Dominic Ziegler

By the time that the narrative of this travelogue comes into focus it turned out not to be the book I was expecting. From the way it starts I was expecting more of a natural history study. What you really wind up with is a meditation on the rise and fall of Russian dreams of empire in the Far East, with the question being whether the shabby present is just a portal to a new age of Chinese expansion. Though the author actually doubts that the winds of Chinese revanchism are going to blow show more west; the Sino-Russian relationship is just different from Beijing's adversarial history with the Pacific powers. show less

Oh, my! I'd love to read a more even-handed treatment of the same journey. What puzzles me too is how on Earth he conducted his multiple in-depth interviews, recording innermost outpourings of the Russians from all walks of life, while not speaking the language? Make no mistake - only a handful of people he talked to commanded some degree of fluency. His profile at The Economist says he speaks English, French and German. No Russian or Chinese whatsoever.

The way he treated the material makes show more it a valuable anti-Russian propaganda piece. All is filth, greed, hate, decrepitude, drunkenness, etc. Vast majority of warm and compassionate words are addressed to the wildlife of the area and somewhat grudgingly to China, when compared to Russia.

Don't take me wrong, I'm not an apologetic of Russian chauvinism or Putin, but this work could be vividly contrasted with another book I'm reading at the moment, the one that covers another much maligned Russian misdeed - 'Afghan' by Sir Roderic Braithwaite. He deals with a far more controversial topic, yet manages to produce an unbiased narrative, finding bad and good in actions of all sides, even tangentially involved in the conflict. Not that he forcefully balances good with evils, but he tries to be objective: he calls sadists sadists, but he never slaps labels and cliches left and right. Being able not to ride through on a high moral horse is apparently a talent not everyone's born with.

I gave it 3 stars mostly for driving attention to this God forsaken region. It's a unique and beautiful area, rich in wildlife and cultures. show less

Dominic Ziegler is a writer for the Economist who traveled 4000km from the source of the Amur River to the Pacific ocean (mostly by train), describing the present and the past of the region. I found it somewhat hard going because about 80% of the book is regional history regurgitated somewhat randomly about a place I knew very little about. Ziegler has done his history homework, the cast of characters is vast, and at times there are interesting stories. It just lacked something to hold it show more together. Part of the problem is Ziegler writes little about himself. Travel narratives are about discovery - not only of place and history but self. In the end it felt like an assignment completed, most of it cribbed from the archives to fill out a travel book lacking in incident. Which is too bad as the incidents he does write about are good. show less

A bunch of history from a faraway part of the world we don't generally hear so much about here in the west. Ziegler knows his topic and does a pretty good job of spicing it up along the way. Even so, I eventually got a bit muddled about which Cosack had done what.