Declare Based On Books Riding the Iron Rooster
| Title | : | Riding the Iron Rooster |
| Author | : | Paul Theroux |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | First Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 464 pages |
| Published | : | March 28th 1989 by Ivy Books (first published 1988) |
| Categories | : | Travel. Nonfiction. Cultural. China. Asia. Autobiography. Memoir. Travelogue. Adventure |
Paul Theroux
Paperback | Pages: 464 pages Rating: 4.02 | 8160 Users | 317 Reviews
Narrative During Books Riding the Iron Rooster
3 Things about Riding the Iron Rooster:(1) land sakes, Paul Theroux does not like human beings! he seem like a very disdainful and contemptuous person in general. that disdain and contempt certainly includes the Chinese - which was an off-putting and distancing thing to experience when reading a travelogue concerning China. at times it really got to me and i found myself disdainful and contemptuous of the author in return. he began to drive me up the wall with - as another reviewer notes - his relentlessly consistent authorial voice. i'd have to remind myself that he also wrote The Mosquito Coast, which besides being my dad's favorite film (scary, that), is all about escaping from the dirty, disgusting world of conformist, unimaginative humans - and the terrible dangers that can arise from that sort of mentality. so it's not like Theroux doesn't have a good read on his own personality and his maybe-not-so-secret desires. and that's kind of admirable.
(2) i read this side-by-side with Mark Salzman's Iron and Silk. the contrast between the two was illuminating. on the one hand, Salzman seems like such a decent and sweet guy, someone i'd like to know. his book is very well-intentioned... and, sadly, sorta vapid. it has no teeth and no bite, just a soft babyish gumming of sorts. the writing is also basically uninteresting. on the other hand, Theroux, who is a person i have no interest in knowing, is all bite (and lots of bark too). he lets you know his thoughts and he is fearless when it comes to being percieved as a snotty asshole. he doesn't care and he writes it like he sees it. his writing may be bleak, but it is also very real. this is a man who looks at the ugly side of things and reports on it in prose that is often exceedingly impressive. but still rather ugly.
(3) apparently people who regularly sleep in (as i do) have homes that smell "feety". you know, like feet. huh. i did not realize this and i'm not sure if this is true. i think this is another example of Theroux being a dick regarding habits he disdains. oh, Paul.
Point Books Conducive To Riding the Iron Rooster
| Original Title: | Riding the Iron Rooster |
| ISBN: | 0804104549 (ISBN13: 9780804104548) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Setting: | China |
| Literary Awards: | Thomas Cook Travel Book Award (1989) |
Rating Based On Books Riding the Iron Rooster
Ratings: 4.02 From 8160 Users | 317 ReviewsPiece Based On Books Riding the Iron Rooster
it could've been a brilliant book, but unfortunately I've found it extremely patronising...The nice thing about buying books by the box at a used book sale is that Ill take a chance on something I normally wouldnt pick up at full price. In this case it was a travelogue. Paul Therouxs travels through China took place in the mid 80s, which makes most of the political content somewhat dated (not to mention repetitive to the Nth degree). Everyone in China that he comes across gets questioned about the changes in the political climate, specifically the differences between Mao and the
I actually enjoyed it more than I thought I would; I say this because I have read Theroux before, and found him insufferable. But this is a different book, and this is a different journey, and I was happy to travelling with him this time. Theroux is a very good writer, and blends (some) banality and (a lot of beauty) in his sentences, making this book excellent travel writing of a sort that is not really written anymore - unromantic, straightforward, and full of adventures and hairy stories.
China by train is educational but uninspiring. I got the meaning of a hundred of Chinese Ha-Ha! but still wouldn't jump aboard that train. Except for Tibet. The last chapter outweighed the rest of the book.
One of the best travel writers out there. Theroux makes you want to overturn your desk, light your cube on fire and turn in your company ID...so you can get into the world and LIVE!
Once when I was telling a friend about all the troubles I had encountered during a visit to Myranmar in 2006, he responding by saying: "That sounds like a pain in the ass-my favorite kind of travel story." And I think I can agree with him, which is one of the biggest reasons I love to read Paul Theroux. My most recent voyage with Theroux was his 1983 visit to the middle kingdom, China in Riding The Iron Rooster. It has changed so much since then, in fact, my own first visit was in 2002, and my
This book exhausted me. 450 pages of train rides, blurred landscapes, glib conversations, and Paul Theroux's relentlessly consistent authorial voice throughout, cramming in detail after detail from a year-long journey throughout China in 1987; it became a reading challenge more than a pleasure. I wasn't about to get off the train in Heilongjiang, worn out around page 300, not because I was so riveted, but rather because I wanted to know if he would ever bring it all together, if his partial and
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