Chasing the Sea: Lost Among the Ghosts of Empire in Central Asia by Tom Bissell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I should mention that I struggle to make it through nonfiction books. I like long-form journalism, but find my attention dissipating around page 40 with most nonfiction. That’s when I start eyeing the tall stack of novels and story collections on my nightstand. But Bissell’s Chasing the Sea held my attention all the way through and kept me curious about this corner of the world.
The book is a mix of personal reporting and a condensed history of Central Asia and its relationship to Russia, China, and the West. Bissell spent a few months in Uzbekistan as a Peace Corps volunteer in 1996, but washed out of the program. This book is his return visit. Now he’s a successful journalist and editor, and we get the feeling that he’s trying to prove something to himself. And along for the ride is Rustam, his translator, who brings levity and color to the story. Rustam is a great character, and I wish we could have spent more time with him, especially as the narrative winds down in the end.
The history of Uzbekistan and its major cities is fascinating, and Bissell does a decent autodidact lay-of-the-land from his own reading. It’s more like getting a fascinating rundown of historical events from a friend at the bar than it is a history lecture, though the details can get pretty thick. But this region and its history have been neglected for so long that even these difficult passages feel like a tiny amount of the attention we should pay to this part of the world.
As the narrative winds perpetually forward with its stumbling progress toward the ever-elusive Aral Sea, I started to think that reaching the once-shores of the sea was really a distant subplot all along. When we do arrive, it feels too late, and in many ways it is.
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