too long. no maps. ( )

Middleton is a travel writer of repute and here takes us with him to Mongolia, where he first visited in the Communist era of the 1980s before returning to it post-Communism to see how it fared. As with all good travelogues, it is the people you meet rather than the places you visit that make the most impressions, and "The Last Disco in Outer Mongolia" has a few good characters.

There is the Mongolian guide from Middleton's first visit; a woman with terrible breath who spends her time reciting the glory of communist Mongolia and flat out denying that the National Health Service could exist, and the man who collected phrase books for a hobby.

Middleton also brings the country alive, showing how Mongolia had to deal with its geographic situation of being encircled by Russia and China. And of course, it is still dealing with the situation. ( )