David Greene (14) (1976–)

David Greene was an NPR correspondent based in Moscow prior to becoming a host of Morning Edition in 2012. Midnight in Siberia is his reporting memoir of a trip on the Trans-Siberian Railway. As he does with much of his reporting, Greene focuses on individuals and how their stories reveal larger truths, or in the case of Russia, complexities. He did tell his own story--documenting his travel with Sergei, his NPR colleague and translator--especially when it demonstrated the frustration and show more fascination of Russian society or when it showed how he learned t0 appreciate a vibrant Russian culture the pulses beneath that sometimes chaotic world.

Greene found a balance of the personal and the public, and I feel like I have a better understanding of Russia beyond the headlines. It was particularly fascinating that many of the Russians he encountered, outside of Moscow, liked Putin and felt like their country needed a strong man to create order. They had lived through the disastrous attempts at democracy and capitalism and were happy with some order even if it didn't always make sense. Greene also highlights the irony that those protesting in 2012 or so were also those who had benefited the most from Putin's reforms.

I did feel like he had a sometimes overly rosy view of his own country, especially its justice system and contrast between rich and poor. it may be that he didn't want to get too far into the weeds of comparing the two countries. This was meant to show the way Russians viewed their own lives and Greene connected with them in their homes and the towns where they found both joy and grief. Ultimately, he wrote an ode to the Russian people and their landscape of home. show less

Joy's review: This book is everything I want a travel narrative to be. It's a place I will probably never go, it includes well-researched background and history, there are interesting antidotes, it's well-written, and it has deep cultural insights. Greene spent two years in Russia as the bureau chief for NPR; his in-dept knowledge of the country makes his observations and insights nuanced and meaningful. If you like travel narratives, you'll like this book.

I swear that I could hear David Green reading this story to me as I read along. Greene is an NPR reporter and was assigned for some years to Russia. He’s got a reporter’s curiosity that drives him to stop and interview all the intriguing folks he runs across. And, brother, does he ever run across some intriguing folks. A couple whose son was a Russian hockey star, killed when his plane came down. A man whose dad invented the AK-47. A group of Russian babushkas.

A perfect summer read: show more great interviews and lovely cold weather. show less

Greene was NPR's Moscow Bureau Chief for several years. Before, returning to the States he traveled across Russia by train. This book is an account of that trip. Along the way , he visits and stays with a number of Russian families. He begins to understand their love/hate affair with Putin, and why they do not demand better from their government. Greene writes well, and you come away with a much better understanding of the country than you can get by reading newspaper articles. As enjoyable show more a book of travel reading it is, I have no desire to visit Siberia. show less