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A review by jacktrapp
Ghost Train to the Eastern Star by Paul Theroux
adventurous
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
Traveling is glamorous, it isn’t even all that special. It’s just an escape from the demands of life mixed with chance encounters and random happenings. Theroux sees it and says it like no one else. His trips across Europe and Asia is beautifully tinted with the eyes of an old man. A ghost. The book is slower then it’s predecessor, fitting because the main character is 30 years older.
For all that, it’s a lovely read that you need to really attend to to get the most from. Some parts seem a bit slow, a bit repetitive (Turkmenistan, Singapore) but consider that Theroux doesn’t spend needless lines on these places. The number of words probably reflects the amount of thinking those places made him do.
For all that, it’s a lovely read that you need to really attend to to get the most from. Some parts seem a bit slow, a bit repetitive (Turkmenistan, Singapore) but consider that Theroux doesn’t spend needless lines on these places. The number of words probably reflects the amount of thinking those places made him do.