The Old Patagonian Express (Paul Theroux, 1997)

ISBN 0-3955-2105-X

For my money, Theroux’s best book, this is the story of Theroux’s journey by rail from his home near Boston to the plateau of Patagonia.

The narrative begins with Theroux pouring over a map which reveals an unbroken line of railway track from his home in Boston to the plateau of Patagonia.

Theroux’s writing vividly evokes the scenery but his real strength – his trademarks, perhaps – are the little cameos, the thumbnail character studies, of the people he meets along the way. The Old Patagonian Express provides his best selection, beginning with the completely batty Wendy who lives on nuts (we are what we eat) and who doesn’t believe in germs. Next we have Thornberry who, I’d have to say, Theroux treats rather badly. (Jeez, Paul, the old guy was nice enough to help you out when you got stuck....) Then there’s the self-absorbed Nicky, mooching around Veracruz looking for her sick friend ... or maybe not. And, finally, Jorge Louis Borges, the blind Argentinian author of The Universal History of Iniquity, The Aleph, and Shakespeare’s Memory, among others. Theroux delays his onward journey to return to Borges’ home on a number of occasions, so as to read to him.

(The best Borges quip is actually recounted in another Theroux book, The Kingdom by the Sea, where he describes the Falklands War between Argentina and Britain as "two bald men fighting over a comb." Well said, Jorge.)

Finally, he reaches Esquel, the end of the line.

‘There were no voices here. There was this, what I saw; and, though beyond it were mountains and glaciers and albatrosses and Indians, there was nothing here to speak of, nothing here to delay me further. Only the Patagonian paradox: the vast space, the very tiny blossoms of the sage-bush’s cousin. The nothingness itself, a beginning for some intrepid traveller, was an ending for me. I had arrived in Patagonia, and I laughed when I remembered I had come here from Boston, on the subway train that people took to work.’

Recommendation: Most highly recommended.

Look and Feel: The usual paperback.

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