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| The Old Patagonian Express: By Train Through the Americas | 
 enlarge | Author: Paul Theroux
Publisher: Mariner Books
Category: Book
List Price: $15.95
Buy New: $2.01
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (33 reviews)
Sales Rank: 113491
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 404
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.5 x 1.1
ISBN: 039552105X
Dewey Decimal Number: 917.0453
UPC: 046442521055
EAN: 9780395521052
ASIN: 039552105X
Publication Date: November 7, 1979
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Starting with a rush-hour subway ride to South Station in Boston to catch the Lake Shore Limited to Chicago, Theroux winds up on the poky, wandering Old Patagonian Express steam engine, which comes to a halt in a desolate land of cracked hills and thorn bushes. But with Theroux the view along the way is what matters: the monologuing Mr. Thornberry in Costa Rica, the bogus priest of Cali, and the blind Jorge Luis Borges, who delights in having Theroux read Robert Louis Stevenson to him.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 28 more reviews...
 condescending, judgemental, and refreshingly honest November 13, 2008
You may find Thoreaux's openness and directness refreshing, or you may find his brashness, arrogance, condescension, and hypocritical judgementalism revolting. If the latter is true, take heart that this book actually becomes enjoyable once you get past the hundred pages or so...
Maybe others will better appreciate Thoreaux's attempts at humor, but the first hundred pages of this book could arguably compete for the most off-putting intro ever written. Before even beginning to prove a thing about himself (unless he's relying on an established reputation?), he devotes a few pages to trashing the state of current travel literature as being formulaic and overly focused on the destination vs. the journey. Beginning his story, he immediately picks a couple of confrontations with fellow passengers: correcting an elderly man who likens the New England winter landscape to Siberia ("Actually, there isn't this much snow in Siberia") and contradicting a 20 year old radical girl ("I wouldn't call them radical... they're smug views, self-important ones. Egocentric, you might say.").
Clearly Thoreaux is self-aware enough that this impression must be intentional, but it just doesn't work. Thoreaux is trying too hard to *tell* you to how to regard his work and the people he meets, rather than let you draw the same conclusions by just portraying people and their behaviors. There are so many better travel writers out there today (maybe this wasn't the case in the 70s when this was written) that this is inexcusable. Bryson is far funnier, Dalrymple far more insightful and also pretty funny.
Fortunately, Thoreaux gets more bearable further into the book. He's most insightful when he reflects on the nature of writing and his reasons for traveling alone, avoiding idle chatter that gets in the way of more thoughtful observation ("I am diverted, but it is discovery not diversion that I seek.") After pages of tolerating idle chatter from a fellow traveler Thornberry, I'm finally able to sympathize with Thoreaux's cruel fantasy of pushing Thornberry off the train. The stories get more interesting as Thoreaux's adventurousness and openness lead him into situations where tourists rarely go- a Salvadorean soccer game where the players stop to watch a fight in the stands, the "simmering anarchy" of a Panamian high school (liken to a `50s American high school), the chaos of the utterly untouristy Barranquilla, mass altitude sickness on a train through the Andes... Throughout the journey, Thoreaux colors the narrative with short excerpts from books he is reading including the Adventure of Gordon Arthur Pym and Life of Johnson. By the end of the journey, Thoreaux seems a little more humble, reflecting on the pointlessness of his journey, but knowing the story needed to be told.
"The journey, not the arrival, matters; the voyage, not the landing." August 21, 2008
In 1979, Paul Theroux departed from his childhood home in Medford, Massachusetts, and began his train journey from the East Coast of the United States to Patagonia, on the southern tip of Argentina. A seasoned traveler, fluent in Spanish, Theroux brings to life his trip through the northern and southern hemispheres, traveling without a schedule and observing his fellow passengers on the train and people at stops along the way.
In Texas he is astonished at the contrasts between Laredo on the Texas side of the Rio Grande and Nuevo Laredo across the border in Mexico, commenting on society and governments. Traveling through Mexico and Guatemala, he observes the poverty of the Indians and their lack of opportunities. In El Salvador he attends a soccer game and gets caught up in the melee and riots which follow it. In Costa Rica, the cleanest country he has visited, he finds himself stuck on the train with Mr. Thornberry, a New Hampshire tourist so boring that Theroux cannot wait to escape him--only to have Mr. Thornberry "save his life" by offering him a place to stay upon his arrival in Limon. In Panama he meets the "Zonians," from the Canal Zone, and in Cali, Colombia, he meets a married "priest" who cannot tell his devout mother in Belfast that he has "left" the church to marry and have children.
Throughout his trip, Theroux reads classics, particularly enjoying Boswell's Life of Dr. Johnson and Edgar Allen Poe's The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, and Related Tales (The World's Classics), both of which provide ironic reference points for his own journey. For literature lovers, the most fascinating section occurs in Buenos Aires, where Theroux spends many days visiting blind writer Jorge Luis Borges, who persuades Theroux to read to him. Ironically, one of Borges's favorite novels is The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym. As Theroux takes notes on his meetings with Borges, he becomes Borges's Boswell.
More an observer than a participant, Theroux has an unfortunate air of superiority about what he sees and hears. Sparing little sympathy for American and German tourists, he rarely gets excited about his surroundings, expressing genuine emotion only when he talks with three boys, ages ten to twelve, who live in a doorway and scavenge for food because their rural families have abandoned them. Theroux's self-congratulatory attitude gets a bit wearisome, but the picture of Central and South America, thirty years ago, and the section with Borges are unparalleled. With beautiful, carefully observed prose and a great ear for dialogue, Theroux's Patagonian Express is a landmark travel memoir. Mary Whipple
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Theroux: Collected Stories
 From Boston to Patagonia by Train June 12, 2007
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
Note: I made some immature Mormon angry because of my negative reviews of books that attempted to prove the Book of Mormon, and that person has been slamming my reviews almost as fast as they are posted.
So, your "helpful" votes are appreciated. Thanks, and note that a short review is not necessarily a bad review if it leads you to a great book.
From Boston to Patagonia by train. What an adventure. As I wrote in my review of the "Great Railway Bazaar," treat yourself to traveling the easy way and read one of Paul Theroux's books.
Peter Mathiessen described the "Old Patagonian Express" perfectly: "Sharp-eyed, honest, and exceptionally well-written...an implacable landscape, conveyed through a series of marvelous encounters."
Another Wonderful Travel Expose by the Inimitable Theroux! May 25, 2007
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Terrific in every way, as all of Theroux's travel books are! Not a word too many, and not an insight overlooked in this adventure through the Americas. Wonderful, beautiful, and a treasured book in my library.
Take a trip December 18, 2006
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
One of Theroux's best train trips. You can really feel the shifting landscapes as he moves through the latitudes...
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