I
Die Straße der Gefahr (1969)

Eric Newby, UK, 1919-2006
Auf der großen roten Bahn (1977)
The Big Red Train Ride

Hans-Otto Meissner, D/F, 1909-1992
Sibirien-Expreß (1979)

Wolfgang Seidl, D, 1933-
Ins rote Reich des gelben Drachens (1984)

Hardy Krüger, D, 1928-2022
Sibirienfahrt (1984)

Johanna Hornef-Blau
Unterwegs mit der Transsibirischen Eisenbahn (1994)

Colin Thubron, UK, 1939-
Sibirien. Schlafende Erde - Erwachendes Land (1998)
In Siberia

Kurt Drawert, D, 1956-
Nach Osten ans Ende der Welt (1999)

Mark Bauch, D 1971-
Transsibirisch Reisen (2001)
Das wahre Sibirien (1901)

Pictures by Claudia Mathea (D, 1969-) complement the stories.

Book Description (translation):

"The Trans-Siberian Railway has fascinated travelers from all over the world for a century now. This beautifully designed reader brings together prominent and less prominent Trans-Siberian travelers from all decades of the 20th century, who report on their journey on what is probably the world's most famous railway line.

Lively descriptions of the day-to-day organization of life on the Trans-Siberian Railway, the events on the train and the experiences with fellow travelers stand alongside historical observations from the checkered history of Russia, Mongolia and China. This creates a diverse picture of the countries traveled through.

Sven Hedin, Fridtjof Nansen, Hardy Krüger, Paul Theroux, Sigrid Undset, Peter Fleming and many others take the reader on an adventurous journey through the Siberian expanse. The Transsib Reader is the ideal complement to the Transsib Handbook."

Fatland, Erika "The Border"

Fatland, Erika "The Border: A Journey Around Russia Through North Korea, China, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Norway, and the Northeast Passage" (Norwegian: Grensen: En reise rundt Russland gjennom Nord-Korea, Kina, Mongolia, Kasakhstan, Aserbajdsjan, Georgia, Ukraina, Hviterussland, Litauen, Polen, Latvia, Estland, Finland og Norge samt Nordøstpassasjen) - 2017

I usually don't review books here that have not been translated into English, yet. However, I have read that this one is supposed to be published soon and therefore, I want to whet your appetites already.

The author is a Norwegian journalist and she took a trip all around the Russian border. She visited every single country, even those that are not internationally recognized, like the de facto sovereign states in the Caucasus, though, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Adjara, Nagorno-Karabakh and Donetsk. It was not easy to get into some of them. To get into Nagorno-Karabakh, she had to travel into Armenia because you cannot enter it from Azerbaijan to which it still officially belongs.

She visited all those parts with a lot of difficulties and spoke to the people there who told her about recent and former history and you can learn a lot about that part of the world. I think it's good if we know more about the largest, very powerful and probably most dangerous country in the world.

We talk about a great, well-written book where we feel we are travelling with the author, we discover the countries with her, the people who live there and their history. Fantastic.

This is the second book about Russia and its history that Erika Fatland has written. Her first one "Sovietistan: Travels in Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan" is on my TBR pile now. I am sure I will learn just as much from that book as I did from this one.

From the back cover: (translated)

"Russia's border is the longest in the world. Erika Fatland takes us on a trip to Russia's fourteen neighbour countries, from North Korea to North Norway and through the North-East Passage. The journey goes through wonderful landscapes and highly diverse communities what only have one thing in common: We are all Russia's neighbours.

It's also a trip through the dramatic stories of Russia's neighbours'. In any case, they have been influenced by the proximity of this mighty empire. We meet tsars that are addicted to conquests, brave adventurers and courageous individuals and Chinese dictators. The author visits contemporary conflict areas like the Ukraine whose borders with Putin's Russia have started to move again. 

Erika Fatland shows her special abilities again to get close to people whom she meets on her way and lets them tell her a bit about the big stories of living near the border."

 

Expected publication in English: February 2nd, 2021.