middle east

Colin Thubron, in this extremely interesting and well-written travelogue, has shed a common (or, owing to his previous experiences, uncommon) traveler's light on this amazing region of the world. Set amid the turmoil and confusion of the year following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Thubron portrays the incredible diversity of sentiment displayed by the area's inhabitants. From fatalistic apathy to alcohol-driven nationalism, he finds it all as he makes his way between crumbling ancient cities and Soviet-era apartment blocks. Chronicling the tentative resurfacing of Islam and hesitant steps toward fumbling democracies, the author has described the birth of these fledgling nations, offering a wonderful snapshot of the dynamic countries.

Although clearly re-released to ride the wave of the post-9/11 world's interest in Central Asia, this book has as much to do with the current conflict as Persian poetry has with a Steven King novel. If anything, Thubron demonstrates the differences between the many ethnic groups in the area. Interspersing his experiences with variously specific tidbits and sweeping portraits of Central Asian history, he manages to contrast the immense historical role of the area and its current, virtually unknown part.

All in all, Thubron's work makes for a wonderfully interesting read. I would recommend it to anyone and everyone; most people could use a more in depth look at this remarkable area of the world.

What was it like when the breakdown of the Soviet Union unleashed the desires of Central Asians for self-governance and the expression of ethnic and cultural identities that had matured several centuries back? What happened when "the honeymoon was over" and the independent nations found themselves grappling with the problems of economic self-sufficiency and ethnic rivalries? I highly recommend this book as this was, to my knowledge, one of the first first-person accounts of a culturally and historically complex region that was "opened" to the outside world after the demise of communism in the world's largest nation.

This book also qualifies as a pleasurably readable armchair travelogue. Colin's exquisite prose took me to far-flung, almost mysterious places, peopled by different ethnic groups, some of whom originated thousands of miles to the west, separated also by millennia. The images and sensations of the Pamirs, the Tien Shan, and Kopet Dagh mountains flashed at me as I delved in his travelogue. To the Western reader, this region remains less explored yet has so much to offer with its variegated ethnocultural makeup and its complex and imaginably stunning topography (from Thubron's descriptions and from the few pictures that I have seen of the Pamirs and Tien Shan mountains). Indeed, I am thankful to a friend who gave me this book as a Christmas gift in 1994.

In this intriguing book Colin Thubron travels throughout the mysterious lands of Central Asia, the five "Stans" which had just emerged from the yoke of the Soviet Union. Thubron's travels took place in the early 90's just after these new nations were formed from the disintegrating USSR, and were emerging in a confused state toward the "independence" they couldn't manage, after the colonialism they didn't want. Central Asia has been shrouded in mystery since the dawn of time - surrounded either by impenetrable mountains or never-ending deserts, and spawning obscure peoples who periodically burst out in waves of conquest before settling back into obscurity again. These mostly Moslem peoples (with some imported Caucasians mixed in) obviously never meshed well with the rest of the Soviet empire, with their cultures, languages and histories being suppressed for the past 70 years; and Thubron now reveals their confused state. Here you will meet many sadly interesting people in dreary locations, who are ignorant of their own histories (after Soviet revisionism and flat out lies) and have no idea what the future holds. You will find that Thubron's basic writing style is rather depressing, as he tends to focus on the negative aspects of the locations he visits, usually describing them as dreary and soulless, and he concludes that most of the people he meets have hopeless futures in store. However, his attitudes are not that different from the interviewees themselves. In the end, Thubron proves that this region and its myriad peoples will continue to be shrouded in mystery and obscurity, but in the meantime he provides an enjoyable travelogue of an area and people that few outsiders have or ever will see.