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The Old Patagonian Express: By Train Through the Americasby: Paul Theroux
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 Rating:  - you will love the Authours voice or you will find him wimpish This book has decent descriptive language of the railroad from Boston to Patagonia. It gets 1 star for that. The characters the authour meets are almost certainly made up ( i will forgive him for this. When you write a travel book you have to lie about the characters you meet because real life is to banal ) The Authour reads several books whilst he is on the train--i like it when travel writers talk about the books they are reading ( it gets another star for that, making ... Read More Rating: - "The journey, not the arrival, matters; the voyage, not the landing."In 1979, Paul Theroux departed from his childhood home in Medford, Massachusetts, and began his train journey from the East Coast of the United States to Patagonia, on the southern tip of Argentina. A seasoned traveler, fluent in Spanish, Theroux brings to life his trip through the northern and southern hemispheres, traveling without a schedule and observing his fellow passengers on the train and people at stops along the way. In Texas he is astonished at the contrasts between Laredo ... Read More Rating:  - Old Fart rides trainI began reading this book after having thoroughly enjoyed "Dark Star" by the author. "Dark Star" swept me into its narrative, educated me and gave me a real sense of Africa's contradictory nature. It was a wonderful book! However, Theroux came across as an arrogant, ignorant old man who's views of the landscape outside his train car and his opinions of the people inside had no more depth than the narrow route of the train tracks upon which he travelled. If I had wanted a narration of how grumpy ... Read More Rating: - The Old Patagonian ExpressI thoroughly enjoyed reading this whilst I was travelling through South America (in the opposite direction to Theroux). It even motivated me to search out those of the trains that he travelled on, that were still in service. I found his uncompromising, often critical view of others and himself, a refreshing change from the political correctness that we are accustomised to today. I thought his observations acute and I'm looking forward to reading more of his work. Rating: - Love him or hate him...but he is good...As others have pointed out, Theroux has a rather different style of travel writing from many others. Though he is clearly well read and conveys a great deal of knowledge through his writing, I have to agree that at times his judgemental nature regarding the people and places he encounters is annoying. The arrogance is profound but at times it almost seems naive - which for someone so well travelled seems bizarre. At one point in the book, he comes across a guy in his young 20s who is reading a ... Read More Browse for similar items by category: Click to Display
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