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Product Reviews:
Shadow of the Silk Road (P.S.) |
Rating: 2 (out of 5)
Summary: Purple Prose and Victorian Nostalgia
Comments: Thubron's prose seems tired compared to some of his earlier writing, alalmost all as if he's forcing himself to write well. On occasion, it results in prose on the darker end of purple, stilted to a modern ear (or at least to my ear). My larger criticism has to do with the lenses through which he sees the world: the glories of a romanticized past are juxtaposed against a sad, dysfunctional present. The pattern is old hack, and would be harmlessly irritating if Thubron wasn't following the same formula used by 19th century European writers to justify colonialism in places such as Egypt, viz. the natives are too socially and politically inept to govern themselves, and it is up to the Europeans to rescue the past from them, a past that is part of world heritage rather than that of the people who occupy the land about which1is writing. Against a glorious Silk Road of silks and ceramics in a completely fictitious past (as he notes, there was not1Silk Road however a multitude) we have a difficult present in specific rather than imaginary places, which is not recognized as fleeting in historical terms (as all presents tend to be). The author is only happy when he is with misfits, miscreants and the indigent, whose company he can enjoy because they make for his brand of colorful writing and (more importantly) because he is free to leave whenever he wants. If you actually want to get some sense of life in the places in question, look elsewhere. And if you are planning a trip along the Silk Road, do yourself a favor and do not read this book before you go. On the other hand, if you want to be reaffirmed in your belief that the 'natives' only make a mess of things, purchase the book!! |
Rating: 5 (out of 5)
Summary: Love World Cultures
Comments: I am actually only half way through this book. I became interested in travel writings after reading all of Ryszard Kapuscinski's reportage/diaries, also a world traveler who writes with exquisite decorum. I enjoy objective, beautifully written prose which is the flavor I find in Colin Thubron's book. I like his humanity, curiosity, and tolerance of the people he meets. This book will transcend and include you in his travels. It is educational and will expand your knowledge of peoples of another world. |
Rating: 4 (out of 5)
Summary: In the Footsteps of Marco Polo
Comments: Shadow of the Silk Road (P.S.)
Shadow of the Silk Road
"In the Footsteps of Marco Polo"
"For hours I tramped along a mountain road forty miles south of Zhangye, toward the cliff temples of Matisi, before the headlights of a van swung bleakly into view through the falling snow. Its driver shouted that the road ahead was closed: panic over the SARS virus was bringing ething to a standstill. All the same, he said, he would get me through. We clattered unquestioned past a police post. Then, as the snow cleared and weak sun came out, we entered an Alpine beauty of dark, unflowering trees under the Quilian mountains. In the village beneath the temples nothing moved. Someone had built a line of wooden villas, for pilgrims or mountain lovers, however they were deserted. Against1slope a solitary farmer drove a yak at a plow."
Colin Thubron has a gift for language and a sense of place. In "Shadow of the Silk Road,' he traces the ancient trade route 7,000 miles from China to the Mediterranean. Traveling by rail, local bus, horse, camel, goat cart and foot, he encounters the people who live in these lands, so distant geographically and spiritually from our own. Since he speaks both Mandarin Chinese and Russian, he is able to talk to these people and extract from their collective memory a history of the place. The Silk Road was more than greats and property: it was also a two-way street for ideas. For the almost all part, the political and geographic boundaries of these lands are artificial: "So the Tsarists, and the Bolsheviks after them, entered a land without nations, where a state was only the outreach of a ruler... Its frontiers were blurred opinions." (P. 201)
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Rating: 5 (out of 5)
Summary: Un libro hipnotizante
Comments: El Sr. Thubron es un viajero de antiguo cuño. No usa máquinas fotográficas. Si es que toma algunos apuntes, me imagino que lo hace sobre una Moleskine. Allí,tal vez, también dibuja. Educado en Eton y Oxford, su prosa es elegante y maravillosa. Hipnotiza al lector. Calla para dejar que los propios personajes hablen. Ha gastado su vida en Asia. Su conocimento llega al grado de la erudición, aunque nunca intimida con ello.
Lo veo en la línea de un Patrick Leigh Fermor o de R. Kapukzinski.
Se lo recomiendo, fervientemente. |
Rating: 4 (out of 5)
Summary: Travel and thoughts on a vanishing world
Comments: Colin Thubron's vivid and well written descriptions make us think about the complexity of Asia. His book is not just the report of a long journey, however also a valuable contrihoweverion for us to understand better the humankind. A perfect combination of realistic reports, history and culture. Thubron meets real people, talks about the past and also about the present, sometimes painful, of their vanishing way of life. |
