Customer Reviews

Travels in Siberia

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I also read the excerpts in the New Yorker and was very anxious to get the complete book. I was not disappointed. This is easily one of the best nonfiction books (or books of any kind, for that matter) I have ever read. I am always wary about using the overworked word "masterpiece," but I truly believe this is one. Frazier takes us on a wonderful journey: his gradual discovery of Russia through its literature, history and by meeting several native Russians in New York; his deciding to visit the country with Russian friends; his efforts to learn to read and speak the Russian language; and his first trip to eastern Siberia by crossing the Bering Strait from Alaska to Chukotka. The longest journey he takes is by van with two Russian guides across the entire length of Siberia in 2001, arriving at the Pacific Ocean on September 11th. He returns to Siberia in 2005, traveling from Yakutsk to the village of Oimyakon, "said to be the coldest place on earth outside Antarctica," and along the Topolinskaya Highway to the see the abandoned prison camps of Stalin's Gulag. His last visit is in 2009, when he travels by himself to Novosibirsk, Siberia's largest city. Throughout the book, Frazier's descriptions of the forests, the steppes, the taiga, the mountains, the rivers and lakes, the cities, the villages, the monuments and outposts, as well as the horrific mosquitoes and the often questionable food, are simply riveting. He meets a truly remarkable assortment of men and women from all walks of Siberian life, learning how they survive, and often thrive, in such a difficult, unforgiving place. He recounts tales of many figures, both famous and obscure, from Siberia's incredible past: Genghis Khan and the Mongol hordes, the revolutionary Decembrists of the 1820s, exiles like Dostoyevsky and those who died in the horrific Soviet prison camps, Czar Nicholas II, Rasputin, Rudolph Nureyev, and even Yul Brenner. And like all great writers of nonfiction, Frazier sees things that others would miss and makes discoveries that will take your breath away; he is always looking for the unobvious and finding the most fascinating wherever he goes. Consequently, we are treated to a unique portrait of an amazing place by one of our finest writers. Ian Frazier has written a great, great book.

i read two excerpts from this book in the New Yorker Magazine a summer or two ago and couldn't tear myself away. It's such an adventure. If you've ever read one of the great Russian novels or studied world history at all you already have an historical vision filed away in your head and this book brings it all back, richly. The spirit in which Frazier traveled to research this book and because he's written it so well you feel like a fly on his shoulder throughout the journey. i'm so happy the book is finally published, i've been waiting a long time for it. Highly recommended!

I'm going to write my review without biasing myself by reading the others.

I lived and worked in Siberian and the Russian Far East for several years in the 1990s. Frazier has always been one of my favorite authors; he is king of detail. "On the Rez" was a phenomenal book. Missing my second home, Russia, I snatched up Travels in Siberia the instant it became available.

I'm going to start with the limitations of this book:

1. East of Chita and Yakutia, the locals uniformly call their land the "Russian Far East." They do not call it Siberia, any more than people from Idaho or California call their land the Midwest. Just like Americans have the Midwest and the West, the Russians have the corresponding landlocked Siberia and the coastal Far East. It perpetuates Westerners' geographic misnaming of the region.

2. Leaving the history of Siberia's Indigenous peoples out of the book. This is the most egregious oversight of this book, and it's particularly perplexing given Frazier's history researching and writing "On the Rez." Can you imagine an author writing on the history and the experience of the Dakotas without mentioning the Sioux? This book manages to paint Siberia and the Russian Far East as the historic battleground of Russians and the Mongols, without mentioning the couple dozen tribes - of Asian, Turkish, or European descent - that migrated to, lived in, and defined Siberia for centuries before either the Russians or the Mongols arrived. In a few of these regions, Indigenous peoples still outnumber Russians, and it is still common to hear the native languages spoken on the streets or in government offices. Frazier writes about two visits to the Republic of Buryatia without clarifying that Buryatians are Indigenous descendents of the Mongols. He then visits a bit with the Even peoples in Yakutia, but again fails to relate any information about their history, although the book has some history on the Russian colonization of the region.

3. Frazier entered Siberia with the notion that it is All About Gulags; that is a typical American lens/misperception. Siberia is a whole lot of things, and Siberians do not, nor did they ever, think of their land as Prison Land, any more than Californians currently obsess about Japanese internment camps in California. In both places the gulags are a sad and horrible history but they are far from defining the place. If you lived in Siberia for a year and listened to Russian conversation, you would never know there are any prisons there. Another stereotype of Siberia that Frazier failed to question, and ended up just perpetuating.

4. Siberia and the Far East are the very most beautiful (a) in nature and all the wilderness parks, which Frazier never seems to get off the highway to see!; and (b) in private homes, where Russians and other natives fully open their hearts and are your best friends for life. Frazier is more exposed to the (much harsher) "public life" of Russia, the train toilets and the public litter, than to its wonderful private life. Russians often said to me, "I've visited America, and it's boring there." What they often mean is that Russians, and particularly those who live east of the Urals, are a very social, hospitable, warm, fun people who know how to have a good time. Frazier for whatever reason barely gets a peak at this. And he writes about forests, but never really gets a look at how gorgeous they are in Siberia, because he is always sort of on the main drag, pushed on by two hosts from St. Petersburg who only want to drive faster rather than slowing down and actually seeing anything.

That said, this book is wonderfully written, has riveting detail, and has some truly brilliant insights into both the Russian psyche and the land that Frazier visited. Worth reading.

I truly enjoyed reading this book. I am learning Russian and took my own first trip to the country this year; there is so much to learn and discover about Russia and I appreciated Frazier's interesting, concise and occasionally humorous lessons on the country's history, culture and geography. Indeed, I found myself laughing out loud at several passages - a valued experience during a good read for me!

Nonetheless, as much as I appreciate seeing an author's sense of humor and personality shine through a narrative like this, I found parts of Frazier's discourse to be simply grating and tinged with a familiarly uncomfortable, unmistakable East Coast self-importance. As many times as Frazier may call himself a Midwesterner in the text, his worldview is clearly that of an affluent New Yorker. This is perfectly evidenced by his reference to his guide/trip organizer/translator/mechanic throughout Siberia as his `driver'. It took a native Russian teacher later to point out to him that he should call the talented person who shepherded him (and his expensive fishing rods) across thousands of miles of Siberia his `colleague' instead (also worth pointing out that in addition to this man's guide credentials, he's the head of the robotics lab at St. Petersburg State University, hardly a `driver' qualification).

Frazier goes on to display a latent sexism in a passage about the beauty of post-soviet-era Russian women. He marvels at the `beautiful women walking everywhere' in Krasnoyarsk, recalling a negative Cold War American stereotype of Russian female appearance and questioning its origins. In his quest to figure out how Russian women apparently became beautiful, he examines historical male perceptions of Russian women (including that of John Quincy Adams), questions a Russian male friend and then finally agrees with the theory of an American male economist that compares Russian female beauty to a commodity crop. Not once does he ask Russian female friends about this apparent phenomenon; had he taken this simple and evident approach, he might have heard numerous, more logical explanations, including the simple reason of the sudden availability of Western fashions after the fall of Communism.

In general, and as other reviewers on Amazon have pointed out, Frazier's attitude and approach keeps him tied to a high-way or zipped up in a one-man tent for good portion of his travels. As his Russian `drivers' go into towns and villages in the evening and get to know the local people and culture, letting the flow of the journey lead them to new experiences and friends, the author remains a somewhat hesitant observer. His obstinate request to see a Siberian prison causes an obvious cultural disconnect and tension between himself and the Russian guides; once again baring his East Coast mind-set, he seems to believe that the simple act of paying them to show him a prison should override their evident discomfort with exploring this aspect of Russian history.

On the whole, I liked this book. My repeated bouts of irritation with the author's personality, however, chip two stars off of my rating.

I will not try to add much to the other 5-star reviews of "Travels in Siberia" except to say that the superlatives being used here are totally justified. As a review in the San Francisco chronicle said, "'Travels in Siberia' is a masterpiece of nonfiction writing - tragic, bizarre and funny. Once again, the inimitable Frazier has managed to create a genre of his very own." This review is spot on. Readers should read this book and savor every word. It truly is one of the most beautifully written books I have ever encountered--one for the ages.

BUT, I implore people like Mr. Piro to stop giving 1-Star reviews to books because you don't like Amazon's pricing policy! Don't you realize that you are supposed to be reviewing the content of the book? If you are upset with Amazon, why are you taking it out on an author who has nothing at all to do with how Amazon sets its prices? Your anger is totally misdirected. If you are upset with Amazon, CALL them up or WRITE them and complain. To give this great book a 1-star review because you're upset with Amazon is the height of stupidity.

`Travels in Siberia` is an excellent and up to date travel book through Siberia by American writer Ian Frazier, best known for his 1980s travel book Great Plains. Parts of the book were originally serialized in The New Yorker, which sponsored one of his five trips to Russia (those five trips making up the five main chapters of the book). There are countless older travel books about Siberia, many with the exact same title "Travels in Siberia", but things have changed rapidly since the collapse of the USSR so it's good to have a recent account. Frazier's fascination and love of Siberia is somewhat infectious, though he and his friends often wonder what the appeal is given all its problems and horrid history. Frazier is an excellent writer who focuses on the small detail, such as types of trash on the road, the types of clothes, food, restrooms, service (or lack thereof) etc.. one really gets the sense of how crude and rough it is, like a third world country. As a traveler, Frazier is ironically not very adventurous, given how dangerous Siberia can be, it is a safe pedestrian journey. The most daring thing he did was jump out of the car and snap a picture of a prison from afar. When his Russian guides went off to party with the locals, he would stay at camp alone inside the tent. Perhaps because his Russian language skills were very basic it limited his comfort level in new situations. We learn a lot about his guide Sergei, an archetypal Russian who had an amazing ability to fix any vehicle problem with a nail, wire and roadside refuse. In the end I think it's a good book because it covers so much territory and Frazier's eye for simple but revealing detail combined with his excellent writing and humor keep it always interesting and fun to read.

Ian Frazier's Travels In Siberia is a lengthy tome about not just Mr. Frazier's travels in Russia but a history of the country including Genghis Khan, the Decembrists, Stalin, Lenin and everyone in between. The book is extremely well written and you can feel Mr. Frazier's genuine love of the country coming through, but I felt a little shorted by the passages on his actual travels in Siberia. The first thing you think about when you think of Siberia is that it is a cold desolate place, but on his first trip he goes in the summer. While he does rectify this by going back and travelling through Siberia in the winter that trip seems more like an afterthought in the book. On his first trip, he spends much of his time sitting back in the camp his two travelling companions set up in various campgrounds, roadsides, etc. while they go out and experience the towns. It would have felt more like a travel book if Mr. Frazier had joined the two on their excursions into town and written about the locals instead of the many museums he visited. That being said, Mr. Frazier deserves credit for an extremely well written book especially his story of how he ended his first journey through Siberia on 9/11/01 and his resulting trip back to his home in New Jersey. It was quite compelling and the most heartfelt portion of the book.

This is not a travel book per se - one where the author goes from point A to point B a la Paul Theroux or Bruce Chatwin and describes the point in between. It's more than that: Ian Frazier has given this book a lot of thought (he says he started the project in 1993) and because he covers a lot of history of the land and its people - ancient history, modern history and history in between It's as much history as travel. At the same time it's less than that too because when I put down a book by Paul Theroux or Bruce Chatwin down I have almost uniformly had the impression that I had been introduced to a new country and really knew something about it. Not his time. However, when I finished this book I felt unrequited in a way. I knew nothing about the people who had lived in Siberia long before the Russians, just a little more about those who live there today and nothing about how any of them manage to get along in such a strenuous climate, Nor had I been given a description of the forests, the rivers, the flora and the fauna that caused me to see them in my readers eye like Chatwin describes a Patagonian farm. However I had a picture of modern Siberia in sufficient detail to know that I have absolutely no interest whatever in going there - trash, cold, monotony, an aging and dilapidated infrastructure where there is any infrastructure at all - and a long story of the road trip from hell - 3.000 miles from St Petersburg across Russia and Siberia with two crazy "guides" in an ancient diesel Renault delivery van. Enough!

Thank God for Ian Frazier. I'm glad I didn't have to suffer the nut-cracking cold or the greasy kielbasa or a thick black hair in my boiled fish: these and other excruciating episodes have been experienced by Ian Frazier and shared in his marvelous book Travels in Siberia. Thank you, my friend, for being my stand-in.

This book is a gem. Frazier didn't just make a cursory visit to Siberia and travel around on a tour bus. He made several trips to many areas of Russia gathering material, doing research, interviewing people, and traveling under horrendous conditions and, despite sickness, revulsion, disgust, and other assaults to his senses, was able to do so with an almost childish delight. I never once detected any displeasure with the conditions he endured. His message, as I see it, is "It is what it is and let me tell you about it. Let me share this remarkable journey with you. I wish you had been there with me. What fun it would have been." And it was fun. although I enjoyed it from a comfortable chair.

Using many modes of transportation, none of which approached the speed and comfort of the old stagecoach, Frazier traveled Russia from St. Petersburg in the west to the Sea of Japan in the east. The roads ranged from multi-lane highways to pot-holed herd trails to iced-over rivers to no roads at all. The modes of transportation included a mechanically-challenged automobile, days in a claustrophobic vehicle transport railcar, and iffy airline scheduling during the 9/11 crisis. After nearly seven weeks and 6,000 miles Frazier was finally able to return to the United States and his family.

After about a year and a half Frazier went back to St. Petersburg to do some research and was felled by a horrendous food poisoning incident before he was able to get back once again to his home in New York City. Enthusiasm undimmed, he was determined to visit eastern Siberia in winter so he once again ventured out in March of 2005 for what was to be a month in country far north of his original visit. Travel was a frigid hodge-podge of small cars, regional airlines with uncertain schedules, railroading in windowless sleeping cars, a bus with drunken juveniles who had to puke all the time, and other delightful modes. Food was the usual Siberian fare; sometimes good, sometimes horrible, and sometimes non-existent. He endured wilderness conditions, stayed in frowzy hotels, or moved in with the people of Siberia, sometimes with comical results.

Through it all, Frazier was steadfast in his enthusiastic pursuit of interesting sites and people. He dug around in regional museums, a gulag prison camp, abandoned factories, and still- glowing nuclear sites. He visited with aristocrats and peasants. His view of the cities, towns, and villages, as well as the hard-scrabble of the landscape, including large amounts of trash, was relayed with great descriptive skill. His historical sidebars were meticulously researched and cleverly merged into the current adventure.

Travels in Siberia is a memoir unlike any other I've read. Ian Frazier is an author who has captured my attention and admiration and, I might add, my gratitude for allowing me to travel with him. He was most gracious in his willingness to battle frigid weather, monstrous mosquitoes, jarring cross-country travel, unsanitary living conditions, rocks in his beet salad, and vomiting teenagers to hand me a book that I thoroughly enjoyed. You will too.

Not by terror but really really good writing. The discouraging part of this book is that I.F. shows us now and again that he can evoke a place or situation brilliantly. For example at the ballet on page 441: "During the last act when the stage lights were bright and spilling out into the audience, I observed the audience's faces and they all were pointed intently at the stage, each with the devout, rapt, out-of-body expression of somebody watching the enactment of a deeply remembered dream."
But precious little of these evocative prose have to do with his two travels through Siberia. Most of that is just as much of a slog for us as it was for him. And, he is such a whiner. I'm all for honesty in travel writing. There's a place for how bad the toilet situation is, but so much of this book details the uncomfortable beds, the poor food, the ragtag breakdown vehicles, the frightening roads. I.F. worries about everything. It's sort of like Woody Allen complaining for 1000s of miles and hundreds of pages. It's funny for a while but gets old fast.
I enjoyed his initial excursion into NE Siberia from Alaska (though I could have done without his days worth of grousing and complaining and the details of awaiting a flight from Nome), but I think I.F.'s mistake was making the book about Siberia. As much as he likes the idea of it, he's obviously more suited to cities. He seems most enthusiastic when he's telling us about St Petersburg.
One thing I really have to thank him for is making me aware of Langston Hughes's I wonder as I wander. I had no idea that L.H. traveled through Central Asia and across the USSR. LH put up with a lot worse than I.F. did but had a lot more fun and wrote a much more readable book about it. I'm half way through that now and would give it 5 stars.