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cony612's review against another edition
4.0
finished whilst isolating from having covid lol SO people who know me are aware i have a strange passion for post-Soviet states and their culture, history, people etc... this book is EXACTLY what I mean when I say I’m so curious about Russia!! I’m shocked this book has such few reviews! Youtuber Bald and Bankrupt advised to read it. You dive into the lives of Russian societies which have been given ethnic republics, but are completely abandoned by Moscow. The « anti-tourism » the author speaks of is basically going to places that would seem boring, but you gotta embrace it, it’s the whole point of discovering life in ethnic republics which are so unknown to us.
blevins's review against another edition
2.0
This book has an interesting hook--Kalder goes to the unknown void of Russia's fringe republics and writes about his experiences. The problem is Kalder is such a total ass that his personality nearly ruins any desire you might have to read more about his trips--I made it through but was tempted a few times to stop because of Kalder himself. When he's writing about the people's history from the area it's better but when he's mocking the locals it's kind of absurd. This is a travel book but Kalder doesn't even want to talk to locals or eat locals only food (he wants McDonalds!) and at least half the time he's insulting them. I was hoping that one of the locals would just punch him in the face and be done with it!
There's a section in the beginning of the book about the rules of being an anti-tourist that allow Kalder to get away with not doing any of the usual things a travel writer might do but still...this is a travel book!
Kalder really annoyed me when he'd put in his ridiculous ideas for movies, when he'd make desperate attempts at humor or just make stuff up--there's a paragraph about a sex change in Berlin that I don't know if it was a joke or serious that was flippantly brought up and then never brought up again.
The only thing that saves this book is the places that Kalder is writing about are places no one goes and that I'd never even heard of. The complete unknown is intriguing to me--too bad Kalder is such an ass whose style seems to be to irritate as much as inform or entertain.
There's a section in the beginning of the book about the rules of being an anti-tourist that allow Kalder to get away with not doing any of the usual things a travel writer might do but still...this is a travel book!
Kalder really annoyed me when he'd put in his ridiculous ideas for movies, when he'd make desperate attempts at humor or just make stuff up--there's a paragraph about a sex change in Berlin that I don't know if it was a joke or serious that was flippantly brought up and then never brought up again.
The only thing that saves this book is the places that Kalder is writing about are places no one goes and that I'd never even heard of. The complete unknown is intriguing to me--too bad Kalder is such an ass whose style seems to be to irritate as much as inform or entertain.
staticdisplay's review against another edition
3.0
I bought this book on sale in Chicago about 5-7 years ago and then it traveled around the country with me as I moved from coast to coast to coast. this book itself became a lost cosmonaut. now that I have read it, I intend to donate it to a free little library. I really had no idea how to read it - I thought it was fiction until I started reading. my favorite part was the Mig Mag, I think.
spiderfelt's review against another edition
2.0
Meh. Nothing terribly bad, but not something I'm compelled to finish. The author's attitude towards traveling off the beaten path was appealing in my early twenties, however that wild spirit has been tempered as I have matured and I see just how much exploring can be done in my metaphorical backyard.
stuedb's review against another edition
3.0
I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/11671840
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/11671840
prcizmadia's review against another edition
4.0
An interesting read that I devoured in only a few days. If you're interested in parts of this world that are off the beaten path, and the secret histories that exist all around us, this is a book you shouldn't overlook.
abookishtype's review against another edition
I have mixed feelings about reading The Lost Cosmonaut: Observations of an Anti-Tourist, by Daniel Kalder. There were a lot of things I liked. I really enjoyed that I got to tag along on Kalder’s trips to places that, according to a New York Times review I read when the book first came out, even Russians haven’t heard of. This is why I read travel books in the first place. This book also had the added benefit of some philosophy about places we have never heard of...
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type.
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type.
tonyhightower's review against another edition
3.0
In which the author, a Scottish Russophile, goes to four of the more obscure former Soviet Republics under the pretense of learning about the fading cultures of people who are being assimilated into (and overrun by) the Russian cultural juggernaut. The idea of going to places that have very little to offer tourists and write about them as if they were major destinations is interesting, but he undercuts himself constantly, allowing himself to be put off by people who could help him find these people, making blanket observations on very little data, and being generally an unreliable narrator; for example, he spends an inordinate amount of time watching other people have sex without explaining why or what-for. (If he was going to these places primarily to score with ethnic chicks, that's fine, but I wish he'd have just come correct about it.)
If you're looking for reasons to visit Kalmykia, Mari El, Udmurtia or Tatarstan, you'll find precious few of them in "Lost Cosmonaut." Kalder revels in the bleakness and homogeneity of the lack of culture in each place, and he doesn't follow most leads that would show him where the last vestiges of the original local culture actually are. But just because he openly admits he's no ethnographer doesn't mean it's not still a disappointment when a book that's ostensibly about ethnography doesn't really signify, even in some ironic sense.
There's a great idea in this, and Kalder is not a bad storyteller. I just wish "Lost Cosmonaut" had a little more story for him to tell.
If you're looking for reasons to visit Kalmykia, Mari El, Udmurtia or Tatarstan, you'll find precious few of them in "Lost Cosmonaut." Kalder revels in the bleakness and homogeneity of the lack of culture in each place, and he doesn't follow most leads that would show him where the last vestiges of the original local culture actually are. But just because he openly admits he's no ethnographer doesn't mean it's not still a disappointment when a book that's ostensibly about ethnography doesn't really signify, even in some ironic sense.
There's a great idea in this, and Kalder is not a bad storyteller. I just wish "Lost Cosmonaut" had a little more story for him to tell.