102 of 109 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Genuine Masterpiece, October 15, 2010
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.
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65 of 70 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great historical journey through Siberia, October 13, 2010
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!
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57 of 63 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Gorgeously written, but flawed American viewpoint, November 12, 2010
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.
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