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“For upcoming book club discussion ”
Pat P wrote this review Sunday, November 1 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No![Sam [also known as Harry]](http://shelfari-userimages.s3.amazonaws.com/usr2060283633732227049149900.jpg)
“Wise, epic, and extremely well-written travelogue of Thubron's fascinating and grueling 6,000 mile odyssey over the millenia-old "Silk Road", from the heart of China to the Mediterranean's shore in Antyaka (Antioch), Turkey.
Sam [also known as Harry] wrote this review Saturday, March 21 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
The text is often disturbing as a stream of sentences like these seems to continually pass before one's eyes: "The Mongols herded the inhabitants outside the gates-- men, women, and children-- and massacred them, even dogs and cats, and ploughed every dwelling into the ground [in the 12th century]," on through time to "[In 1997, the Taliban] drove their jeeps into the city, machine-gunning shopkeepers, women, old men, children, even donkeys and dogs. They then hunted down the Hazaras, house by house, killing the men with three shots, to the head, chest, and testicles."
Some things apparently never change along the Silk Road: Fear, slaughter, and the paltry value placed on human life. Thubron explores the greatness of the Silk Road sensitively, honestly, and without glossing over any of its warts.”“Read for book discussion group.
Betty B wrote this review Friday, March 13 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
I dislike the contemporary trend of using first and second person present tense.
It is an awkward and contrived device.
This writer goes back and forth between various tenses within the same paragraph.”
“a singular, empathetic rendering of the porous, fluid nature of nations, trade and histories, this book is worth reading purely for the contrasts it produces between what is and what has been. splendid, evocative writing: thubron is no historian, but a storyteller. look not to this for knowledge as much as for wisdom and wonder.”
Arvind wrote this review Sunday, February 22 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Descriptive and detail account of a journey through the modern silk road. Well researched historical events of the cities, a compassionate take of the people that he met. Beautiful and poetic travel writing.”
Jovenus wrote this review Tuesday, July 15 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Part of my interest in Central Asia”
Roxann G wrote this review Sunday, June 29 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Amazon review: In his latest absorbing travel epic, Thubron (In Siberia; Mirror to Damascus) follows the course—or at least the general drift—of the ancient network of trade routes that connected central China with the Mediterranean Coast, traversing along the way several former Soviet republics, war-torn Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey. The author travels third-class all the way, in crowded, stifling railroad cars and rattle-trap buses and cars, staying at crummy inns or farmers' houses, subject to shakedowns by border guards and constant harassment—even quarantine—by health officials hunting the SARS virus. Physically, these often monotonously arid, hilly regions of Central Asia tend to go by in a swirl of dun-colored landscapes studded with Buddha shrines in varying states of repair or ruin, but Thubron's poetic eye still teases out gorgeous subtleties in the panorama. Certain themes also color his offbeat encounters with locals—most of them want to get the hell out of Central Asia—but again he susses out the infinite variety of ordinary misery. The conduit by which an entire continent exchanged its commodities, cultures and peoples—Thubron finds traces of Roman legionaries and mummies of Celtic tribesmen in western China—the Silk Road becomes for him an evocative metaphor for the mingling of experiences and influences that is the essence of travel. (July 3) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.”
Zevs wrote this review Saturday, April 5 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No“Colin Thubron empathetic account of one of the routes of silk road. More of travelogue less of history but still very readable. Only Stanley Stewart comes close in describing this underbelly of Asia between the giants of Russia, China and India.”
Mahanadi wrote this review Sunday, October 28 2007. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“A bit dry and heavy-handed in its treatment of historical facts.”
AthenasDaughter wrote this review Sunday, August 19 2007. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
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