Travels in Siberia

By: Ian Frazier

Narrated by: Ian Frazier

Length: 20 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

A Dazzling Russian travelogue from the best-selling author of Great Plains.

In Travels in Siberia, Ian Frazier trains his eye for unforgettable detail on Siberia, that vast expanse of Asiatic Russia. He explores many aspects of this storied, often grim region, which takes up one-seventh of the land on earth. He writes about the geography, the resources, the native peoples, the history, the 40-below midwinter afternoons, the bugs.

The book brims with Mongols, half-crazed Orthodox archpriests, fur seekers, ambassadors of the czar bound for Peking, tea caravans, German scientists, American prospectors, intrepid English nurses, and prisoners and exiles of every kind - from Natalie Lopukhin, banished by the czarina for copying her dresses; to the noble Decembrist revolutionaries of the 1820s; to the young men and women of the People’s Will movement whose fondest hope was to blow up the czar; to those who met still-ungraspable suffering and death in the Siberian camps during Soviet times.

More than just a historical travelogue, Travels in Siberia is also an account of Russia since the end of the Soviet Union and a personal reflection on the all-around amazingness of Russia, a country that still somehow manages to be funny.

Siberian travel books have been popular since the 13th century, when monks sent by the pope went east to find the Great Khan and wrote about their journeys. Travels in Siberia will take its place as the 21st century’s indispensable contribution to the genre.

©2010 Ian Frazier (P)2010 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

"Ian Frazier caps his travels through Siberia's vastness by narrating his own account of them, another enormous undertaking. The author doesn't have the polish or range of a professional voice actor, but soon we appreciate how this somewhat pedestrian tone suits both the crude reality of Siberia and the deadpan humor that pervades his book. How could anyone doubt that this is the voice of the actual man who, as he admits, had a 'chronic fear of being run over while asleep in my tent' or who was annoyed that his tea tasted like the shaving cream someone had mixed in his cup?" ( Washington Post Book World)

Vivid travel writing

I cannot decide what made this account of travels in Siberia so compelling. The author’s thoroughness, connections with the people and landscape, and historical curiosity held my interest and attention and let me see a society and culture more realistically and more sympathetically that ever before. There is nothing “personal” about this writing, but I felt a strong sense of an admirable (and a little self-deprecating) personality. I will listen again, certainly.

A decent narrative

You can easily tell that a Mid-Westerner (Ohioan) wrote this novel. It's a plodding story that delves into a bit of history, some observations of places, and some anecdotes that happened to the author and others. It's often written in a list format with extended sentences that seemed to flatley roll out like a highway in Nebraska. It contains just enough bits to keep the reader involved without too much entertainment or excitement. It might sound like I didn't enjoy this novel, far from it. I enjoyed it quite nicely. Having spent a bit of time in the far north of Russia it was interesting to hear the author's opinions and some of the more interesting historical stories that took place in Siberia. It is the kind of audio book that one can walk away from for 15 minutes and come back and feel like you haven't missed a thing. There are many places, particularly towards the end, that it seems like the author's just writing more for his benefit than the readers and the flow just seems off. There are at least two spots where it appears that the novel is done only to restart again as if someone's trying to figure out if they've written enough.

Extraordinary look at the real Siberia and Russia.

Long, detailed but well worth the effort. It becomes fascinating as you allow yourself to get lost in the journey.

Enjoyable

This book was enjoyable to everyone who listened. Sometimes the books I listen to are boring to my family, not this one. I learned so much about a place I knew nothing about, other than it existed.

HIGHLY RECOMMEND

If you like history and want to learn about the Russian people, this is a fascinating book.
It is an in-depth description of Siberia, the Russian people, their living conditions and customs.
The Siberian prisons are also mentioned and his trips to the remnants of the prisons. Interesting if you have read about the Gulag.
The author is the narrator. He is a pleasure to listen to.
I will certainly listen to more books by him.
My thanks to all involved for making this book available, JK.

Ultimately fascinating

I LOVE books that are narrated by their own authors. A long time a Simon Winchester fan, I can now add this charming author to my list of favorites. There is nothing like listening to someone relate their own stories. His reference to the belt-sander effect of the wind on his face as he stood looking into the wind on Diamead Island in the Bering Strait, made me chuckle out loud. His sincere and rather humorous recount of the unique "smell" of Russia is delightful. I know just what he means because having been to Japan several times over the decades I know there is a recognizable and distinct aroma of that country as well. I have read only the first part of "Travels in Siberia" and can't wait to listen to the other two. I do, however, reserve the right to change my mind on the other portions, but I don't think I will. Mr. Frazier is a genuinely captivating storyteller.

Enjoyed the story

It's not action packed but lots of interesting history and facts throughout the book. It would be the kind of book I would like to write (if I were a writer)

Базарно язык (slang from the marketplace)

Thoroughly enjoyable, and educational, too. Frazier drops an interesting phrase or three that he picked up from his travels.

I passed this book to a Russian friend and he found it well-researched.

At first I wasn't sure

Frazier speaks v-e-r-y slowly; enunciation on steroids, which is unfortunate as the book doesn't exactly open with a bang. Still, once the travels actually get going, I found I enjoyed his dry humor better spoken than I likely would've in print (see also: Eric Weiner reading his "Geography of Bliss", though Weiner's hardly a "dry" writer). Some reviewers have said he whines a lot, but I didn't think so. I found his humor the best when things went wrong.Not saying I wouldn't have liked to see the author's sketches and photos, and I would've liked to skim the history sections at times; I did actually engage in some slight fast-forwarding in a couple of places, but by the end I felt this book was a great use of a credit.

Author's narration undermines this production

As a travelogue, this is entertaining enough, although I agree with other reviewers that it's also not especially insightful. It's often just a straight-up narrative of what happened, interspersed with (sometimes badly researched) history. It's the latter that really undermines the work. I can't speak for his grasp of Russian history, but his account of the Mongols is at least fifty years out of date and terribly bigoted. It's too bad, because the trip he takes is really epic, and he clearly had a lot of guts and a sense of adventure to take it on at all.

He's also not the greatest narrator of his own writing; the book would certainly have benefited from a professional reader who would have given it a greater sense of adventure through his/her delivery. The author undercuts his own authority because he hasn't bothered to find out how to pronounce names like "Genghis Khan" and "Ranulf Fiennes." The former comes up a lot, and it makes him sound particularly ignorant. At one point he quotes from a historical source which evidently uses the more modern (and more phonetic) spelling "Chinggis Khan." But at the end of the quote, the author returns to his own mispronunciation of the name, apparently not having noticed the difference.