Download Now Il Cuore Perduto DellAsia Devised By Colin Thubron Issued As Paperback

weeks and onlypages in through the end of Chaptermeans I'm not enjoying this one, so it's back to the library for now.
I haven't read travel writing before aside from tourist guides like the Lonely Planet, when actually visiting a place, which is not at all the same thing although they are shelved together in the library, and perhaps given my impatience with travelogue fantasies it's unsurprising that I didn't much like this.
Thubron spends a lot more time by himself, viewing landscapes or ruins, than I anticipated, and the cast of local characters that he meets turns over very quickly.
He has a strange way of writing about people, all of whom come across as mysteriously tragic, He surmises personality from physiognomy and always seems surprised when the people he meets are unemotional about historical events that occurred long before their births.
He also has a vague, atmospheric way of writing about history he is clearly impressed with the long and brutal history of Central Asia, but names and dates and specifics tend to get lost, and all that stuck in my head were the descriptions of torture, which I could have done without.


There are some interesting characters here, and Thubron did have some exposure to the culture and write about it in an interesting way, but it wasn't enough to keep me going through this rather slowmoving and dense narrative.
It's relevant to me and my life and travels in Central Asia, and I think my favorite parts were his profiles of people he met and his conversations with them about the Soviet Union and Islam and the futures of Central Asian countries.
It's interesting how little has changed, in some respects, since the fall of the Soviet Union, but also how much has changed and developed and grown since then.
The Tashkent and Khiva I just visited, and Bishkek, would be near unrecognizable to the Thubron of, Most of the buildings are the same, but the atmosphere and hordes of tourists and amenities and transportation options are nothing like what was available to him on this journey.


Thubron's writing could be too flowery, though, and I frequently got lost not in a good way in descriptions of buildings.
I don't like the way he describes people's appearances, either it's rarely flattering, and gives unnecessary details that often come off as racist and sexist, or bodyshaming or just judgmental.
His heart seems to be in the right place, and he's definitely put in the time and effort to get to know locals and "walk a mile in their shoes", but still persists in "othering" the people he encounters and trying hard to categorize them according to his terms.
And it's pretty bleak and he ceased describing any enjoyable moments by the end of the book he expressed interest in his surroundings but it clearly felt like a slog and a trip he was eager to get to the end of.
Kyrgyzstan got the shaft at the end, I mean, I understand how fatiguing it would be such a trip would really take everything out of you in, never mind in, but I would've liked a little more positivity, if possible.

Worth reading, interesting, but heavy and flawed,
Колин Таброн "Изгубеното сърце на Азия", изд. "Вакон", прев. Маргарит Дамянов

Десет дни търсих "Изгубеното сърце на Азия".
А щяха да са помалко. Предвидено беше да са помалко. Но се намесиха други събития, други книги и други хора, и търсенето се удължи.
Това обаче не променя факта, че книгата за разлика от "Йерусалим" ми хареса. При това доста. И за пореден път ме накара до си дам сметка колко малко знам. Защото Таброн пише за места, за които всички сме чували. Но много от нас не познават тези места. Знаят само, че ги има,че са някъде

там. И именно тогава книги като "Изгубеното сърце" могат да ни дадат известни познания, да ни запознаят с историята и географията на тези места. А в случая с книгите на Таброн и с малко от политиката и с "живия живот". Защото, макар това да не е роман, а пътепис, по страниците "срещаме" и много хора обикновени хора, които споделят своите преживявания и своите виждания за промяната или отсъствието на такава след разпадането на Съветския съюз.
Вероятно съм го казвала за много книги, но ще го кажа и за тази. "Изгубеното сърце на Азия" не може да бъде определена просто като "интересна" или "неинтересна" книга. Защото тя не е измислена история, а своеобразна хроника. И в нея има всичко минало, настояще, догадки за бъдещето. Има докосване до непознати обичаи и култури. Има вяра. Има наивност. И живец именно защото на страниците й се "чуват" и думите на обикновени хора. И защото има описания на живот, който би бил безкрайно чужд на повечето от нас.
Споменавала съм, че не харесвам у Таброн снизходителното и понякога високомерно отношение към местата и хората, за които пише. Тук не го открих. Тук има поскоро съчувствие и опит да разбере тези хора. И което наистина ме изненада "самопризнание", че е склонен да "лепи етикети". Може би това също беше една от причините книгата да ми допадне повече от предишната а, честно казано, и от повечето му книги.
Определят Таброн като сладкодумен разказвач. Мисля, че тук за пръв път усетих това сладкодумие и дори се изненадах, когато книгата свърши толкова ме беше увлякла накрая.
Хареса ми това търсене на "Изгубеното сърце на Азия". Хареса ми, макар че по страниците му има понякога доста мъка и тъга. Но няма как да е иначе, след като това е историята на една разпаднала се страна, при това на найзатънтената и загадъчна /за мен/ част от нея. Намерих ли това "изгубено сърце" Едва ли. Но поне се докоснах малко до него. И усещането беше прекрасно. Im surprised that something so racist and badly researched was still ok in thes but maybe shouldnt be, More motivation to correct these narratives I guess! I think that this book was a drier read in the beginning but very interesting simply for the fact that it gives a unique look into a part of the world I know almost nothing about and it also has the distiction of being written directly after the fall of the Soviet Union.
Some people may be turned off becasue it isn't an advenure book, The firstpages I learned that people like to drink vodka and radical Islam probably woun't take over the region.
However, if you give the book a chance you will be taken on a grand tour of the region from the second holiest Islamic city of Samakaland in Uzbekistan, to the beautiful mountians of Tajikistan, to the high mountain lake of Issykkul where a naval basemiles from the nearest ocean was built to test torpedoes out of the preying eyes of Americans.


I think the strength of this book lies in all of the individual people he meets from Central Asia and how they have all been transformed by the hugely significan collapse of the USSR and the challenges they face in each nation.
Readers who open the pages of this book my not see any organization of such random characters, but as a traveler, I realize that they are just that, random interesting people in a foreign world.
Everyone has a unique perspective on life in their lands,

In this crisis one can see the sense of identity being lost with each person and the searching for a new sense of belonging to a new nation, religion, or simply tribes and family.
It was evident that the collapse had a significant effect on purchasing power of people and how jobs were impossible to find and if you did have one recieving a pay check was hit or miss.
Life was hard.

I was not sure how much Soviet culture had influenced each nation but it was interesting to learn how much the vast nation of Kazakhstan was influenced by russians and how things like traditional ceremonies or religion was surpressed and replaced by russian culture.
Not only Kazakstan, but the others as well, Industrializaton had taken a heavy toll on the region especially in the nations of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan,

I was relieved to read about how people in this region are not all religious fanatics, I knew that it was primarily Islamic but didn't know to what degree of Islamic funamentalism each nation was, It ranges from the more Islamic nations of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan to the more secular states of Kazakstan and Kirghiztan.
Reading how many people didn't think the Iranian style of Islam with its more conservative and fanatical teachings was relieving and to hear that they'd prefer the Turkish style with its secular modern Islam is motivational.
This was allyears ago so I wonder how it is now,

A surprising fact was that each nation is very diverse, I had no idea that Central Asia had such a tramatic and volitile history due to the physical location inbetween huge empires.
I didn't know how much Mongolians, Koreans, Germans, Russians, Uzbeks, Tajiks, and other people mixed together to form nations, This unfortuantely can lead to bad situations when the Russian pulled out bc the Russians were the government handlers and knew how to operate things efficiently.
A power vacuum was created when they left to go back to the motherland and in natons like Tajikistan there were little known civil wars that killed tens of thousands.


The journies of this man take placeyears ago so now I am curious how the region has turned out now after civil wars, spread of Islam, and each nations' people running their own nation.
Unfortunately the book contained no pictures which I thought was a great injustice, It is difficult to imagine foreign worlds so I resorted to googling different locations like mountain ranges, roads, cities, mosques etc.
This gave me a better idea of how the region lookes, It is a poor, but beautiful area,

I found it motivating that the old woman in Kirghistan said that she had enough to make her happy and didn't know what the fuss was all about.
She was a true optomist in troubling times and as the book wound to a close seemed a prelude to better times in the region.

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