Customer Reviews

Off the Map: Bicycling Across Siberia

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book is amazing for the way Mark Jenkins moves his readers from village to village and along one stretch of trail to another. His emphasis on, and respect for, the cultural backdrop of this trip was what held my attention the most. I felt like I was there. The cultural emphasis also makes the reader realize that there is a more important aspect to a ride like this than the athletic accomplishment. This adventure gave me an understanding for another culture that I most likely will never experience, especially as a tourist. If nothing else, it gave me a whole different perspective on what cycling could be.

I nearly didn't make it through the first quarter of this book. Probably one of the most poorly written books I've encountered. The lack of punctuation and subject/object sentences were annoying, at best. There is one section near the end of the book that seems to have no connections at all to anything else in the book.

The only reason I stuck with it was to compare my own experiences with the Soviets in the same timeframe. But not riding a bicylce! After getting over the sloppy writing, or the author's pretensions of being another Faulkner,the story moved along. Half way through, it was clear that the author had some significant observations to contribute on the Soviet system and the inherent hospitality of the Russian people. Chapter 32 captures two very, very clear examples of life under the Soviet regime. Descriptions of trying to obtain a meal in a restaurant were re-runs of just about every restaurant experience I had in the former Soviet Union. Following on that description is a hilarious-maddening re-run of trying to make an international phone call. How many times did I and my family endure such insane logic as the following: "There are no Americans in Krasnoyarsk and there have never been any Americans in Krasnoyarsk so obviously it is not possible to make a reservation to make a call to the US from Krasnoyarsk. Bzzzzzz."

There are some very realistic descriptions of the inherent kindness and hospitality of the ordinary, i.e. non-Soviet, Russians. These descriptions alone are worth the read. The mud, lack of roads and sheer grittiness of the bike ride is quite beyond belief. Though the author does describe well two types of motivations for the riders on the trip. Overall, worth the read.

Jenkins does an excellent job of conveying the feelings he experienced during this trip. Sometimes spirits were low and sometimes they were high. His writing captures the reality of the trip and reveals the spirit of the Russian people with great emotion. I disagree with the review above that states Jenkins hated Siberia. He clearly had a great appreciation for the people he met there and valued his experience. It was obvious that he had a problem with Communism, and hence did not understand the Soviets. This is a book about people. Who cares whether they were the first group to ride across the country? The objective of the book was to describe a journey, and that has been done very well.

I had been looking for a copy of this particular book for quite some time and was told over and over again that it wasn't available anymore. I read it several years ago and lent it to someone (big mistake) to enjoy as well and it didn't find it's way back to me...alas. This book, I haven't had time to read it a second time yet, was a wonderful true life tale of an amazing adventure. It was both educational and very funny and I will keep it in my small library to read over and over again.

I truly enjoyed this book. When I'm not reading fiction I like to read travel books. Obviously the subject matter was fascinating (to me, anyway) - a road bike trip across Siberia - much of which was essentially roadless; but this one was unique in a couple of ways.

First of all it was an unusual shape - the book. Tall narrow pages. Different. But more importantly it was well edited. This book could have been seven hundred pages but it was joyfully succinct. The author didn't feel the need to tell us everything that happened along his four or five month bike ride across Siberia; instead he focuses on certain interesting aspects of the trip and skips the rest. He follows Elmore Leonard's advice: "Leave out the parts people skip."

But the best part was the unique writing style. The author sticks to standard narrative style for the most part, but switches, at times, to interior monologue and even stream of consciousness - but just enough to remain interesting.

A fascinating work of travel literature - highly recommended.

Having visited Russia shortly after Communism fell, I became intrigued with its people and its culture. This book, written shortly before the fall of Communism, captures a unique period of time in the history of this country that will never again be repeated. There is the obvious socio-political observations -- which from my perspective of having been there were dead on target -- but also adventure and stories rich with characters and emotions and pathos. Every chapter takes you into a new set of characters and a new story. Sort of reminded me of Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn in that way. A very enjoyable read

Ran across this book when I was looking to take a break from Sci-fi books. Since I am a bicycle commuter, I found the idea of bicycling across the largest country in the world very interesting. Many assumptions I had were shattered as I read this book about traversing the USSR in the late 1980's. This isn't a day by day account of the trip but rather more like a week by week account with some details on the daily struggles. Much of the book is devoted to the author's interactions with the local populace in rural russia. The reader comes away with a solid understanding of the county as well as the difficulties of traversing russia's land ocean.

Get past the stardust memories of his childhood, and the offputting ode to an adolescent girl's breeze-brushed nipples, and

"Off the Map" becomes the finest, most insightful tour report this side of Thomas Stevens' classic Around the World on a Bicycle. Jenkins' prose is overwrought at first, obscured by foilshiny darkglittering adjectives. He needs an adventure to wear him down enough to write past his brilliance into truth. He gets there.

A couple months ago, I read Ian "Sandy" Frazer's Travels in Siberia, a fine and lovely book. The telling difference is in the thousand-mile roadless tract between Kamchatka and Lake Baikal. It is made of mud, "balota." Frazier crosses it in a sealed train car, feeling slightly ill. Jenkins and his party ride their bikes through it. He meets people, he talks, he drinks, he rides like the wheel's own bastard child. You can guess whose journey is the more enthralling.

Mark Jenkins does more than ride through the muck, begging for milk. He passes through Siberian lives in the Soviet era like a bee through poisoned pollen, carrying with him the beauty and the rage, the cruelty and the generosity, the unbelievable filth and privation. He hears songs that sustain lives, and hums them back. He partakes and communes, and brings it home.

This is a moving and beautiful book. No one who cares about the depth of experience to be found on a bicycle should pass it by.

The tallish paperback is nice, by the way, and it's on Kindle, too. In either format, it's a good gift, when you've already given Fournel's Need for the Bike.

Wow! How can you make an odessy about biking across Russia into a page turner? This is it. One of the best adventure books I've ever read. Mark Jenkins is a wonderful writer who blends his life experiences into this epic journey and adds a little insight into Russian politics just for fun.

Read this, and anything else he has written if you love the outdoors and adventure. He does what we dream of doing.

A captivating account by writer who use of the written word shows an in depth appreciation for the craft of writing even as he breaks the rules of grammar. This story is more than the sum of its parts. Reading it was an event to be savored.