[RJV]∎ Descargar Gratis Travels in Siberia Ian Frazier 9780374278724 Books

Travels in Siberia Ian Frazier 9780374278724 Books

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Travels in Siberia Ian Frazier 9780374278724 Books

Like Siberia, this book is big. Like Siberia, this book takes a long time to get through. And like Siberia, it's fascinating and compelling. However, unlike Siberia, it is not freezing cold in winter and overrun with killer mosquitoes in summer. I read it over a period of about a year, which you can do because the narrative has breaks in it and you won't lose the flow if you put it down and come back to it later.

A book this size is going to have a lot of detail in it. If you're looking for a quick overview, this ain't it. And if you're an impatient person who likes to skim, it's probably not for you. There are things missing; for instance, there's barely a mention of the history of the indigenous populations of Siberia. But Frazier is an expert on Siberia in many respects, and the book is loaded with history, geography, geology, politics, and culture from this incredible place. Frazier is funny and candid, and his wry humor and observations permeate every description. The book is also a travel memoir, full of unique characters and drama of a type and sensibility that, according to Frazier, are unique to Russia and Russians. It's low key in tone, but epic in scope.

All in all, it's one of the most interesting and entertaining books I've ever read.


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Travels in Siberia Ian Frazier 9780374278724 Books Reviews

I appreciated the pieces of history and literature mixed into Frazier's travel stories. His writing voice blends just enough humility and authority to make reading his work like having a long chat with an intelligent friend. The way he connects historical events to ordinary, yet outstanding people he admires, people I wouldn't have heard of otherwise, makes his look into the past feel more like a memoir.

Having spent some time in Russia, I smiled reading about the discomforts he endured. Frazier is an honest, personable author with a gift for seeing the details in life we overlook and giving them significance. Whether you're hoping to learn something new about our world or just laugh, I recommend reading Travels in Siberia.
Well-written with humor, honesty, and plenty of history, Travels in Siberia encompasses just about everything that could be said about the region. Frazier shares his various voyages to and within Siberia, including a cross-continental road trip in an often-breaking-van, interspersing his narrative with plenty of Russian history.

During his multiple expeditions, the author meets people from all walks of life, battles the elements, has a love-hate relationship with his guides, wrestles with his own nervousness and anxiety-ridden tendencies, is attacked by swarms of bloodthirsty mosquitoes, explores an abandoned prison, rides in all sorts of vehicles on terrains both monotonous and dangerous, and never manages to fall out of love with Russia.

I greatly enjoyed Fraizer's stories. However, I sometimes felt like his history lessons went on for too long. He delves into Russia's bloody history, going back to the time of Genghis Khan, through the tzars, the Decemberists, commuism and Stalinism, post-communism corruption, and into the future (where he describes the effects of global warming on Siberia's permafrost). I did like the recounting of local legends, but the countless Russians named (with their lives described in [often] unnecessary detail) became exhausting. Although it was easy to get swept up in the personal travelogue, Fraizer's history lessons did not always have the same page-turning draw.
All great countries have physical places of enchantment where strange and wonderous things happen that defy, challenge, overwhelm, inspire and enrich our existence. The United States has several the Grand Canyon, Death Valley, Niagara Falls to name just a few. Russia has the vast expanse known as Siberia. Author Ian Frazier, like many before him, is magnetically drawn to its mythical power and beauty, and embarks on a 7-week, nine-thousand-mile, West to East road trip to explore its secrets.

What starts as a straight-forward geographical adventure, which he amply documents in Part I of his five-part book, quickly evolves into a more nuanced feel for the impact this magnificent land has on the history and culture of present-day Russia. Americans believe in the doctrines of Manifest Destiny and Westward Expansion, a mindset that not only is change inevitable, but also that we were the inevitable agent of that change – we’re fixers and doers. Instead, Siberia changes Frazier – he discovers that the land exerts an inexorable power over everything in and on it, resisting the puny efforts of humans to master it.

When he finally submits to its dominion, the realization produces a radical shift in both his perspective and his writing. This is, without a doubt, Frazier’s best book. I would even argue that his other travelogue-type works – which I reread after finishing this one – were simply warm-up acts that helped him be ready for the extraordinary gift of submission that Siberia teaches him. This is a massive tome whose density is offset by maps, photographs and Frazier’s quirky line drawings. He gives rich detail in storytelling language as when he writes that “Some of the rivers can be used as ice highways for trucks” which tells you about the harsh conditions of the terrain without even mentioning the temperature.

One of his Russian tutors tells him that “being inside a language was like being in a person’s house – after a while you came to see why the teapot was where it was.” Siberia got inside Frazier’s head and heart – the language, the landscape, the people, the history and its infinite possibilities. He yields to its cruel but beautiful nature to create this poetic work.
Like Siberia, this book is big. Like Siberia, this book takes a long time to get through. And like Siberia, it's fascinating and compelling. However, unlike Siberia, it is not freezing cold in winter and overrun with killer mosquitoes in summer. I read it over a period of about a year, which you can do because the narrative has breaks in it and you won't lose the flow if you put it down and come back to it later.

A book this size is going to have a lot of detail in it. If you're looking for a quick overview, this ain't it. And if you're an impatient person who likes to skim, it's probably not for you. There are things missing; for instance, there's barely a mention of the history of the indigenous populations of Siberia. But Frazier is an expert on Siberia in many respects, and the book is loaded with history, geography, geology, politics, and culture from this incredible place. Frazier is funny and candid, and his wry humor and observations permeate every description. The book is also a travel memoir, full of unique characters and drama of a type and sensibility that, according to Frazier, are unique to Russia and Russians. It's low key in tone, but epic in scope.

All in all, it's one of the most interesting and entertaining books I've ever read.