Chasing the Sea: Lost Among the Ghosts of Empire in Central Asia (Vintage Departures)
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In 1996, Tom Bissell went to Uzbekistan as a na•ve Peace Corps volunteer. Though he lasted only a few months before illness and personal crisis forced him home, Bissell found himself entranced by this remote land. Five years later he returned to explore the shrinking Aral Sea, destroyed by Soviet irrigation policies. Joining up with an exuberant translator named Rustam, Bissell slips more than once through the clutches of the Uzbek police as he makes his often wild way to the devastated sea. In Chasing the Sea, Bissell combines the story of his travels with a beguiling chronicle of Uzbekistan’s striking culture and long history of violent subjugation by despots from Jenghiz Khan to Joseph Stalin. Alternately amusing and sobering, this is a gripping portrait of a fascinating place, and the debut of a singularly gifted young writer. Read more
Publisher : Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication date : October 12, 2004
Edition : Reprint
Language : English
Print length : 416 pages
ISBN-10 : 037572754X
ISBN-13 : 42
Item Weight : 11.4 ounces
Dimensions : 5.24 x 0.91 x 7.99 inches
Best Sellers Rank: #718,812 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #28 in General Russia Travel Guides #484 in Asian Politics #716 in Russian History (Books)
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Top Amazon Reviews
Format: Hardcover
_Chasing the Sea_ is one of the finer travel books I have read in some time. Author Tom Bissell set out originally to cover the tragic disappearance of the Aral Sea, a once large inland body of water shared by Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan that has been slowly choked to death since the 19th century by diversion of the water to grow cotton. Through the course of the book though he not only covers the Aral Sea but also relates his previous personal experiences with Uzbekistan - he served for a time as a Peace Corps volunteer - as well as his current travels. Though he left the Peace Corps, his love for this Central Asian nation didn't leave him and he felt compelled to return, not only to his host family but to the country in general. We learn that Uzbekistan is the second largest exporter of cotton in the world; though this achievement has not come without considerable cost (also amazingly enough they grow rice too). That this desert nation relies so heavily economically on such a thirsty plant is unusual, but Bissell details how the American Civil War cut off the supply of cotton, encouraging tsarist Russia to look for a new source. Demand for cotton only escalated during the Cold War. To grow the cotton, the Amu Darya River (known in antiquity as the Oxus) was diverted. This river, which forms part of Uzbekistan's southern border and the primary source of the Aral Sea's water, now no longer feeds into it at all. The formerly vast river, which once formed a huge inland delta, is now a mere creek at best as it reaches the receding shores of the Aral. The Aral Sea's certain demise sometime in the first few decades of the 21st century will have ugly consequences. As late as 1960 the Aral Sea was still the fourth-largest inland body of water in the world; now it is largely salt-crusted, dust-storm swept desert, much of this salt and silt poisonous thanks to decades of Soviet insecticides and dumped toxic waste. Moynaq, once a prosperous seaside community that had 40,000 inhabitants, was a favored beach retreat, and had a cannery that produced 12 to 20 million tins of fish a year; now over a hundred miles from the sea's present (and still receding) shores, it is a near ghost town with no jobs to speak of. Fishing ships lie where they were abandoned, resting incongruously in sand dunes. Now that the Aral Sea has thus far lost over 70% of its water volume it no longer acts to moderate regional temperatures; summers are hotter and winters are colder (possibly ironically dooming the very crops that are being grown at the expense of the sea). The two dozen fish species that were once endemic to the Aral Sea are now extinct (though other species were later reintroduced to the northern Kazakhstan portion). The formerly unique desert forests that surrounded the lake are long gone as well. More tragic still are those people who live around the Aral Sea. For over 600 years the Karakalpaks, a formerly nomadic people, have called these shores home. Now they are poor and unhealthy, as their industries - fishing, canning, and shipbuilding - have vanished and they suffer soaring rates of infant mortality, tuberculosis, and other diseases directly and indirectly related to the vanished desert sea. I don't however want to give the impression that this is a grim book, as there are many funny sections in it and Bissell is a talented writer. Nor is the Aral Sea the only subject covered. It is not even the main subject of this travel essay. Most of the book is devoted to Bissell's travels, most of them with a young Uzbek named Rustam, hired as a translator but becoming a friend as he journeyed throughout Uzbekistan, from the T'ien Shan Mountains and Ferghana Valley in the far east of the nation through Tashkent, Samarkand, and Bukhara. Along the way the author relates many interest aspects of Uzbek history and culture, including the days of the Mongols, Timur (known in the West as Tamerlane), the Samanid dynasty of 819-1005 (during which time Uzbekistan became a center of Islamic learning, producing the great doctor ibn Sina, known to Westerners as Avicenna, revered in the West as late as 1700s, and al-Khorezmi, from whose name the word algorithm is derived), the Great Game (the 19th century Cold War of sorts between Russia and the British for supremacy in Central Asia), and the rule of Islam Karimov. I found his portraits of the various cities the most interesting aspect of the book. Tashkent for example we learn is not only the most populous city in Uzbekistan but the most populous in Central Asia. It is also one of the most modern seeming Central Asian cities, as there is very little architecture older than about 50 years (owing partly to the fact that the city has been Russified since the late 19th century and partly due to a massive 1966 earthquake). Despite is appearances though this oasis city (its name means "Stone City") is over 2000 years old, making it one of the oldest extant cities in the world. For much of its history it was a "sporadically independent city-state" surrounded by a famous high stone wall sixteen miles long (now completely gone) and controlled at times by such various groups as the Arabs, Chinese, Mongols, and the Kazakhs. Bissell also has many asides in the book about Uzbek culture. He wrote of the very nature of Uzbek, an agreed-upon identity that is less than a century old; that in 1902 a Russian ethnographer noted that there were more 80 clan names in Uzbekistan, more important to them than any "Uzbek" identity. Indeed, Uzbek history in any form only stretches back to the 14th century, when a fierce group of nomadic invaders came down from the plains of southern Siberia. A good book, just wish it had pictures.
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Reviewed in the United States on July 18, 2004 by Tim F. Martin
Format: Kindle
I have been a fan of Tom Bissell's writing ever since I came across it in Harper's Magazine. I specifically remember reading a short story set in Central Asia that eventually would be included in his entertaining short story collection God Lives in St. Petersberg and Other Stories. There were other nonfiction pieces as well, starting with the magazine version of what would become a book about his father, who fought in the Vietnam war, and later their trip back to Vietnam: The Father of All Things. And also, the magazine article about the natural disaster that is the Aral Sea that begat this book, Chasing The Sea: Lost Among The Ghost Of Empire In Central Asia (2003). I doubted that I would ever read this book, thinking it would be unlikely that I would develop an interest in Central Asia. Well, since I am returning there for a second visit (the first was five years ago in 2010), to Kyrgyzstan again for a volunteer conference in English language education. I figured that this book would be good background reading for a return visit, and it was. In fact there were some sections that took place in Kyrgyzstan and all countries in the region must be referred to when talking about the history of the region. This book is one of those books that is hard to describe and pin down, something the Marketing department loved I am sure. It is a personal memoir of Bissell's connection to the region, which began as a largely unsuccessful stint with the Peace Corps where he lost it and quit nine months into stay. It is also a sort of travelogue that allows him to ruminate on the upheavals that have rocked the region and Uzbekistan throughout the centuries. It is also an act of reportage on Uzbekistan as it was when he was traveling there in the early 2000s. Despite these threads, there is yet another, it is also largely about his earthy, idiosyncratic translator Rustam, who guides him throughout the novel dropping bon mots of wisdom along the way in his American slang-laced vocabulary. Bissell eventually makes his way to the Aral Sea where his reportage on the human devastation of this lake ended up as a Harper's Magazine article and the impetus for this book.That being said this section of the book is a scant 50 pages: it's the journey, not the destination that matters. I think it is, here, in this book, that Bissell takes Robert D. Kaplan to task for uninformed reporting in the region and scare-mongering. (I know that I read another article somewhere in which Bissell questions many of Kaplan's conclusion about this region and questions observation made while reporting). I used to be something of a Kaplan devotee, and still thinks he can bring a lot of insight into the regions he visits. But the scare-mongering has been his calling card which has become stale and I lost a lot of respect for him infatuation with Marines when he was embedded with them for his books Imperial Grunts, which is less than objective. However there are many memorable descriptions of people, cities, the surroundings, poor driving, bad food, and excellent descriptions and similes that were clever and engaging.
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Reviewed in the United States on October 7, 2015 by Patrick Mc Coy
Format: Paperback
Ambivalence is a part of modern life. We can't escape it in the complex modern world. Those who want to live without ambivalence may wind up in some kind of fundamentalist movement that promotes the "only truth". Me, I'm ambivalent about a lot of things. However, sometimes you run across a Mt. Everest of ambivalence, the epitome of having conflicting feelings about something, the man who celebrates Yom Kippur every single day.....God forgive my sins, I am a rotten person. God, save me because I'm not so bad after all. CHASING THE SEA evokes these feelings in me. It's a damn good book in a way, but why do we need to follow the gnashing of the teeth, the midnight soul cringings of one Tom Bissell ? This is a guy who went to Uzbekistan in the Peace Corps, copped out for his own reasons, but couldn't live with them, went back, still didn't much like the place, and wrote a book on his experiences which would definitely get him banned permanently not to mention plunging his Uzbek acquaintances into political difficulties (which could prove fatal in that unlucky land). He undertook to bring money to the wife of an exile---he failed to do so. He finds much of Uzbek life unpleasant; the persistence of Soviet influence, the secret police, the corruption, the violence, the garbage, the lack of compassion for others, the food, the ugly architecture. He likes comfort, but he doesn't much like the 'Americanization' that occurs when the comfort exists. He didn't like most of the Westerners he met, with a few exceptions. What did he like ? Ah, this is where it gets messy. He liked the fact that he went back and wrote about it, though it seems to me he only stayed five weeks. His trip redeemed himself in his own eyes, but he managed to write a grassroots report from Uzbekistan nonetheless. His stated aim was to write about the ecological disaster of the Aral Sea. The book has 353 pages, but he only begins to write about it on page 302. Ambivalence yet again---should I really write what I came to write, or shall I not ? Did I really come to do that, or is it only an excuse to pursue my inner demons? He does write. He does it well. The ending is excellent, perhaps the best part of the book, with a more-than-decent ecological message for everyone. At one point, Bissell talks to a young Karakalpak man who had been to England. This man remarked that his experience changed everything. "I saw a situation, my own country, that I thought I knew very well, from another point of view. It was like looking into a bottle when you have spent your life seeing it only from the side." Bissell comments that he then lied and said he knew exactly what the man meant. He lied because he did not like travel, and he admits that he does not see things from another point of view. This is why I have to confess to some ambivalence of my own. For me, Bissell's overarching ambivalence---of going to a place you don't like, to write about things that turn you off, and having experiences that you'd rather not have, missing your comforts, not empathizing with most people---and still doing it---is the downside of this book. An interesting picture of Uzbekistan in modern times, a detailed portrait of a country still finding its way in the community of nations, a country much under the thumb of a dictator--this is the positive side of CHASING THE SEA. So, is it a good book ? You be the judge. I've just set up what I think are the contradictions here. I'm ambivalent.
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Reviewed in the United States on January 2, 2008 by Bob Newman
Format: Hardcover
Part travelogue, part history, part reportage, part editorial, this is the best book of its kind that I've ever read. It is an un-patronizing portrait of people making the best of difficult circumstances that most of us can't imagine well. One thing that distinguishes "Chasing the Sea" from, say, Colin Thubron's "The lost heart of Asia" is its persistent up-beat tone. Just because the facts are sad doesn't mean that reading about them has to be depressing. Besides, you have to love an author who takes the trouble to place a sub-title at the top of every other page and who, in non-fiction, is so candid about his own weaknesses (e.g. his abortive Peace Corps service, his inability to deliver money to one promised recipient). Miscellany: This book could not have succeeded in its current form if Bissell had not hooked up with Rustam, his young, proud, intelligent, opinionated, endearing translator and advisor. The tension between Bissell's typically Politically Correct American views and Rustam's practical Uzbek views on the country's history, politics, and future (not to mention women) makes a lot of the book work. Yes, early in his book, Bissell gives a description of the Aral Sea situation uncannily similar to that in "Ecoside in the USSR" by Feshbach, et al. (I own that book also). He credits "Ecoside" in his bibliography. I suppose that if this were an academic work, he'd have to have appropriate footnotes, but the important thing is that more people will find out about the eco-problems of Central Asia by reading "Chasing the Sea" than will work their way through Feshbach. Bissell has stones. His taking of Robert D Kaplan, the highly regarded travel writer/Atlantic correspondent, to task is reminiscent of Mark Twain taking Fennimore Cooper to task, except that Fennimore Cooper was not alive when Samuel Clemens published "...literary offenses". I'm not quite sure why, but the middle of the book drags a bit in the sections on Samarkand and Bukhara with some of the discussion of Jenghiz Khan, Tamer-the-lame, and Nasrullah (though I'm glad the material is there), but it picks up again in the chapter on Ferghana and the Tien Shan mountain funeral. The final chapter when Bissell arrives at the former Aral coastline is captivating and heartbreaking (though not depressing to read!). I wish the glossary was larger. The book closes with Bissell's answer to the out of context question, "What is there to do?" My own even further out of context answer is: wait for Tom Bissell to publish another book.
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Reviewed in the United States on May 13, 2005 by William J. Feuer
Format: Hardcover
This book has sure stirred up a bit of acrimony, based on the other reviews here on amazon.com. No doubt, there are many personal agendas behind both the fiercely positive and fiercely negative reviews. I have no agenda. To be brief, this was an enjoyable read if you are simply looking for a travel book about Central Asia. I would agree that the title is not the most appropriate as the Aral Sea does seem to take a back seat to other areas of Uzbekistan. And that's okay, if you know going into the read that you are going to get a travelogue and not a scientific treatise. Mr. Bissell is an interesting writer, but at this point seems to lack a bit of maturity. I am not sure why he felt he needed to slam Robert Kaplan in his book. And I could sure do without all the "dudes" and "bros" and the frat boy references to women. I've no doubt that in twenty years he will look back at some of what he wrote with a bit of maturity and embarrassment himself. (As an aside, I was a bit disturbed to know that the former Peace Corp Volunteer, Jerod, taught his interpreter to refer to women as bitches!) That said, read the book. It is going cheap in the used section.
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Reviewed in the United States on September 26, 2006 by R. Horak
Format: Hardcover
THIS IS A TRAVELOGUE BOOK IN THE CENTRAL ASIAN REPUBLIC OF UZBEKISTAN, AFTER IT BECAME INDEPENDENT WHEN THE SOVIET UNION FELL APART. IS PART HISTORY AND PART TRAVEL, IT DESCRIBES MARVELLOUS ANCIENT CITIES SUCH AS BUKHARA AND SARMAKAND WHICH WERE PART OF THE SILK ROAD AND TASHKENT WHICH IS THE ACTUAL CAPITAL. UZBEKISTAN WAS AN UMPORTANT PART OF THE GREAT GAME DURING THE NINETEEN CENTURY BETWEEN TSARIST RUSSIA AND VICTORIAN BRITAIN, IN SOVIET TIMES IT WAS A PLACE OF FORCED DEPORTED FROM THROUGHOUT THE SOVIET UNION. THE BOOK DESCRIBE THE ECOLOGICAL DISASTER LIKE THE DRYING OF THE ARAL SEA, WHICH IS A LAKE, DUE TO THE RECKLESS POLICIES OF THE SEVENTY YEARS OF SOVIET MISRULE.
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Reviewed in the United States on October 12, 2024 by ALBERTO NAVARRO
Format: Paperback
I've been reading pretty widely in the travel literature genre for ten years or so now, and I try to finish anything I pick up. This is a rare book in which I skipped entire sections and which I found increasingly annoying the further into it I went. No doubt, the guy has talent of a sort as a writer, and no doubt this took an awfully long time to put together. Still, it often has the feel of being written by someone with a knack for phrases and the wrong idea of what a "writer's" writing should sound like. It wasn't long before I felt that I had very little reason to trust the reliability of his accounts of history--and I found his analyses of history to be persuasive only by accident. There is absolutely no reason to think, for example, that he really understands Gorbachev. As other reviewers have pointed out, his shots at Robert Kaplan just seem odd. He may well be right in some basic ways about Kaplan, but the stuff about him has a thrown-together and thrown-in quality. In the end, it is remarkable just how little time he spent travelling, and how few risks he took compared to the stronger travel writers out there. Colin Thubron's work on Central Asia (but not only Thubron's) makes this book look amateurish, and though Paul Theroux comes across as a bit of a jack *ss in book after book, you can't help admire him for what he puts himself through, for knowing how to construct a book, what to include and what to leave out, and so on. One last petty point: I had the same reaction as another reviewer who was taken aback by the length of his account of getting his baggage when he first lands. This is the kind of thing that seemed to be included only to fill space, yet it is necessary, I guess, given the short time he was on the ground and the little trouble he took to do anything on his own.
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Reviewed in the United States on January 27, 2010 by A Reader
Format: Kindle
Excelkent book. Very well written. The author does a great job of weaving in history of the region with his experiences in today's Uzbekustan. A must read for anyone with an interest in this part if the world.
Reviewed in the United States on November 2, 2013 by Qaisar Shareef