Shadow of the Silk Road (P.S.)

Author - Colin Thubron ... [Goo?] [Posters]

This Paperback Book item from Harper Perennial was reviewed on 5-Oct-2008.

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1) Paperback Book Shadow of the Silk Road (P.S.) by Harper Perennial. Thubron´s prose seems tired compared to some of his earlier writing, almost as if he´s forcing himself to write well. On occasion, it results in prose on the darker end of purple, very 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 which one is writing. Against a glorious Silk Road of silks and ceramics in a completely fictitious past (as he notes, there was not one Silk Road but 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´re planning a trip along the Silk Road, do yourself a favor and don´t 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, buy the book!¤

2) Paperback Book Shadow of the Silk Road (P.S.) by Harper Perennial. 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 very educational and will expand your knowledge of peoples of another world.¤

3) Paperback Book Shadow of the Silk Road (P.S.) by Harper Perennial. 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 everything 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, but they were deserted. Against one slope 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 goods and property: it was also a two-way street for ideas. For the most 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)



¤

4) Paperback Book Shadow of the Silk Road (P.S.) by Harper Perennial. 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.¤

5) Paperback Book Shadow of the Silk Road (P.S.) by Harper Perennial. Colin Thubron´s vivid and very well written descriptions make us think about the complexity of Asia. His book is not just the report of a long journey, but also a valuable contribution 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.¤

6) Paperback Book Shadow of the Silk Road (P.S.) by Harper Perennial.

To travel the Silk Road, the greatest land route on earth, is to trace the passage not only of trade and armies but also of ideas, religions, and inventions. Making his way by local bus, truck, car, donkey cart, and camel, Colin Thubron covered some seven thousand miles in eight months—out of the heart of China into the mountains of Central Asia, across northern Afghanistan and the plains of Iran into Kurdish Turkey—and explored an ancient world in modern ferment.

Page Updated: Robert N. Goolsby, 2-Nov-2008, 00612317709780061231773, 700-770-730-320-5X1-341-841-061-H8B-8

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