Book Description Review “Recounted in poetic prose with context from pop-history and cultural commentary, MacLean’s picaresque adventures include poignant reunions and chance encounters with a colorful cast of characters ranging from intellectuals to proletarians, tycoons to destitute migrants . . . MacLean is a sympathetic and perceptive guide, his characters memorable partly for confirming and sometimes subverting stereotypes.” – The New York Times Book Review“A trek through Eastern Europe exposes a region in retrograde, as fragile postwar optimism gives way to predatory capitalism and the reanimation of age-old prejudices.” ―Booklist, starred review“[Pravda Ha Ha] does 1984 one better, because the dystopia MacLean describes already exists.” ―Mark Bowden, Air Mail“MacLean combines vivid reportage with unabashed soapboxing. The result is an engrossing travelogue that’s both trenchantly observant and deeply felt” ―Publishers Weekly, starred review“Russia, in MacLean’s telling, is a morally diseased place where truth (pravda) has become a joke… he observes that the country’s long-running tolerance of political lies has transformed into cultivation of untruth as a form of art, and in a final degradation, to laughter at the very notion of truth. This process, he suggests, has spread over Eastern Europe like a storm front and has left once-hopeful liberalizing states (Hungary, Poland) vulnerable to authoritarian backsliding and manipulation into xenophobia and racism.” ―American Scholar“The acclaimed British travel writer and historian retraces his trip after the fall of the Berlin Wall to explore what happened to the hopes and promises of 1989 . . . Featuring his characteristic talent of drawing insight from those he meets, [MacLean] offers fascinating profiles throughout . . . Another engrossing book from an author who is much more than just a travel writer.” ―Kirkus Reviews“MacLean’s book is immensely readable. The history and politics of Eastern Europe are tackled here with humor and dry wit.” ―BookPage“[A] gripping book, part-travelogue, part contemporary history of Europe … MacLean is an accomplished writer; his immersive prose crackles with wit and wry humour, and captures scenes and personalities with aplomb” ―Daniel Beer, Guardian“[Maclean] writes with heart and draws in readers with his captivating experiences. Fans of travelogs, history buffs, and those with an interest in Russia and the former U.S.S.R. will thoroughly enjoy.” ―Library Journal“This is a tremendous thing that MacLean is creating; a new kind of history, in several dimensions and innumerable moods, that adds up to – across the span of his books – a great and continuing work of literature” ―Jan Morris“A gem of a book, informative, companionable, sometimes funny, and wholly original. MacLean must surely be the outstanding, and most indefatigable, traveller-writer of our time” ―John le Carré“No one writes quite like Rory MacLean” ―Robert Macfarlane Read more About the Author Rory MacLean is one of Britain’s most expressive and adventurous travel writers. His books – which have been translated into a dozen languages – include the Sunday Times bestseller Stalin’s Nose, Under the Dragon and Berlin: Imagine a City, which was named a Book of the Year by the Washington Post. Read more Customers Review: A British author travels through parts of Europe some thirty years after the fall of Communism. He doesn’t like what he sees.This is not a balanced account. It is written by one who is highly sympathetic to asylum seekers, highly suspect of international capitalism, highly opposed to nationalism. All of which may be forgiven, but he is not a good writer. Descriptions are overly flowery; food and drink are related in detail seemingly to pad the word count; no academic sources are cited; and, overall, emotional testimony rules the day.For example: “Around it, the forest smelt of resin and blueberry leaves. Tapering trunks glowed luminous red in the evening light. Fresh breezes whispered through the treetops, tracing audible paths through the pines, while underfoot billowy green hummocks of sphagnum moss cushioned the forest floor.” p. 56. Or, “I pointed out that Brexit had been a grotesque farce, dividing and diminishing the country, and that public opinion had been inflamed by reckless zealots, press barons and Russian bloggers. ‘Then you say thank you to them all,’ said Sandor, once again sunken-eyed and numb as he finished another jar of vodka. He blinked his watery eyes in an attempt to focus and looked across at me. ‘Europe is dead.'” p. 244.And, the personal stories he tells of people he met while on his travels often do not ring entirely true to me.
In this highly readable, and sometime, unconventional, travel narrative, Rory Maclean, author of Magic Bus and Berlin, in his newest book just released in the USA, Pravda Ha Ha: True Travels to the End of Europe, provides an opportunity for Rory and his readers to revisit much of what he experienced in Stalin’s Nose: Across the Face of Europe, back in 1982. Just like Paul Theroux in the Great Railway Bazaar followed by Ghost Train to the Eastern Star, Rory Maclean has written a subsequent book in which he revisits or retraces his prior Eastern Europe travel encounters. In Pravda Ha Ha, Rory Maclean has returned to Eastern Europe, thirty years later, from when he published Stalin’s Nose. However, even if you haven’t read his prior books on Russia, Eastern Europe, and the story of Berlin, including the fall of the Berlin Wall, Pravda Ha Ha stands on its own. Rory Maclean like Paul Theroux brings his encounters with the local people to life, although sometimes you think you are reading historical fiction. Or maybe fake news in which reality is influenced through trying Russian magic mushrooms euphemistically referred to as Putin’s pecker or pipiska putina. With the influence of magic mushrooms in Pravda Ha Ha, as a parallel on the Hippie Trail from the Magic Bus, who were seeking cultural enlightenment from a hashish high.Rory Maclean’s epic travel narrative, the Magic Bus, gave him the opportunity to recreate the overland journeys of others going overland from Europe to Nepal and India. Pravda Ha Ha allows Rory to revisit his own 30-year old journey in which there were high hopes for Eastern Europe, including Russia, from the fall of the Berlin Wall. This is a journey in reverse from Stalin’s Nose. Instead we now have struggling countries previously part of the Soviet Union, and other’s dealing with new encroachments from Russia. A back drop to the book that shows up in footnotes, are issues related to Russia and their fake news impacting the USA 2016 presidential election and even allusions to some of the current issues in the Ukraine. Another theme running though Pravda Ha Ha is the extreme rise of anti-Semitic attitudes, racism, anti-immigration, and anti-Islam within these countries since he lasted visited. While wondering how England might continue to change over the coming decade.Having finished Pravda Ha Ha, I am inspired to visit Eastern Europe, including Russia, where my ancestors resided, as I have never been to Eastern Europe. I could have visited Berlin before the fall of the wall in 1970. The Great Railway Bazaar inspired me to cross overland across Asia, and Rory Maclean’s latest book, despite the issues impacting Poland, Romania, and the Ukraine calls to me to experience these countries and their residents for myself. One place I don’t plan on visiting, however, is the postage stamp country of the break-away state of Transnistria.
I stopped reading half-way through. Most of the stuff in this book has very little if anything to do with reality. Well, but it sells. So it goes.
Wonderful and fascinating and hugely informative across an enormous breadth of current affairs and events. Above all it explains Europe and the influences of Russia through evocative prose and delightful story telling. A must read!
MacLean reminds me of the power of travel, how it can color our past and stay with us through the years, forever a part of us, formative and personal. It can also grow and change, and when we return to the places we’ve been before, our experiences are still entirely new. MacLean’s latest book, Pravda Ha Ha, is a unique blend, steeped in memory and history and the current political landscape. I found myself nodding along for much of this book, not because of MacLean’s lyrical voice or the timely nature of a travelogue that explores the deceit and exploitation of the vulnerable or his dissection of our Post-Truth Era and how far it reaches, regardless of what patch of land we stand on (be it Moscow or Poland or Berlin or America), but because of his ability to bring us into each experience so fully, so much so that the people he encounters and reconnects with not only feel real, but feel close, as if they are in the same room with us. I am thankful for a book that sheds light into our collective histories. MacLean writes with deep empathy and compassion, and urges us to find the truth in our own stories, whether intimate or universal. This is a return journey that should be followed, step by step.
Pravda Ha Ha is essential reading! In this fascinating book, detailed observations and fine-grained historical context are interwoven with personal experiences told with charming humility and wit. Rory MacLean provides a sweeping view of Russia, Europe and the world over the last 30 years, leading us to a greater understanding of how society is shaped today, politically, economically and socially. However, it is the individual characters and their stories that bring this wonderful book to life, with descriptions so vivid and engaging that they can take your breath away. This exploration of human nature, with history, culture and politics as a backdrop, beats to the rhythm of the emotions, struggles and joys of this century. |
12 reviews