Customer Reviews:
 Funny book, but I'm not going to China September 18, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I thought I wanted to visit China. Now I don't, not after reading this book! It was informative, made me laugh out loud, and gave important, good-to-know details that I bet you won't find in any other travel guide. About three-quarters of the way through, it started getting repetitive, however, and I started to lose interest. I do like his writing style--it reminds me a lot of David Sedaris--and I found myself reading parts aloud to family and friends.
 Witty and informative - great book! September 9, 2008
3 out of 7 found this review helpful
I have been a fan of Maarten Troost's funny, informative writing style since his first book, The Sex Lives of Cannibals, which up to now had been my favorite book of his. Lost on Planet China has now taken that spot. I haven't traveled to China and so have no first-hand knowledge of the country; my learnings are limited to friends and associates who have taken packaged tours. I truly enjoyed learning more about China and its people through Maarten's perspective of touring the country with no apparent set agenda beyond observing life around him and integrating into the culture as much as a laowai is able to. I had the opportunity to meet Maarten and his wife, Sylvia, at a reading of his second book at a local book store when they lived in Sacramento. (Yes, it does get quite hot in the summer, and no, not everyone is on drugs!) His down-to-earth manner and easy friendliness is evident in his latest book, which I highly recommend to anyone who is interested in getting a candid perspective of day-to-day life in China.
 A complete waste of time September 5, 2008
8 out of 21 found this review helpful
Having read positive reviews of Marten Troost's "Lost on Planet China," I was disappointed to learn that the book did not live up to my expectations. As Troost is an experienced travel writer, I was completely taken aback by his condescending tone throughout the book. All of his observations of China and the Chinese people were negative. He went from one place to another, without spending enough time to understand the culture, or to learn about the people and place. It was evident that there was a lack of interaction with the local people and one wonders how good of a travelogue this is if his interaction was mostly with another fellow American. There wasn't an attempt to understand the culture, but rather superficial observations of life there. Half way through the book, I realized there was a lack of purpose in his journey. It almost felt like he was writing about China just for the sake of it.
There are definitely much better books out there in this genre. Two that come to mind are Peter Hessler's "Oracle Bones: A Journey Through Time in China" which explored modern day China and Colin Thubron's "Shadow of the Silk Road" which chronicled the author's travel through modern Asia along the ancient Silk Road from China to the Mediterranean.
 Should I Cancel My Trip to China? September 4, 2008
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
I am scheduled to go on a two week trip to China on Oct. 15th. After reading Troost's book I'm contemplating canceling it. That's how depressing this book is. Pollution, pollution, pollution, spitting, peeing and defecating in the streets, mutilated and disfigured beggars everywhere, animal cruelty, repulsive food, brothels and gay bars in hotels,noise everywhere,lunatic drivers,insane taxi drivers, cheating of tourists, hard seats on overcrowded trains. This is the depiction that Troost gives. Not a pretty sight. Rarely does Troost talk about anything uplifting, beautiful or cultural in China (except for Tibet). What is one to think of this portrayal of China? Since I have never visited China I am a loss to evaluate this book. Clearly Troost is no friend of the Chinese Tourist Office.
 Almost too awful to contemplate. September 2, 2008
10 out of 16 found this review helpful
Have you ever been in a group of people when one of them inadvertently makes a crack that has everyone splitting their sides with laughter, but whose next intentional attempts at humor fall flat? Unfortunately, Mr. Troost has too, for his own literary offerings have followed that particular trajectory much to my surprise and dismay.
This is the third of his 'travelogues.' His first one, about his time spent on the island paradise of Kiribati, was a charming little gem of a book. His second, which was more or less a continuation of his first, had its moments but seemed a bit world weary and lacked the vitality of the first. This book is, I hate to say, little more than a dog and pony show. For Mr. Troost having found his trope, or schtick more aptly, proceeds to hack away at the problem of writing a book by stringing together a series of non sequiters composed of an action (I went here), a problem (it was horrible/inconvenient/foreign because of this), and a trite and predictable one-liner or aside. This is entertaining for about the first 35 pages of the book and then begins to wear thin, very thin.
No two ways about it, the glib are gifted. All other things being equal those with the gift are more likely to succeed than the tongue-tied. The problem is that glib doesn't translate well to paper. What sounds clever often reads inane, not to say juvenile. So we find with this book whose premise is so thin: Let's run around China for a couple of weeks and gather observations for a book timed to drop just when all of the tourists to the Beijing Olympics are looking for topical, contemporary, easy to read, books on China.
Thus the inconsequential chatter and easy banter that characterize this book (well, at least as much of the book as I could stand), probably would be more palatable if told as party jokes or at some other informal gathering of friends. As a book it comes off as inane and bit forced. For instance, on the phenomenon of the dearth of surname variety: "It's become so problematic that no one knows Hu's Hu in China." What, you may be thinking to yourself, is not funny about this? It may not be funny ha ha but it is certainly funny hu hu! There, see how annoying it is, and this is a book that is chockablock full of this kind of humor. It is funny at first but really wears thin after the third, or fourth or fifth, or sixth, or seventh, or eighth, or ninth or tenth, or eleventh encounter all in the space of just a few pages.
On the other hand, what can one do when one is faced with the problem of having to write a book about a place, people, and culture one knows next to nothing about and hasn't any time to ameliorate the problem? I guess he does what Mr. Troost has done; does a bit of research in the library (and some of the historical, cultural stuff that he does include in the book is interesting--if too superficially treated to be fascinating); he speaks to people who do know about the country, people and culture; he takes a whirlwind tour of the country gathering anecdotal evidence and finally, he throws it all together in a haphazard fashion and peppers it with solipsistic witticisms (or something approximating wit from a distance. For instance, the hardback version of the book is small and red, ho ho).
I can't recommend this book. Go and read his first one if you want a really good read. This one seems to come from a different person.
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