A classic travel book but a disappointing one. Eric Newby has a good reputation but this is a lazy book. Large sections of it are culled from encylopaedias, atlases and other travellers. As with many visitors to the USSR at the time Newby was determined to challenge the system and put cynicism to the fore. Rarely does he display any sense of enjoyment or discovery. It reminded me of later Theroux's in its display of ill temper. On the other hand it is a book of its time and a good wallow in nostalgia for the old Soviet Union. ( )

One reviewer suggests that the reader would want to just pick up and go after reading Eric and Wanda Newby’s account of their ride through Russia on the Big Red Train.

It certainly did not have that affect on this reviewer, even if by reading it I did become a ‘fellow traveler’ for a while. Instead it developed a growing sense of sheer relief that never again would one have to try, and usually fail, to contain those towering rages of sheer frustration and the resulting bad manners that the Russia of this trip and time created in this visitor.

Now mostly passed and gone, like one of Newby’s Siberian stations with the attendant Station Mistress overseeing departures at the full attention, that Russia was as full of obstructions and stupidities as this book is full of interesting facts, apt and forbidden photographs and sparkling descriptions. Showing far more toleration than we could ever have managed and using his wit as a rapier sharp foil to fight off visits to wire factories, to parry multiple obstructions and carve up inedible meals Eric Newby passed through a Russia that is also now mostly and thankfully past.

His book’s dedication is a doubled-edged plea from the author for empathy … "to the Peoples of Siberia who have to live there".

This is the story of Eric Newby's journey on the Trans-Siberian Railway—5900 miles from Moscow to Nakhodka taking 192½ hours and covering seven time zones. That's 2500 miles longer than the longest U.S. train ride (New York to Los Angeles via New Orleans).

Newby mixes up sight-seeing, history, and colorful descriptions of the people he meets to present a pair of portraits. The first is of Siberia. The second is an illuminating view into the Cold War-era Soviet Union. His obvious sense of humor served him well on this trip which was, at times, appalling...sometimes from the environment, sometimes from the Soviet bureaucracy. Their adventures trying to find decent food, a decent temperature for their cabin, or even just a place they're allowed to take a picture, make for entertaining reading.

I'm looking forward to trying some of Newby's other travel books in the future. ( )

Newby is one of my favourite travel writers, and this book is no disappointment. ( )

http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/4566613 or http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/4614124 ( )