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cimorene1558's review against another edition
4.0
Despite the struggle with the first hundred pages or so, I'm really glad a persevered. Most of the stuff that annoyed me at the beginning either stopped annoying me or got better, and I learned a huge amount about Central Asian history and culture, and am now dying to visit Uzbekistan, not something I ever thought I'd say. I highly recommend reading this (and sticking it through the often annoying parts of the first 150 or so pages) if you're interested in learning more about people and places you (assuming you're an average North American) may not know anything about.
catherine_louise's review against another edition
4.0
for a start, I learned a lot about Uzbekistan that I didn't know before, though I definitely didn't catch or try to catch all of the details about the various Central Asian conquerers - I get why they're important to the narrative, but Bissell is honestly strongest when he's talking about the twentieth century. but the facts and dates aren't really the most important part of the book anyways. the most important part of the book is Bissell's attempts to understand this part of the world and to make sense of the violence, both catastrophic and everyday, baked into its soil. he writes with the humility of someone who wants to empathize with the Uzbek plight and fears he will never be able to truly understand it, much less do anything about it.
arkipelago's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
andreanyday's review against another edition
4.0
I loved the combination of Bissell's humor, thorough journalism, and personal accounts. He showed a deep respect for the Uzbek culture and people, while maintaining the critical eye of an outsider. My thoughts while reading the book were that this writing lacked much discussion about the historical or cultural importance of the Aral Sea and especially its future, but I then realized that the open end of the book is exactly reflective of the inevitable fate of the Aral Sea and those who depend on it.
kathleenitpdx's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.5
left_coast_justin's review against another edition
4.0
Tom Bissell was only twenty-seven? twenty-eight? --when he wrote this, which is pretty astonishing -- his grasp of history over a vast tract of central Asia makes him sound like a professor with a lengthy career behind him, and the writing style is, for the most part, quite mature. But parts of it are also crack-me-up funny. Here is a short snippet of conversation between Bissell and his translator; the translater's a freewheelin' dude even younger than Bissell:
...and then a few paragraphs later, upon meeting a young woman he had befriended during an earlier stay:
This latter quote really sum up this book's appeal. Bissell is sympathetic to the plights of others, particularly society's underdogs; he writes clean, lean sentences that carry a lot of information; he is financially literate, scientifically literate and medically literate, which makes him a great narrator for a modern examination of Uzbekistan.
What the book isn't is an in-depth look at the environmental disaster that is the Aral Sea. While he does address that at some length, the emphasis of the book is 'Chasing' rather than 'The Sea'. In fact, most of the book finds him wandering to all of the country's cities of historical interest, most of which are several hours' flight east of the Aral.
There is one aspect of the book that could have been excised, but it was apparently of great importance to Bissell to include it. This was the story of how he first encountered Uzbekistan as a Peace Corps volunteer, and how he went mildly insane and shipped himself back home after only seven months. In fact, the first time I tried to read this I gave up, squirming, at this point in the book. Not all the inner workings of one's mind, and particularly one's twenty-two year old mind, need to be aired out for public review, IMO.
Aside from that, this is an extremely well-researched and well-written account of a part of the world that few of us will ever see.
“We need to go somewhere soon, bro, because my pee bubble is full.”
“Your pee bubble?”
“This is the bubble which holds my pee.”
“Your bladder, you mean. Bladder. B-l-a-d-d-e-r.”
“In English you don’t call it the pee bubble?”
“I will from now on, probably.”
...and then a few paragraphs later, upon meeting a young woman he had befriended during an earlier stay:
...Her smile was no longer white. Three-quarters of her teeth were now shiny gold. Many people in Uzbekistan had gold teeth, but women's mouths were the primary showcase of this initially disconcerting dental enhancement. Widespread though usually mild malnutrition and a lack of regular calcium intake meant that, during pregnancy, women's teeth dropped sacrificially from their sockets. Uzbek water additionally lacked the fluoride from which we in America benefited so invisibly. This is strange if only because Uzbek water is laced with so many other periodic-table mainstays.
This latter quote really sum up this book's appeal. Bissell is sympathetic to the plights of others, particularly society's underdogs; he writes clean, lean sentences that carry a lot of information; he is financially literate, scientifically literate and medically literate, which makes him a great narrator for a modern examination of Uzbekistan.
What the book isn't is an in-depth look at the environmental disaster that is the Aral Sea. While he does address that at some length, the emphasis of the book is 'Chasing' rather than 'The Sea'. In fact, most of the book finds him wandering to all of the country's cities of historical interest, most of which are several hours' flight east of the Aral.
There is one aspect of the book that could have been excised, but it was apparently of great importance to Bissell to include it. This was the story of how he first encountered Uzbekistan as a Peace Corps volunteer, and how he went mildly insane and shipped himself back home after only seven months. In fact, the first time I tried to read this I gave up, squirming, at this point in the book. Not all the inner workings of one's mind, and particularly one's twenty-two year old mind, need to be aired out for public review, IMO.
Aside from that, this is an extremely well-researched and well-written account of a part of the world that few of us will ever see.
dkeane2007's review against another edition
3.0
Just how many books are there by Peace Corps Volunteers? I would hate to try to make a list. This is part memoir, part travelogue and part history covering a rarely disussed, but important part of the world.
cspiwak's review
2.0
I knew very little about uzbekistan going into this, so I did learn some things from the read.
For a book ostensibly about the Aral Sea, I felt there wasn't much Aral Sea information in it.
I also felt the author was a bit whiny and hyper-critical of everyone else who wrote about Uzbekistan in the past, but perhaps that was justified.
I was left wondering whatever happened to Rustam
For a book ostensibly about the Aral Sea, I felt there wasn't much Aral Sea information in it.
I also felt the author was a bit whiny and hyper-critical of everyone else who wrote about Uzbekistan in the past, but perhaps that was justified.
I was left wondering whatever happened to Rustam
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