Get Access Riding The Iron Rooster: By Train Through China Designed And Illustrated By Paul Theroux Available As Hardcover

was so excited to pick up this book because it is about a man's journey across Europe into China via rail.
The author's travels took place in the's and I was interested in learning more about China and seeing it through a visitor's eye, hopefully with some insight.
I got halfway through the book, and just couldn't take it anymore, The author's ego is giant, he complains constantly about food and accommodation, and the worst part is that he is condescending towards his contemporary Chinese citizen and and his/her culture.
I tried to stick it out just to learn more about China, but absolutely could not take one more word out of this author's book.
Do not read this bookyour interest in travel and culture will be squashed by his pessimism and opacity,Things about Riding the Iron Rooster:

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 offputting 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 maybenotsosecret desires, and that's kind of admirable,

i read this sidebyside with Mark Salzman's sitelinkIron 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 wellintentioned, . . 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.

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. This isn't a travel book or just a book about China, It's a book about the pain in the ass that travel can be and the annoying, obnoxious, petty and unpleasant people you meet along the way.
These are all the things that make the book and most of his others interesting, He doesn't leave out the boring parts in between, He's a little bit of a curmudgeon and can sometimes be downright mean, Every road isn't rocky however, and he gives you a real sense of place you can almost smell it, Not a regular genre. Current picture of people in China in different geographic areas, There are significant differences in food, outlook and culture, China is not a monolithic culture,
Enjoyed this immensely. Increased my interest in other Theroux books, Il Gallo e il Dragone

memoriale di un lungo viaggio in treno, che l'autore racconta concentrandosi molto sulle sensazioni che prova di tanto in tanto di fronte alla vastità e alla diversità del panorama, sappiamo da subito che le sue simpatie vanno alle vaste aree rurali, le città non lo incantano come pare facciano le distese srotolate davanti al suo sguardo stupito, per lo più rivolto verso il finestrino da cui sbircia la vita dei cinesi
ogni tanto un cenno ai tanti personaggi buffi che incontra, per fortuna evita di giudicare, anche se a volte ci tiene a puntualizzare sul contesto, ma nessun lettore che sceglie di leggere un libro simile potrebbe farlo senza sapere nulla della storia cinese
la Rivoluzione Culturale Proletaria ha lasciato cicatrici enormi e la totalità dei cinesi non la ascrive a Mao, sembra siano tutti d'accordo nel dire che ai tempi fosse andato con la testa già da almeno una decina d'anni
i proverbi e i modi di dire sono la parte più divertente e spesso le citazioni sono le stesse che ho trovato in libri di autori cinesi, quasi come se si fossero finalmente arresi e, davanti a qualsiasi occidentale che parla un poco di cinese, non dicessero più "chi è il traditore che ha insegnato la nostra lingua al diavolo straniero"
Il libro si chiude con il passaggio in Tibet e di fronte a quello l'intera visione della Cina viene ridefinita, solo per un attimo l'autore giudica e, alla fine trova doloroso constatare quello che è stato fatto ai tibetani, per tacere di quello che ancora pare vogliano fare.
. .

"Perché tante persone rispettano Zhou Enlai"
"Perché ha lavorato sodo per il popolo cinese, "
Deng Xiaoping non si prodiga per il popolo cinese
Il signor Wei si accigliò, "Come dicevo, non è ancora morto, C'è ancora tempo perché commetta degli errori, "

Il libro è stato pubblicato nel, appena un anno dopo Deng diede l'ordine di sparare sugli studenti a piazza Tienanmen,stars

This read from forty years ago has not aged well, Among the first inventions of the Chinese were such things as toilet paper they were enamored with paper and in fact invented a paper armor consisting of pleats which were impervious to arrows, the spinning wheel, seismograph, steam engine as early asA.
D. and parachute hang gliders inB, C. which they tested by throwing prisoners off towers, This same country, according to Paul Theroux in Riding the Iron Rooster, is driving many animals to extinction, The Chinese like to eat strange foods and are superstitious about the medicinal value of exotic animals who achieve status not from individual beauty or from intrinsic qualities, but because they taste good.


Theroux, who has a passion for trains, wandering, and gossip, found many changes in China since his first visit of several years earlier.
People were much freer and willing to talk, Theroux's writing is fascinating because he's so nosy, He's not afraid to ask anything, And he notices everything. It's his way of "getting the measure of a place, " If he sees someone reading he makes note of the title, memorizes the contents of refrigerators, labels in clothes, compares prices, copies graffiti and slogans, and collects hotel rules.
My favorite: "Guests may not perform urination in sink basin, "

At one point he was forced to fly to catch a particular train and his description is particularly revolting people standing in the aisles while landing, puking, the plane popping wheelies on the runway, the aircraft itself having wrinkled skin.
The cultural revolution was uniformly hated by everyone he spoke with and the change in the people could be measured by the change in their slogans.
Formerly when students were asked what they wanted to do with themselves they would reply, "to serve people, " A book filled with interesting tidbits,

I should note, as an avid reader of Airways magazine that airlines in China have improved tremendously, have terrific equipment today, and service standards far exceeding United's.
Theroux's book is quite dated in that respect, THROUGH WITH THEROUX

Paul Theroux Isyears old now, And while I was reading this book, I was wishing that he would take one last trip to China, because I wanted to know how they are treating their people now.
But as I continued, I lost interest in China, He has a way of making you lose interest in a people, even in their country, I saw that when I read, “The Happy Isles of Oceana, ” None of these places interested him, and he just complained about everything, But I was so interested in this book that I didnt put two and two together until this very moment,

I mean, who wishes to go to China when everyone spits in the streets, mainly on themselves The cities and towns never seemed interesting.
I liked shanghai only because they people talked politics, They were happier now that the cultural revolution had ended, They felt free to talk, I wondered then what it was like now for this book was written In,


Then when Theroux went to NE China, he froze, There was no heat in the restaurants, in the hotels or on the trains, He saw people riding bikes with frost on their faces, On the train he saw frost on the floors and his glass of water on the table froze and broke, Then I came tto the only part of this book that I could never forget, as I had read this book years ago: I had remembered that they were Japanese travelrs, but no, they were from Hong Kong, and it was so cold that they knew to wear ski pants and jackets.
I must have read this in thes, After moving to Oklahoma in, I used to walk my dog in the winter, Having a low threshold to the cold, I remembered his story and bought a used pair of ski pants from eBay, I already had a down jacket, I even had a bombers hat, At one time I bought and wore a black ski mask, I looked like an idiot and thought that I could get shot, It doesnt really get that cold here,

So, after readinghours of this book, I finally became bored and picked up and reviewed other books, Well, the audio said it washours, and I just finished it,

I kept asking myself why I am so interested in China, In college I read “The Good

Earth and never forgot it, I am always trying to find other books, but they are few, I read “Wild Swans,: allpages and loved it too, But years ago when I was at Disneyland and went in to see a movie at their circle theater, The movie on called “China,” I think, I saw the Karst mountains as seen from an airplane, I never forgot them. I even havephotos that I bought from a photographer, They are different scenes of the

Mountains in the fog, One has a pagoda in it and one has two men fishing on a river at night, Then I wrote this poem:

The River Li

I see images of peace
reflecting in the still waters of
the river Li.


Boats rest quietly
on the river
birds and fisherman
barely move,

Silence breaks
as a bird, tied to a rope,
dives into the river,
brings up a fish,
and is captured
by a fisherman.


Sorrow follows and
the River Li is filled with
ripples and much unrest,

And I am saddened for mankind
and his many rounds of samsara,
because he is attached to this world
in a way that creates pain for all.


We all desire to soar to the mountains
to reach the highest peaks of the Karst,
and to dive into the quiet still waters
in order to refresh our minds
in peace.


Lanterns light the Way
if only we can learn to follow
and are not lead astray
by drifting into the shadows
of the darkness that
falls on the river Li
when the moon has waned.
.