Sailing through China

Boston, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1984. First American Edition [stated], First printing [stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Good. Patrick Procktor. 64 pages. Illustrations. DJ is price clipped. DJ has slight wear and soiling. Inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper; inscription reads "To Sue with thanks Theroux"' Paul Edward Theroux (born April 10, 1941) is an American travel writer and novelist, whose best-known work is The Great Railway Bazaar. He has published numerous works of fiction, some of which were adapted as feature films. He was awarded the 1981 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his novel The Mosquito Coast. Theroux published his first novel, Waldo, during his time in Uganda. He published several more novels over the next few years, including Fong and the Indians, Jungle Lovers, and The Mosquito Coast. On his return to Malawi years later, he found that Jungle Lovers, which was set in that country, was still banned. After moving to London in 1972, Theroux set off on an epic journey by train from Great Britain to Japan and back. His account of this journey was published as The Great Railway Bazaar, his first major success as a travel writer and now a classic in the genre. He has since written a number of travel books, including traveling by train from Boston to Argentina (The Old Patagonian Express), walking around the United Kingdom (The Kingdom by the Sea), kayaking in the South Pacific (The Happy Isles of Oceania), visiting China (Riding the Iron Rooster), and traveling from Cairo to Cape Town across Africa (Dark Star Safari). Paul Theroux sailed down the Yangtze with a party of American millionaires. If this at times surprised the Chinese--which it did--both the idiosyncrasies of the company and the impressions of China itself provided rich material for the kind of perceptive, witty writing at which the author excels. The text is stylishly complemented by Patrick Procktor's black and white illustrations. Derived from a Kirkus review: What's happening to Paul Theroux? I n this absorbing but thin book, he recounts a 1982 cruise down the Yangtse through a series of impressions and anecdotes. Sailing on luxury-boats the 1500 miles from Chungking to Shanghai, stopping at towns and villages along the way, Theroux is struck by the poverty and hard-working drear. Despite the post-Mao loosenings, he feels repression everywhere. And he sees in China a vision of our own future in the West: "We are in for hunger and hard work, the highest state of poverty--no starvation, but crudeness everywhere, clumsy art, simple language, bad books, brutal laws, plain vegetables, and clothes of one colour. It will be damp and dull, like this." A highpoint is the thrilling sight of the the Upper Yangtse gorges: Still, Theroux's concern for China is outshown by his appreciation for the Americans who are also on board. This brief but compelling work contains a variety of vivid descriptions and a few quirky conversations with Chinese people. This collection of travel notes provides insights into Theroux's state-of-mind in addition to insights about the complex state of China.