The Old Patagonian Express: By Train Through the Americas | Paul Theroux

The Old Patagonian Express: By Train Through the Americas | Paul Theroux | Train Through The Americas

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The Old Patagonian...

	The Old Patagonian Express: By Train Through the Americas Paul Theroux Mariner Books, 1979 - 404 pages average customer review:based on 33 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

This is the book that got me hooked on travelling

First book I read by Paul Theroux and was blown away by his refusal to play the all-too-easily-pleased and polite traveller/tourist. Theroux is a thinking traveller not afraid to mix it up with the locals or allow people to make fools of themselves. I just wished he had taken another route home and written another book about that.

Train Through The Americas

This is an excellent read. Theroux engages everything and everyone with a sort of biting-embrace. He doesn't mince words. He tells the story of the Americas as he experiences it. It's not necessarily pretty and it isn't always complimentary.Theroux's mixes observation with historical background and literary references that add to the text. Theroux's power of description can be breathtaking. "Flocks of white herons blew across the grass tips like flecks of paper in a breeze" It is this type of prose juxtaposed the poor living conditions of the people that adds allure to the story. I think Theroux's writing rests on the edge of what people find comfortable, but the reality is traveling to a third world country is not COMFORTABLE. One must fine riches and beauty amongst the squalor.

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Theroux's most enjoyable travel book

The Old Pantagonian Express is about 20 years old now but I still re-read it every couple of years. From the starting point in Massachussets, Theroux remarks on how his fellow commuters are merely commuting a short distance, whereas he is travelling to the tip of South America! There are many great moments and observations in this book. Travelling through Panama, Theroux finds himself with a repetitive fellow passenger who keeps pointing out the re-appearance of a pipeline that is coming in and out of view. Mundane stuff, but Theroux weaves it into the narrative in a way that only he can. Of course there are there are many interesting journeys through Mexico, Central and South America, but told in a unique way that was unlike any travel book I had ever read before. Theroux's many other travel books are entertaining and stimulating, but none so much as this book.

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Don't be such a whiner Paul!

Jesus, man! Are you always this annoyed with life? I liked your book but only because you met Borges and were Poe-obsessed throughout the entire trip. But my suggestion is to GO HOME next time you write a complaint filled travel book.

SAVOUR SLOWLY

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.

reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, page 6, 7

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