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Title: Riding the Iron Rooster by Paul Theroux ISBN: 0-8041-0454-9 Publisher: Ivy Books Pub. Date: 28 March, 1989 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.82 (28 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Unpleasant or Not, It's the Truth
Comment: Paul Theroux has always had an extremely sharp eye for detail, and an even sharper pen with which to mold these observations into telling, sometimes ascerbic commentary. In "Riding The Iron Rooster", Theroux is at the top of his form in capturing the flavor and collective psyche of mainland China during the last quarter of the 20th Century.
One of the more revealing angles put forth in "Iron Rooster" is the face-saving that the Chinese government has engaged in with respect to The Cultural Revolution. Everyone knows that what Mao Tse Tung did was monstrous, but few in China appear willing to own up to the magnitude of the sin in any public way; so half-measures are taken to pay "proper respect" to Mao at just the appropriate place and just the appropriate time.
The author also nicely captures the first wave of pro-capitalist fervor that began engulfing China in the late 80's. But the core of Theroux's book, as always, are the vivid snapshots of the customs, foibles and mores that constitute a culture.
Reading "Iron Rooster" as I boarded a plane in Hong Kong in 1994, I discovered I was about to experience, first-hand, the aeronautical and social turbulence that the author ascribed to Chinese plane travel. By the time I landed in Guangxi Province, all of his observations had been confirmed.
"Riding The Iron Rooster" is vintage Theroux - insightful, droll, always pleasurable.
Rating: 5
Summary: Fine Insight , Good Writing, Great Laughs
Comment: This is a well-written literay account of Theroux's travels through the difficult land of modern China. I first read this while living in (British) Hong Kong and making trips to and through the mainland. I have never laughed so much at the crazy predicaments Theroux gets himself into or observes (many the same as I was experiencing), and was struck not only at the quality of his writing but how rare a writer he is for covering this difficult and insecure part of the world.
What shines through in the pages of this book is that Theroux the writer is beholden to no one; he delivers accuracy of description everytime, and while this is the essence of a good travel writer, it is not a trait relished by governments out east like China's, where in fact the culture demands "saving face" over telling the blunt truth (see Bo Yang's book The Ugly Chinaman for an in-depth account of this fascinating aspect of Chinese culture). Even some westerners who live out East (and might like us to think of the Third World as some kind of paradise posting) can get upset at this kind of sober truth-telling about "their" China. For the detached reader, Theroux's book is an honest, funny, non-spin-doctored account.
If you like this book, try Theroux's Kowloon Tong, his Hong Kong novel banned in China, a very accurate depiction of that small city and the people (both westerners and easterners) who lived in it at the time of the Handover (I read it while living there). Timothy Mo's The Monkey King is another classic China novel about an eccentric Chinese family - a witty, poignant tale, and a book so on the mark that, if anything, it was even more attacked by certain frumps out East than Kowloon Tong!
Rating: 4
Summary: Improves over time
Comment: Slow and non-engaging at the beginning, the pace and tone improve substantially and I was hooked during the last third. This is an account of Theroux's criss-crossing through China during 1988, amazing descriptions of the landscapes surrounding him, and many people's answers to his questions about Mao and the Cultural Revolution. While I probably would have enjoyed it even if I wasn't planning to mimic his trip anytime soon, knowing that I might follow in his footsteps made it all the more exciting. The book would have been better with the first 50 pages cut, largely detailing the annoying habits of a tour group.
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Title: The Great Railway Bazaar: By Train Through Asia by Paul Theroux ISBN: 014024980X Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: October, 1995 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: The Old Patagonian Express : By Train Through the Americas by Paul Theroux ISBN: 039552105X Publisher: Mariner Books Pub. Date: 07 November, 1989 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Pillars of Hercules by Paul Theroux ISBN: 0449910857 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 29 October, 1996 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Happy Isles of Oceania : Paddling the Pacific by Paul Theroux ISBN: 0449908585 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 19 October, 1993 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: To the Ends of the Earth by Paul Theroux ISBN: 0804111227 Publisher: Ivy Books Pub. Date: 02 April, 1994 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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