I picked the paperback version of this book up from a grungy little second hand bookshop when traveling in Queensland (AUS) The lady selling it to commented "You a traveller ? You’ve got a beauty there!"

The Great Railway Bazaar is about a mans journey by rail (where ever possible) from Paris to Japan, when I read the first few paragraphs I thought it may be a little boring and the lady had erred , but no with a little persistance a great travel story unfolds . Theroux’s style is not so much to describe the vistas he sees through his train window(he does do this )rather his emphasis is the characters and situations that arise as he moves from train to train and country to country. For this reason I believe this book will interest many who do not normally read travel stories.

The first few chapters won me over, the hilarious story of Duffill, his unfortunate fate and the coining of the term "getting Dufilled " kept me amused for hours ( this alone is worth the price of the book). I also love the way Theroux would get into unspeakable foul moods from extreme confinement and unleash his caustic speech unapologetically on his fellow passengers, the fact that he includes these moments of incredibly rude behavior with no repentance is even more entertaining.

Theroux writes with an at times disguised sympathy for his fellow travelers and comments strongly on the countries he visits, not being at all frightened of stating what he sees as positive and negative about each country. You can’t help admire the authors command of descriptive power when it comes to people, some very ordinary and some not so ordinary, either way his prowess renders them very completely believable.

Writing about train journeys through long and often tedious lengths of time and uninteresting stretches of countryside is hard enough but Theroux keeps the readers attention not by trying to make a journey more interesting but by allowing you to share some of his discomfort and often undisguised rage, particularly focused on people who mess with his personal space, or property.

The Great Railway Bazaar is entertaining, but not only that it contains confronting people and images, the section on Japanese sexual theater is graphic and gory and the whole book tends to have an "edge" to it.




Recommended: Yes