Since I never expect to visit Siberia myself, I thought I would listen to this very long book on CD about it. As a travelogue, it combines many of the elements one might expect from the genre: adventures with food, people, weather, and transportation; a review of the literature on Siberia; a history of the region and its relation to Moscow and St. Petersburg; and descriptions of museums, local industry, and penal colonies. What was unexpected was that the book was apparently based on the author's journals written over a twenty year period, from about 1993 to 2013, and covered 5 different trips to Siberia to see and experience different parts of it at different times of the year. During those 20 years, much had changed about that huge region, and much had remained the same. What remained the same was its continued use for extractive industries (once, it was gold and diamonds, mined by slave labor; now, it's titanium and oil). Most eye-opening to me was Ian Frazier's description of the incredible amount of oil piped by Russia from Siberia to many parts of the world, including the US, and of the likely impact of global warming on Siberia, and--because it is so large (it covers 11 time zones)--Siberia's likely impact on global warming. That part of the book--from his 2009 journey--was perhaps the most interesting. I'm not sure I could have made myself read the book through, but I enjoyed listening to it on CD. Frazier's infatuation with Russia and particularly his fascination with the almost inconceiveable vastness of Siberia are not merely the themes, but the subject of this book. As much as the reader learns about the breadth of this enormous territory in Frazier's highly entertaining description of where he went and what he saw, more is revealed about the great stratigraphy of history--natural and human--that has accumulated there. Without reading the text, in fact, evidence of both this history and Frazier's captivation with it can be found by glancing at the multi-page bibliography, which is a treasure for anyone who, reading the text, starts to feel the draw of a distant northern land...
What do You think about Travels In Siberia (2010)?
Well... I read the part(s) that was/were in The New Yorker anyway. Good stuff...
—Shirley
didn't inspire Russia-love in me.didn't inspire author-love either.
—ann
