Vacationing in Iraq

Categories: In the News , Travel , Staff Picks , Nonfiction

You don't have to care about Agatha Christie to love The 8:55 to Baghdad: from London to Iraq on the Trail of Agatha Christie, which I read about three times in three days before returning to the shelves. Andrew Eames's goal is to follow the path of Agatha Christie as she traveled from an upscale suburb of London to Iraq, following a depressing divorce.  She had been planning a Caribbean cruise but changed her mind after hearing recent returnees enthuse about the country. She took the Orient Express (later of course celebrated in Murder on the Orient Express), which now ends in Venice.

Vacationing in Iraq in 1928 wasn't as weird an idea for Agatha Christie as it is for Andrew Eames.  After leaving Venice, his path continues--on increasingly neglected rolling stock--through Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Syria, and finally into Iraq.  He meets a lot of people (the drunken British beach bums in Bulgaria are particularly amusing) and reports some fascinating dialogue.

The surprising strength of Eames's book is his clear description of the differences between various Balkan states, but the real joy is his often witty observations of his fellow travelers, especially those on the archaeological tour, who, like tourists on so many bus tours, fail to bond in spectacular ways. Several are also sent home by the Iraqui government for suspicious behavior.

Except for his 1987 Crossing the Shadow Line: Travels in South-East Asia, Eames's other travel works seem straightforward--the kind of books you'd actually take along for travel guidance in another country.  The 8:55 to Baghdad is a five-star book, and we can only hope Eames continues his quirky adventures.