Ghost Train To The Eastern Star By: Paul Theroux
Year: 2008
Genre: Travel
Sometimes, I worry that this will be Paul Theroux's last travel book, and although it is an excellent valedictory book, it would depress me if I knew I would never read anything new by him.
He is a grumpy old man, hating all other travel writers for not being as dedicated as him (Michael Palin gets a hell of a tongue lashing), wanting to be alone, but equally wanting people to tell him their life stories because it makes good reading. And he has a gift for getting people to talk about themselves - that or he's making it up as he goes along. He stereotypes people, but in an entertaining fashion, sizing them up long before he's spoken to them and making what they say fit his notion.
In this book, he revisits the journey undertaken in his first book, The Great Railway Bazar. We find out the real reason he went on the journey, and the dreadful pain that resulted from it. It is by far his most autobiographical book. He travels from London to Tokyo overland by train and then back via Russia. It's colourful, and it makes you want to go and sit on endless trains. It makes you want to run away.
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