Ian Frazier's is a masterful writer and his Travels in Siberia may be his best work He weaves nuggets of history and geography with his intrepid travels through the land mass of Siberia--one-twelfth of the earth's land. Before making his first foray into the land, he approaches his subject from Alaska, never quite making it. In his second venture, he travels by van eastward into ever remote areas of the land. I especially appreciate his boyish enthusiasm for his adventures and the travelers like George Keenan, a fellow Midwesterner who went before him in the 1860s. Indeed, he remarks on how the Ohio natives and other Midwesterners make up a disproportionate number of American travelers who were drawn to Siberia. Frazier has the ability to bring the exotic world of Siberia to life with him back to New York where he finds sensory reminders of Siberia in sable coats and Russian gas stations. In a later trip he finds one of the hundreds of abandoned gulags connecting it as the physical symbol of Stalin's cruel mind. His powers of perception observe both incredible beauty in the land, women, and food as well as dark stores of horror by travelers driven mad from their travels. Read it. ( )

Ian Frazier's "Travels in Siberia" is an excellent travel book on a place I do not want to travel to. In it, he reports on five visits to that enormous place, intertwined with interesting reports on Siberian and Russian history, and with vignettes of (relatively) current Russian mores and manners. ("Relatively" because the book was written in 2010: an update would be much appreciated). Frazier's reporting is personal, witty and often horrifying. Travel in Siberia was incredibly difficult: when he took it, the main trans-Siberian road had a gap that had to be filled in by hauling cars and passengers across a 500 mile roadless waste. Cold is of course a feature for all but a few months of the year, but so are bugs, and ubiquitous mountains of trash. Some bits sound interesting -- Lake Baikal, for one -- but in general the book damped my already minimal interest in going to Siberia. For arm chair travellers, however, it's a great read. ( )

An excellent read. Really yearned for a map and also for more photos. ( )

This is the best book on Siberia. Well written, researched and loaded with facts that are not heavy on the reader. It mixed well with personal travel accounts. As it covered 5 different trips, details of various towns, cities, roads, people including places you want to read about but not quite ready to travel there yourself.
Thoroughly enjoyed the book. ( )

Awesome. So fun. http://secretlylovely.wordpress.com/2012/08/11/giggles-in-siberia-thanks-ian-fra... ( )