Tayler, Jeffrey 1961–

PERSONAL:

Born 1961; married. Education: Doctoral study in Russian and East European history, University of Virginia.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Russia.

CAREER:

Served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco, 1988-90, and as a staff member in Warsaw, Poland, 1990-92, and Tashkent, Uzbekistan, 1992-93; freelance writer and photographer; interpreter; comanager of an American security company operating in Moscow, Russia; commentator for National Public Radio and correspondent for the Atlantic Monthly.

WRITINGS:

Siberian Dawn: A Journey across the New Russia, Hungry Mind Press (St. Paul, MN), 1999.

Facing the Congo, Ruminator Books (St. Paul, MN), 2000.

Glory in a Camel's Eye: Trekking through the Moroccan Sahara, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2003.

Angry Wind: Through Muslim Black Africa by Truck, Bus, Boat, and Camel, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2005, published as The Lost Kingdoms of Africa: Through Muslim Africa by Truck, Bus, Boat and Camel, Abacus (London, England), 2006.

River of No Reprieve: Descending Siberia's Waterway of Exile, Death, and Destiny, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2006, published as River of White Nights: A Siberian River Odyssey, Robson (London, England), 2006.

Contributor to The Best American Travel Writing, edited by Jason Wilson and Bill Bryson, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2000; contributor to periodicals, including Condé Nast Traveler, Harper's, National Geographic Magazine, Men's Journal, Smithsonian, and Spin.

SIDELIGHTS:

A restless spirit all his life, Jeffrey Tayler has made a name for himself as a travel writer who journeys to the world's most forbidding, oppressive, and inhospitable places. Tayler's yearning to travel, he told Rolf Potts for Rolf Pott's Vagabonding, came to him while he was a junior in college: "I developed the conviction that, for me, truths of some exalted and liberating sort resided in foreign lands, and decided that my life would be better led elsewhere." Adept at foreign languages—he speaks Russian, Arabic, Greek, Turkish, and several Romance languages—Tayler decided to travel. First, he traveled to Greece, Italy, Spain, and other European points before ending up in Moscow. For years, Tayler had been fascinated by Russian culture and history. "Ever since I was a teenager," he told John Coyne on the Peace Corps Writers Web site, "Russia, Russians, Russian literature, and Russian history have played a role in my life that no one else or nothing ever would equal. Most of my heroes were Russian—Solzhenitsyn and Sakharov among them; many of my favorite writers and works of literature were Russian; my favorite poets and bards were Russian." Having worked for the Peace Corps in Morocco and Warsaw, he moved to Moscow and eventually married a Russian. His respect and admiration for the Russian people led Tayler's desire to know the landscape better, and so he set off on an epic journey that he describes in his first book, Siberian Dawn: A Journey across the New Russia.

In a 1993 excursion that extended over eight thousand miles from Magadan in Siberia to the border of Poland, Tayler made a trip that was more ambitious and risky than even most native Russians would dare to hazard. Facing minus-forty-degree temperatures, polluted industrial landscapes, despairing and impoverished people, and frustrating bureaucrats, Tayler records his trip in Siberian Dawn. The book is not an ordinary travel guide that would interest aspiring tourists, but rather a deeply felt look into the world of post-Soviet Russia. A Publishers Weekly critic described the book as being a "cracker-barrel discussion of who ‘won the cold war’ and suggestions for reform are left out." "Tayler," asserted Booklist writers Thomas Gaughan and Jack Helbig, "is a skilled craftsman who could become a significant new voice in travel literature. Compelling and deeply unsettling reading."

Despite such praise, Tayler initially had a difficult time finding a publisher for Siberian Dawn. While the book gathered dust on editors' desks, he decided to go on another excursion that, he hoped, would be a journey of self-discovery. His plan was to recreate the original trip English explorer Henry Morton Stanley took in the nineteenth century. He would go to the Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly Zaire, and take a barge up the Congo River, returning back to the coast in a dugout canoe called a pirogue. As with his Siberian adventure, the trip would be extremely hazardous, though for different reasons. Tayler would have to battle terrible weather, hordes of biting insects, illness, robbers, hostile native people, corrupt soldiers, ferocious crocodiles, and many other dangers. Finally, on his trip back in the canoe, his guide became seriously ill, and Tayler decided to call an end to his voyage. The decision came not only because of the hardships, but also because he had reached an unavoidable conclusion: "I found myself stung by my failure and trying to deny what I would later come to see as obvious: that I had exploited Zaire as a playground on which to solve my own rich-boy existential dilemmas." He admits to himself, as he notes in his book, that his "drama of self-actualization proved obscenely trivial beside the suffering of the Zaireans and the injustices of their past." Thus, Tayler's Facing the Congo becomes not just a travel adventure but also a deep exploration into psychological and moral issues. "Eloquent and sincere," stated a Publishers Weekly writer, "Tayler brings immense cultural sensitivity to his journey, fully conscious that the poverty and misery are in large part due to Western hegemony." Joshua Kuritzky, writing for CNN.com, further noted: "Tayler, a talented writer and astute observer, is constantly aware of the larger meaning of his trip through Zaire"; the critic added that "observations like this are what make Tayler such an excellent, and underrated, travel writer."

Tayler's next expedition was to another forbidding land, the blistering climate of the Draa Valley of Morocco. Traveling by camel, mule, and foot, he crossed almost six hundred miles of desert to get a better look into the world of nomadic Muslims in a culturally complex land. Glory in a Camel's Eye: Trekking through the Moroccan Sahara thus explores the worldview of a people whose religion permeates every aspect of their difficult lives. Reviewers were particularly pleased by the fact that Tayler is not so much interested in the politics of the Arab world as he is in the society itself. "Readers overwhelmed by the many dense texts available on Islamic politics will enjoy this balanced, enlightening memoir," commented a Publishers Weekly critic. Tayler, wrote Dennis Drabelle in a Washington Post Book World review, "is a sharp observer of natural phenomena, even more so of cultural traits, and his passion for all things Arab is refreshing." Library Journal contributor Mari Flynn concluded that "Tayler offers us a memorable picture of a desiccated land and its survivors."

Angry Wind: Through Muslim Black Africa by Truck, Bus, Boat, and Camel was published in England as The Lost Kingdoms of Africa: Through Muslim Africa by Truck, Bus, Boat and Camel. It is an account of Tayler's 2002 journey across the Sahel, the Saharan borderlands of Chad, Nigeria, Niger, and Mali, during which he witnessed bureaucratic corruption and extreme poverty. The inhabitants of this region are primarily black but of the Muslim faith, a result of cultural modification that is ongoing. A Publishers Weekly contributor who described the volume as being "vividly written and trenchantly observed," noted that Tayler "generally avoids being overwhelmed by either the region's problems or its exotic charms." The trip was a treacherous one that involved unreliable transportation and physical danger from land mines.

Tayler writes of his debates about religion and the foreign policy of President George W. Bush, most of which was negative, and such controversial practices as female genital mutilation. Many blamed all Americans, and even Tayler directly, for their state of suffering. People often queried him as to why he would visit their part of the world, and some assumed he was a CIA agent. A Kirkus Reviews contributor noted that "whereas France and England should properly feel their wrath, what the desert-dwellers see on television is America as anti-Islamic crusader." Jo-Anne Mary Benson wrote that Tayler's "balanced coverage examines the region's hospitality and hostility, its beauty and its sordidness." "Lovers of travel literature and those who want to learn more about Islam in Africa should not miss this beautifully written travelogue," concluded Kristine Huntley in Booklist.

River of No Reprieve: Descending Siberia's Waterway of Exile, Death, and Destiny was published in England as River of White Nights: A Siberian River Odyssey. Tayler recounts his 2004 2,400-mile, two-month voyage on the Lena River by raft with Vadim, a veteran of the Soviet-Afghan war who served as his guide and with whom he shared a volatile relationship during the trip. The difficulty level was very similar to when the trip was made by the Cossacks, who in the sixteenth century annexed much of Siberia for Ivan the Terrible. The river is the third longest in Russia and the only major river that is fully navigable because of the absence of hydroelectric dams. The travelers were plagued by poor weather, heat, and insects as they visited the villages along the way. A Publishers Weekly reviewer commented that Tayler, who "is good at describing … his thoughts on Russian president Vladimir Putin, who is adored by the very people for whom he provides the least, offers the American reader some borscht for thought about the appeal of their own benighted leader." "This is a good adventure, well-told," wrote Huntley. "That it happens to take place in the depths of Siberia is icing on the cake."

In his interview with Potts, Tayler offered this advice to aspiring travel writers: "Know the place about which you propose to write, or know what you want to research there before you go. You can learn new things along the way, but you should start with a plan and be able to offer an insider's perspective."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, February 1, 1999, Thomas Gaughan and Jack Helbig, review of Siberian Dawn: A Journey across the New Russia, p. 959; July, 2003, George Cohen, review of Glory in a Camel's Eye: Trekking through the Moroccan Sahara, p. 1858; January 1, 2005, Kristine Huntley, review of Angry Wind: Through Muslim Black Africa by Truck, Bus, Boat, and Camel, p. 805; April 15, 2006, George Cohen, review of River of No Reprieve: Descending Siberia's Waterway of Exile, Death, and Destiny, p. 22.

Bookwatch, August, 2005, review of Angry Wind.

Foreign Affairs, March-April, 2005, Nicolas Van De Walle, review of Angry Wind, p. 172.

Geographical, November, 2006, Natalie Hoare, review of River of White Nights: A Siberian River Odyssey, p. 92.

Kirkus Reviews, December 15, 2004, review of Angry Wind, p. 1194; May 15, 2006, review of River of No Reprieve, p. 512.

Library Journal, February 15, 1999, Rebecca Miller, review of Siberian Dawn, p. 169; July, 2003, Mari Flynn, review of Glory in a Camel's Eye, p. 112; January 1, 2005, Jo-Anne Mary Benson, review of Angry Wind, p. 137; May 1, 2006, Sheila Kasperek, review of River of No Reprieve, p. 110.

Publishers Weekly, January 25, 1999, review of Siberian Dawn, p. 82; August 28, 2000, review of Facing the Congo, p. 68; May 12, 2003, review of Glory in a Camel's Eye, p. 57.

Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO), July 25, 2003, Ed Halloran, review of Glory in a Camel's Eye, p. D30; November 22, 2004, review of Angry Wind, p. 45; May 8, 2006, Tom Bissell, review of River of No Reprieve, p. 54.

Russian Life, July-August, 2006, Paul E. Richardson, review of River of No Reprieve, p. 61.

Spectator, September 23, 2006, Joanna Kavenna, review of River of White Nights.

Times (London, England), May 19, 2001, Steve Jelbert, review of Facing the Congo, p. 22.

Washington Post Book World, July 22, 2001, Afshin Molavi, review of Facing the Congo, p. T7; May 25, 2003, Dennis Drabelle, review of Glory in a Camel's Eye, p. T4.

ONLINE

CNN.com,http://www.cnn.com/ (November 23, 2000) Joshua Kuritzky, review of Facing the Congo.

Peace Corps Writers Web site,http://www.peacecorpswriters.org/ (April 7, 2004), John Coyne, "Talking with Jeffrey Tayler."

Rolf Potts' Vagabonding,http://www.rolfpotts.com/ (February 7, 2007), interview with Tayler.

World Hum,http://www.worldhum.com/ (December 32, 2005), Jim Benning, "Jeffrey Tayler: Facing Africa's ‘Angry Wind’" (interview).