Product Description
This volume contains three comic and sinister novels set against Africa's vibrant landscape. In Fong and the Indians, a Chinese immigrant in a ramshackle East African country learns to survive by making friends with his enemies; The Girls at Play is the story of white female teachers at an isolated school for African girls in the Kenyan Bush; and Jungle Lovers is the "comic and disturbing" story of an insurance salesman abducted by revolutionary terrorists in Malawi. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

three well- written and topically interesting short novels
I am very glad I found this paperback at the library and took a chance on it. The first novel, Fong and the Indians, concerns a hapless petty merchant in East Africa.It is delighfully politically incorrect while maintaining a sympathetic opinion of the underlying humanity of all the characters.The third, Jungle Lovers, could have been written by a heavy drinker attracted to African women, because, well, the protagonist has these characteristics.It is also well-paced and mixes politics, plot, and character quite well.I am currently reading the "second" placed novel and it is also delightfully juicy and descriptive.Overall, these books made me want to read more novels set in Africa, by Africans as well as visitors.

An enjoyable compiliation
This is actually a compilation of three previously-published novels, set in sub-Saharan Africa.To the best of my knowledge, all three are out of print, so the publisher has done the reader a service by re-printing all three in this volume.

Each of the novels in this volume has certain merits, and all three are worth your time.As a whole, they serve to encapsulate the experience of being a foreigner in Africa, in the 1970s.By foreigner I don't just mean Caucasian; the stories are told from diverse points of view.My personal favorite is the one about a group of women running a boarding school in upcountry Uganda, but anyone who either likes the writings of Paul Theroux or has an interest in Africa, would find that all three stories are worth his while. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Great Insights Into Great Britian in the 1980's
Paul Theroux gives good information and descriptions.He meets people one would not meet on an ordinary trip.The book gives insights into what people do in different cultural and social situations.He describes the various peoples of the British Isles.I can't travel - so this is my travel.

Less than what I wanted
I ordered this book inorder to be better informed about traveling to the southwest coast of England this year...
It was seemingly a personal journal of someone who was traveling via train along the coast. The reading experience was that thewriter was very negative and critical of the people and places visted.....It wasn't very informative about the scenery, people or towns visited......Very disappointing to my desire for information.

I love Paul Theroux!
I love England and I love Paul Theroux so I have only wonderful things to say about this book. I'm there with him as he walks the coast of England.
I'm also a people person, as is he, and the things he writes about touch my soul. I highly recommend this book for anyone who likes fine writing, England, travel, walking tours, people.

vintage theroux
This is a terrific book.The author is simply sharing HIS observations of life along the British coastal cities and towns.It's a great read!Even if it's not all peaches and cream, it's what he felt, and you can't help but feel like a traveling companion.

The Kingdom Is Much More Than The Seacoast
This book was not as much fun as I expected it to be, namely because Mr. Theroux (whom I seriously began to dislike here) seemed to take any excuse to disdain the British as a people, a culture, and a nation. He chose to visit the most run-down of locales and then ballishly complained about them, and in so doing presented the image that his experiences were representative of an entire nation as a whole. Imagine someone touring the coastlines of America, especially the rust belt, and then presenting this as a valid exercise in seeing all there was to see of the place. This is just about what happened in The Kingdom By The Sea.

Paul Theroux said straight off "no castles" making this his mantra and meaning he was concerned with discovering Britain of the moment rather than of the past, which is a fine and worthy undertaking, but as I slogged through chapter after chapter of his complaints about damp and dank boardinghouses, slovenly humanity and bad food, I kept wishing he jolly would include the occasional castle, battlefield, cathedral or treasure house. Theroux made his trek by foot, bus, train and sometimes private car (he was brazen enough to hitchhike on occasion) in 1982, the year that gave Britons the Falklands War, a homicidal madman in Yorkshire, a threatened transit strike, and the joyous birth of a presumably future king, Charles and Diana's son, William. It was a year mired in an era that represented both a relative low point in modern British history and a also a stepping stone to present-day recovery. Yes, Thatcher's Britain was a tottering welfare state that had seen better days, but did Paul Theroux, who cuts the Third World every conveyable bit of slack when he visits it, really, truly HAVE to always see England's glass as half empty?

I actually found myself growing depressed as a read his dreary memoir of what could have been a fascinating journey, and that's just not the sort of experience I was looking for. What could have been a travel journal that uplifted and enthralled instead became a melancholy series of bellicose dreariness.

Four stars for a number of introductions to interesting people Theroux met along the way, especially those old-timers born in the nineteenth-century, but without them popping up here an there as they did, this was barely a three-star read.
... Read more

Product Description
In the Washington Post Book World, Sven Birkerts called this exuberant novel "a complex and gripping work of invention and confession . . . I understood again how the prose of a true writer can bring us to a world beyond." The book spans almost thirty years in the life of a fictional "Paul Theroux," who moves through young bachelorhood in Africa, in and out of marriage, affairs, and employment, and between continents. It's a wry, worldly, erotic, and deeply moving account of one man's first half century - "among the strongest things Theroux has ever written" (New York Times Book Review).Amazon.com Review
Prolific and popular writer Paul Theroux turns himself on his ear inMy Other Life, the "story of a life I could have lived had thingsbeen different," as told by another Paul Theroux. The book, arranged insections that resemble stories more than chapters, traces a life that attimes looks quite a bit like Theroux's real one; at other times not at all.He treads the familiar ground of his Peace Corps days in Africa that somereaders will recall from MySecret History. The story then careens through Singapore, London,marriage, writing, family, and divorce. And it is not only Theroux who is awalking contradiction in this work; other characters explore the notion oftwo lives, giving the sections a unifying subject and a resounding theme. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (23)

One of his best
This, along with My Secret History, are my favorite P.T. novels. You owe it to yourself to read one or the other before listening to any negative or mediocre reviews. If you are younger, say under 40, and male, I would recommend My Secret History over this. That is particularly true if you grew up Catholic in the northeast or mid Atlantic states. If you are over 40, or female, you may be better able to relate to this book.

For Theroux, A Turning Point
Over the past 30 years, I have had the pleasure of reading (and in some cases, re-reading with relish) eleven of Paul Theroux's works. "My Other Life" represents his crowning achievement.

Although the preface to "My Other Life" states that "the man is fiction, but the mask is real," Mr. Theroux has experienced enough vicissitudes in life (some painful, as we all do) not to have some real life lessons drip onto the page, even if attributed to a fictional "Paul" or another character entirely. This "novel", if it can be called that, takes the form of a chronological mirror image of the author's real travels and family life, but with the second half decidedly more introspective (mask or no mask), so much so that the reader begins to view the real Paul Theroux with a sense of newfound respect for having come to terms with the rougher side of his life, having eventually made sense of it, and having moved on. Put another way, there is less cantankerousness and more humanity in "My Other Life" than in earlier works.

Yet "My Other Life" never bogs down in navel-gazing; it is simply too entertaining for that. The reader is served up a triple mix of the author's always-exquisite writing style, trademark drollness and some bittersweet vignettes with occasional (self-) analysis to ponder.

Aside from the question of "Who is Paul?", "My Other Life" offers some delicious tales to be savored in their own right: a mysterious woman living a life of seclusion on the English coastline (with a terrific twist ending); the now-famous (in Britain, infamous) episode of a very commanding and somewhat supercilious Queen and suffering Prince Philip at a dinner party; and the author's return to his hometown of Medford, only to end up hanging out with an academically-challenged clique of low-lifers years removed from Theroux who have no idea who he is and who fracture the King's English in a vernacular the author conjures beautifully.

"My Other Life" demonstrates more than any other of Theroux's works why he is one of America's most gifted writers of the last century. 5+ - Highly Recommended.

A brutal eye that's both merciless and entertaining
Although at his worst Theroux can be glib and spooky (as he is in the title piece of this collection), at his best he writes with a melancholy tenderness about his children; about the euphoric escapes from England that can lead to the long loneliness of travel; about the city of London in all its fog and drizzle and smoky winter dusks.

In "Lady Max" the most enigmatic character is a vengeful Lady Bountiful who advances Theroux's literary prospects by mentioning his name to powerful friends and taking him for instructive strolls along the Thames. They walk along the Embankment in the damp air, "next to the whitish, depthless water," while Lady Max points out the church where William Blake got married.

They also visit the Tate and pass a set of "big flat Motherwells, all black shapes like moth-eaten shadows", a description almost as thrilling as Theroux's evocation of Anthony Burgess writing a phrase of music and the way he "took out his fountain pen and drew on a napkin a stave of parallel lines, then rapidly, like hanging fruit on these lines, he inscribed a series of notes."

Women fall into two types (or stereotypes) in My Other Life: black-haired and petitely exquisite on the one hand; and on the other, fair-haired, stocky, and hard to impress.

But men are invariably evoked with a brutal eye: Ian Musprat, the struggling young author of The Dogflud Chronicles, has "flecks of vol-au-vent pastry on his tie and fingers"; his eyes are bloodshot; the knot on his tie "yanked small". And when Theroux flies to England to have dinner with the Queen, he writes a savage but very funny cameo of a "bossy, buttocky" flight attendant who is "male, wet-eyed, twitching to be noticed." Later, at the royal dinner, Prince Philip is portrayed as a cold man, clearly embittered by a long married life of privileged uselessness, a man exacting a lackey's revenge with his "mirthless, barking laugh."

An often brilliant book about writers and the writing life, My Other Life is both merciless and entertaining.

A strange mixture of autobiography and fiction
This book is a strange mixture of autobiography and fiction; an "imaginary memoir" as the author explains in the book's preface: "This is the story of a life I could have lived had things been different". Each chapter is a self-contained short story (or short memoir if you like), and it's often tantalizing to imagine what is real, what is an exaggerated version of the truth and what is pure fantasy. It is probable, for instance, that Theroux met the Queen, but less likely that he found himself briefly alone with her and experienced a burning and reckless desire to touch her, indeed to burst into tears and cry on her shoulder. These sorts of fantasies make My Other Life an often humourous read but there are flashes of whimsy, nostalgia and regret as well.
Some of the chapters are short and epigrammatic; the longer chapters are more satisfying, particularly "The Queen's Touch" (mentioned above), "Poetry Lessons" and "Lady Max". They all feature the typical Theroux trademarks: ironic detachment verging on superciliousness, fluid writing style with clever use of dialogue, and sly humour. He's a page-turner as well: the plots are subtle but compelling, you're drawn into the stories, wanting to know what is going to happen next, yet the tales are not plot-driven and so there is plenty of time for reflection.
In "Poetry Lessons", Theroux recounts a tale that combines poetry with a small intrigue involving a rich, untalented benefactor to whom the narrator is drawn to for his wealth and power yet repelled by his (and his wife's) uncritical vulgarity. The benefactor wants Theroux to teach him how to write better poetry, but it soon becomes obvious that not only does this benefactor lack talent, he also lacks any literary intelligence or worldliness (he asks "which war?" when Theroux mentions the War Poets). Theroux takes artful delight in pointing out to the reader this stooge's solecisms and paucity of literary knowledge.
"Lady Max", again, satirizes the rich and powerful: Theroux feels contempt for the eponymous and vaguely reptilian woman but is strangely drawn into her world, without, apparently, being corrupted by it.
"The Queen's Touch" is very funny, despite its overall tone of quiet desperation. Her Majesty comes across as a rather detached but thoughtful lady, with an aura of wise serenity, while her husband is ridiculed for his intense irascibility:
"This was a man who knew how to express boredom. In order to show me how utterly uninterested he was he worked his mouth, savouring, tasted something foul, pulled a face, then made an effort of swallowing... his relentless negativity and unhelpfulness baffled me."

There is much pleasure to be derived from Theroux's prose: he is a skilful writer: succinct, ironic, with a great gift for a turn of a phrase. My Other Life combines his skill at fiction and non-fiction, and the thought that some of the described events may have actually happened provides us with a frisson of delight.

The first words that come to mind are...
...self-indulgent...But that would be too harsh and can't go without explanation.

The book is essentially 456 pages of Theroux (fictional or autobiographical, it doesn't matter) whining...about his writing or lack of it, about his poverty and lack of success as a writer, about people he doesn't like or doesn't understand (usually those with more money or success than himself). You get the idea.

After the first hundred pages or so, I knew where the whole thing was going: this 'novel' (better defined as a collection of loosely related short stories) serves to convey an oblique account of the steady disintegration of Theroux's marriage and how he comes to grips with it and gets on with his life afterwards. He takes his time getting to the point, though, and this hurts. Meanwhile, he spends a great many words complaining about the English, directly or indirectly. Which is perhaps the book's only truly entertaining irony, as he writes in such a very British way that I hardly heard his (allegedly) 'American' voice until very late in the book. Even then, he frequently used accidental Britishisms...no American writer would write 'Cocoa Puffs' and then feel obliged to explain that it was a breakfast cereal, and no American would note that a man 'has a sport' when he means to say that he works out regularly.

Conspicously lacking amid this whine-fest are any solid recollections of his success stories (again, whether fictional or autobiographical, the result is the same). We never hear about the joy of landing a publishing contract, of having a book turned into a movie, of the satisfaction of shepherding his children toward adulthood, of his great travel experiences and sexual flings. We only hear about the bad parts. He was underpaid here; he was underappreciated there. His sexual escapades almost always end in inept frustration. This went wrong, that was miserable, this fell apart, on and on. Taken at face value, one wouldn't know from this book what a success Theroux has really been (even the fictional version).

However, it does have it's good moments. Technically, the writing is excellent, especially when he turns his attention to describing a scene in physical detail - the train ride to Moyo, and the depth of detail in Medford come readily to mind. There are a few very nice chapters, especially in the second half of the book. 'Forerunners' is charming and very clever, if heavily telegraphed, and 'George and Me' is right on. 'Medford - Next 3 Exits' almost worth the price of the book.

I'm still scratching my head over the TIME review blurb on the cover "...a seriously funny novel," as the humor in this book is "minuscule," as Paul's Uncle Hal might say.

I give it three stars, but don't recommend it. ... Read more

Product Description
Paul Theroux was born in Medford, Massachusetts and has lived in London, Singapore, and Africa. His highly acclaimed novels include Blinding Light, Hotel Honolulu, My Other Life, Kowloon Tong, Half Moon Street, The Mosquito Coast, and Saint Jack (the latter three were all made into films). His renowned travel books include Ghost Train to the Eastern Star, Dark Star Safari, Riding the Iron Rooster, The Great Railway Bazaar, The Old Patagonian Express, and The Happy Isles of Oceania. He currently divides his time between Hawaii and Cape Cod.

Available exclusively on Kindle, Paul Theroux’s “Siamese Nights” follows Boyd Osier, an American businessman who has been posted to Bangkok, leaving his wife in Maine to fend for herself between his visits home. Osier never imagined he would find, in a Bangkok bar, a lover unlike anyone he had ever known, and the most unexpected person to teach him, profoundly, that life is too short. As he discovers his true self among the smothering heat and shadowy nightlife of Thailand, Osier also learns just how dangerous love can be. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

First time Theroux
After just receiving the Kindle, I wanted to download something. Being an avid Atlantic reader I was aware of the exclusive short stories they publish for Kindle. Browsing through the available titles, this one seemed the most interesting at a quick glance. I was immediately captured by

Theroux has an execellent ability to abduct the reader in to the world he is describing.
In many ways a quite scary story, as it so precisely depicts human frailty and the resulting deceit.

After finishing the story I immediality downloaded Theoroux's Elephanta Suite, which gave me a couple more hours of mind bending reflections on cultural conflicts. I wish there were more Theroux novels for Kindle.

Highly recommended!

Always a great journey when read theroux
paul t. is a favorite author, both fiction & non, long or short story. i'm never wasting time when devouring one of his works.another great read, thanks paul!

Best of the Atlantic Fiction series so far!
I've enjoyed this series from the beginning, and that is been my favorite. A wonderful story, with unexpected twists. A perfect evening read.

A city with many layers
Paul Theroux's contribution to "The Atlantic's" monthly short story series is a love story set in Bangkok. Theroux has visited the city several times, and described it in a number of different ways. In a recent interview he said:

"Bangkok at the top level is all fine dining and aristocracy. That's incredible. But underneath, the city has many, many layers. And you can get anything here. This total availability is what makes it different from other cities."

In an earlier interview he said:

"[W]hen I first came to Bangkok, I was looking for Somerset Maugham's Bangkok, Noel Coward's Bangkok, Graham Greene's Bangkok. But the Bangkok that I saw in `68 was American servicemen's Bangkok. It was an American soldier's R&R Mecca, which was 10 times more interesting than the Bangkok of the books.

"Every bar was full of American servicemen. That was the impression I had in `68, and when I came back in `70 and `73. When you see American Vietnam soldiers, GIs who had seen the horrors of war and they just came here to forget it. It was wild."

I've visited Bangkok twice, in 1980, when there were many people expecting that GIs would send for them and their children, and the beginnings of the economic Thai Tiger, and five years ago, when I spent most of my time in that top layer of "fine dining and aristocracy".

Theroux's Bangkok in this story, so real it's almost a third major character in the tale, explores two levels, an out sourcing economic level with a few American ex-pats and a lower level of love and menace. Both major characters, and Bangkok itself, come alive in Theroux's pages.

One main character, an accountant, finds love in the first hot climate to which he has been posted. Theroux draws a brilliant contrast between the accountant's wife and his life back in cold and misty Maine and the excitement and explorations of the hot levels he explores in Bangkok.

As the accountant realizes, "you invented a city, any city, from the little you learned each day by accident. This one you had to make for yourself out of noodles and flowers, a glimpse of the river, an odor of scorched spices, office talk, moisture-thicken air that made you gasp, and neon lights shimmering in puddles -- beauty in half an inch of dirty water. Or something you'd seen nowhere else, like the gilded shrines on street corners, flowers and fruit left as offerings, piles of yellow petals, people at prayer, their faces the more soulful for being candlelit in the night."

The story moves well, brilliantly written like all of Theroux's prose, and perhaps a bit melodramatic, but exotic, erotic and convincing nonetheless.

Robert C. Ross2010
... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (81)

good book!
Very good book. I didn't care for the movie but I really enjoyed the book.

Needed an editor
This book had an interesting and clever plot. Limited but good character development especially the son Charlie. The father, Allie makes a fascinating hero/antihero. I just found the book became so repetitive at times with endless descriptions and dragging out of things. I think the book could have been edited down by half and it would have made for a faster paced and much more compelling read.

Fearsome family dynamics shown with honesty
One of the best books I've ever read. The voice of the boy is gripping and an example of showing a younger point of view with no loss of interest. Terrific read.

a plan for a personal Utopia goes wrong
Usually I read a book and then watch the movie. The Mosquito Coastis an exception.I saw the movie more than twenty years ago and just got around to reading the book. It's one of the best stories I've ever read. The main character, Alli Fox, is a brainy inventor who takes his family to the Hunduran jungle to get away from the materialistic American way of life. He believes that he can usher in a new civilization using technology. He is gradually taken over by paranoid obsessions. The story is told from the viewpoint of his oldest son who describes his father's decline from respected hero to the demented creature that not only stands in the way of the family's return to America, but exposes his wife and childrento unspeakable dangers.

creative genius
I never fully appreciated Theroux until I read his non train travel books. Both Mosquito Coast and The O-Zone are really creative works.Mosquito Coast is a good read and only the very ending is a bit gimmicky?Still there are so many truths in this book and the story keeps you turning pages what more can you ask? ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Africa in Black and White
Dark Star Safari is indeed dark. The deep disappointment felt by the master of travel writing, Paul Theroux, pervades this heartbreakingly honest look at decaying societies.
The landscape itself though scarred with dilapidated human settlements remains beautiful in its vast immenseness, but a sense of hopelessness pervades the text. Paul travels overland from appalling dirty and dangerous Cairo to Cape Town where white farmers are being hacked to bits by liberated South Africans who feel the land belongs to them.
From taxi's that breakdown in bleak backwaters, to buses that are nothing more than rolling death traps, to trains that are rocking shells of their former selves the modes of transport he takes range from laughable to downright dangerous. The muddy villages along the way are filled with derelict populations who are often "bad people".
I think Paul in his quest to unplug and go someplace his fans could not find him forgot the old adage that you can never go back. In his idealistic youth he served in the Peace Corp and taught at a school in Malawi. He feels sadness about the fact that not only have things not gotten better for the African people in the last forty years, they have gotten much worse! Corrupt leaders have milked millions from the generosity of countries trying to help the African people. They do not want real development to take place because children with distended bellies and flies in their eyes engender more sympathy and foster larger handouts than healthy communities.
I selected this book because I want to go to Africa to see the gigantic fireball sunsets, the herds of grazing beasts and the last of what can be considered wild, and because Paul Theroux ranks high on my top ten writers list. After reading it I feel silly and insincere because I am not going to see the suffering masses. I will be wearing the tourist kaki with birding glasses slung over my shoulder and be the safari slut Paul finds so insensitive to the plight of the African people. I will sidestep the atrocious slums of Nairobi on my way to the game parks and try like hell not to get killed or robbed in Joburg. Still, I do care and hope that Africa, the birthplace of mankind, will find a way out of the dark abyss of hopelessness and the people will stand tall in the sun once more.

What most of us don't know about Africa
I found the Audio book to be exceptionally well done. Norman Dietz, the reader, is terrific. He "acts" the narratives using his voice, making the 23 hours wonderfully listenable.

Paul Theroux's means and mode of travel, ability to communicate in native languages, description of landscape, and encounters with peoples, police, bureacrats, etc. extremely interesting and educational.
Theroux at one point says an author's greatest accomplishment is tell the story so the reader feels he is there and experiencing what is being described.Theroux acomplishes this beautifully.I see vividly the scenes and feel I know personnally the people he meets.
Terrific book to learn about the countries of Africa, their politics,different cultures between African countries, the institutionalized violence andhistories.
His views on the various "charity industries"of Africa is compelling.His view of their self-interest overiding any good that is accomplished by them. In fact they are counter productive and to so some degree responsible for the lack of any real educational, economic or political progress in most African countries.
It is not a "happy" story that will leave readers with an optimistic view of the future for the continent. You will,however, have a feeling for Africa's potential withleadership.Leadership capable of providing education for the masses, developing economic resources for the benefit of their countries rather than thepoliticians in power at any given time.

"Hoping for the picturesque, expecting misery..."
Forty years after being a Peace Corps worker in Malawi and a teacher in Uganda, Paul Theroux returns to Africa and finds things changed--for the worse. Now approaching his sixtieth birthday and wanting to escape from cell phones, answering machines, the daily newspaper, and being "put on hold," he is determined to travel from Cairo to Cape Town. He believes that the continent "contain[s] many untold tales and some hope and comedy and sweetness, too," and that there is "more to Africa than misery and terror."

Traveling alone by cattle truck, "chicken bus," bush train, matatu, rental car, ferry, and even dugout canoe, he tries to blend in as much as possible, buying clothing at secondhand stalls in public markets, carrying only one small bag, and avoiding the tourist destinations. He is an observant and insightful writer, and his descriptions of his travails are so vivid the reader can experience them vicariously. His interviews with residents are perceptive and very revealing of the political and social climate of these places, and his character sketches of Sister Alexandra from Ethiopia (a nun who "has loved") and of two charming Ethiopian traders, a father and son, who take Theroux to the Kenyan border, are delightful.

For most of the countries of Africa, however, he has no kind words. Kenya is "one of the most corrupt...countries in Africa," everything in Kampala, Uganda, has changed for the worse, and in Tanzania "there was only decline--simple linear decrepitude, and in some villages collapse." At the U.S. embassy in Malawi, he finds an "overpaid, officious, disingenuous, blame-shifting...embassy hack" and, in pique, he wonders, "Had she, like me, been abused, terrified, stranded, harassed, cheated, bitten, flooded, insulted, exhausted, robbed, browbeaten, poisoned?"

Theroux has become waspish, and it is difficult to "travel with" a man who sees himself as a hero for making the trip at all, especially after he refuses to give a half-eaten apple to a hungry child when she begs for it. He makes snide remarks and demeans other writers. He admires Rimbaud, who lived in Ethiopia in the 1880's, he visits Naguib Mahfouz in Egypt, and he spends his sixtieth birthday with Nadine Gordimer, an old friend. But Hemingway ("bent on proving his manhood"), Isak Dinesen ("a sentimental memoirist"), Kuki Gallman (a "mythomaniac of the present day"), and V.S. Naipaul ("an outsider who feels weak") are abruptly dismissed. When he ultimately refers to his own "safari-as-struggle," it is hard not compare his temporary and entirely voluntary "struggle" to those of the African people he meets along the way. "Being in Africa was like being on a dark star," he says. His book reflects this darkness--and his own.Mary Whipple
... Read more

Product Description
The Widow is the story of two outcasts and their fatal encounter. One is the widow herself, Tati. Still young, she’s never had an easy time of it, but she’s not the kind to complain. Tati lives with her father-in-law on the family farm, putting up with his sexual attentions, working her fingers to the bone, improving the property and knowing all the time that her late husband’s sister is scheming to kick her out and take the house back.

The other is a killer. Just out of prison and in search of a new life, Jean meets up with Tati, who hires him as a handyman and then takes him to bed. Things are looking up, at least until Jean falls hard for the girl next door.

The Widow was published in the same year as Camus’ The Stranger, and André Gide judged it the superior book. It is Georges Simenon’s most powerful and disturbing exploration of the bond between death and desire. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Nasty, brutish, and short
This novel, published the same year as The Stranger and eerily similar, is more psychologically astute and more worthy of reading twice.Simenon creates a pastoral idyll with subtle hints of deep dischord, then builds effects until you know something terrible is going to happen, and sustains and builds this suspense until at last there is murder... on the next to last page.

"[G]oing on to a narrow place
where there was no way to turn aside either to the right hand or to the left." Numbers 22:26

Georges Simenon was nothing if not prolific in both his literary and public life. Born in Belgium in 1903, Simenon turned out hundreds of novels. Simenon's obsession with writing caused him to break off an affair (he was prolific in this area of his life as well) with the celebrated Josephine Baker in Paris when he could only write twelve novels in the twelve month period in which they were involved. Although best known for his Inspector Maigret detective novels, Simenon also wrote over a hundred novels that he referred to as `romans durs' (literally "hard novels"). NYRB Books is reissuing Simenon's hard novels. "The Widow" is their latest release.NYRB chooses its Simenons wisely."The Widow" is a fine book.

I've sometimes thought of the arc of a person's life as one that consists of a series of narrowing options.On the day we are born the options available to us seem limitless. But the decisions made for us and the decisions we make every day serve to winnow out our options. It struck me, as I read "The Widow" that a typical Simenon story presents us with characters whose options seem so constrained to them that their actions, often desperate and violent, appear inevitable. "The Widow" is no exception.Tati is a middle-aged widow, living in a small village in a house owned by her aged father-in-law.She has clawed her way up to this not quite middle-class existence and will endure hard work and the infrequent sexual demands of the father-in-law to maintain her rightful place in this home.Jean, is a murderer, recently-released from a French prison.Unlike Tati, he comes from a solid, relatively wealthy local family.They meet on a bus and Tati decides without hesitation that Jean will provide her with help around the farm. Jean sees Tati as someone who can provide him with food, shelter, and a bedtime companion.This mutually beneficial relationship works out fine for a while, until Jean discovers the attractive young girl (Tati's niece) that lives on the adjacent property.From that point on the relationship between Jean and Tati takes a turn for the worse and continues to deteriorate.In a very real sense the options available to Jean and Tati are so dramatically narrowed in such a short span of time that each feels that his/her actions are inevitable, almost commanded by fate. The conclusion, while predictable, is powerful not because of the actions that bring about that conclusion but because of the overpowering sense of fate that drives the actions.Reading "The Widow" was like watching a storm at sea. You can see it a long ways off, you know it is coming, yet when it arrives it still manages to knock the wind out of you.

Paul Theroux's "Introduction" was interesting and on point. Theoroux points out the comparisons often made between Simenon and his contemporary, Albert Camus.Their writing shares much in terms of the sense of alienation and despair that infuses their characters. Therouxnotes that Simenon never seemed to suffer the agony of the writer and believed that the ease with which words spilled out of him and on to paper were held against him by the literary establishment.He didn't suffer enough for his writing to be accorded the highest accolade.I tend to agree with that point.I don't believe, however, thatSimenon's writing surpassed that of Camus. I do think that the comparison itself is valid and that each is good enough to be discussed in the company of the other.

"The Widow" is a fine example of the craft of Georges Simenon. Highly recommended. L. Fleisig

"Vocation of Unhappiness"
NYRB is reissuing many of the so-called, "romans durs" ("hard novels") written in haste but with great aplomb by the immensely prolific (400 plus novels) Georges Simenion.Obvious parallels exist between this novel and it's contemporary, "The Stranger", written by Albert Camus.In fact, Andre Gide found it the better of the two novels, which (to the chagrin of Simenon) despite that endorsement, failed to win the Nobel Prize in Literature for him.

This brief novel is beautifully written.For example, "...the summer was spoiled.Every two days, every three days at most, a storm rumbled in the distance without even bringing a cooling shower.It could be felt far off in the air, somewhere in the direction of Morvan.The atmosphere was heavy.The rays of the sun, suddenly, seemed painted in oils."It also has the air of objective detachment that permeates, "The Stranger".As in that book, the protagonist of this one, Jean Passerat-Monnoyeur, commits a crime (in the closing pages, he murders "the widow", Mrs Couderc), but has little apparent motive;he, in essence, just "felt like it", in a phrase.The murder could not even pass as an impulse.There are implications of "predestination" throughout the book which become grating, as if Simenon was attempting to interject psychoanalytic elements into the otherwise spare story.

Unlike Camus' novel, however, the denouement seems clumsy and unexplained.Simeonon drops portentious hints of forthcoming violence, such as Jean repeatedly mentally reviewing elements of the French criminal code on murder;he's been there before, having killed a man over gaming loses.The second crime, the murder of Madame Couderc,could be construed as having been vaguely provoked by her jealousy over his dalliance with a neighbor girl.Because it is abrupt and therefore hard to fathom and given that it is not the culmination of a series of events, but rather a tenuous extension from them (beforehand, the jealous nagging was received with equanimity), the reader is left with the impression that Simenon was ready to move to another novel and simply chose to end this one with a jarring crime.

In summary, this is a good novel, certainly on par with his others in NYRB.Unlike Gide, I did not consider it first rank. ... Read more

Product Description

Paul Theroux celebrates fifty years of wandering the globe by collecting the best writing on travel from the books that shaped him, as a reader and a traveler. Part philosophical guide, part miscellany, part reminiscence, The Tao of Travel enumerates “The Contents of Some Travelers’ Bags” and exposes “Writers Who Wrote about Places They Never Visited”; tracks extreme journeys in “Travel as an Ordeal” and highlights some of “Travelers’ Favorite Places.” Excerpts from the best of Theroux’s own work are interspersed with selections from travelers both familiar and unexpected: 

Vladimir Nabokov           J.R.R. Tolkien 
Samuel Johnson               Eudora Welty
Evelyn Waugh                  Isak Dinesen 
Charles Dickens               James Baldwin 
Henry David Thoreau       Pico Iyer 
Mark Twain                     Anton Chekhov 
Bruce Chatwin                  John McPhee
Freya Stark                      Peter Matthiessen 
Graham Greene                Ernest Hemingway

 The Tao of Travel is a unique tribute to the pleasures and pains of travel in its golden age.

Product Description

Customer Reviews (16)

self-indulgent Paul
I haven't finished the book yet but I have to say I am so relieved to have survived the middle section that I have to get my thoughts down now. I don't object to its being erotic, but it is non-stop, repetitious and makes you wonder about the writer whose fantasies just don't let up.

In his travel books Theroux visits redlight districts and dwells on child prostitutes in many countries, claiming never to indulge; here he lets it all hang out, except that the imagery is so relentless you wonder whether he ever gets any satisfaction. Fantasies usually vanish once the deed is done.

In the hero's reminiscences, at age 14 he supposedly loses his virginity to a same-age girl but it turns out the year before he was the sex slave of a friend's mother, which Steadman brushes off as her having needs. Right! The need to be a child molester. And somehow that bratty friend never teases him over how much time he spends indoors with his own Mom.

As well, women in this book are not particularly well treated. Once Ava is not having fanciful sex in costume every night, she is suddenly 100% distracted by her doctor job, dresses only in scrubs and becomes totally clinical. There is a misogyny that comes through his characterizations of the female as either aggressively sexual (fantasy female), mean or critical.

The beginning was great because it was like a travel book. As in Elephanta Suite, which was also sex-obsessed but managed to keep it in perspective, Theroux doesn't seem to edit himself much and his reflective moments wind the same theme over and over again. Don't his editors have the guts to make him cut?

Point of detail: most of those psychotropic plants have poisons like strichnine in them which is what gives you visions. A daily diet of datura would likely have killed him long before a year was out and certainly made him crazy. Also, in many of the books his Spanish is often inaccurate, mispelled and poorly translated. Again, where are the editors?

I liked Hotel Honolulu, Mosquito Coast, all the travel books, and I am up for reading the rest of the novels, but sex in a novel is a spice not a main course. I am hoping that the farther back in time we go, the more balanced he gets about that.

Elephanta was wickedly on the mark in its satires of Indian culture. He does so well at scene and milieu. Those are the parts I like.

Waste of time
This is Theroux's worst work of fiction, excepting his first novel, which I give more slack. It is tedious and uninspiring and repeats itself constantly. It is not believable. I skimmed the middle two hundred pages or so. The beginning way just okay, the ending almost okay. The rest is garbage. I wonder what all the big-time reviewers were thinking when praising it. Pressure from the publisher -- money -- no doubt. Try again Paul.

Couldn't wade through to the end
I'm really surprised that Paul Theroux is such a popular author, as I found this book tedious, pretentious and so repetitious that I kept thinking I had already read what I was reading and had inadvertently put the bookmark in the wrong place.

My interest was originally peaked by the story line - a man, his ex girlfriend and a bunch of other tourists are escorted into the depths of the Amazonian jungle by a tourist guide, where they are given the hallucinogenic plant Ayahuasca.Since I've been long interested in the effects of this plant, I was looking forward to a good, informative read.

My enthusiasm was curbed at the beginning of the novel, as I waded through a very unconvincing few chapters as Theroux attempts to establish the characters.It seems he has tried to create the same sort of atmosphere as Paul Bowles did in "The Sheltering Sky" (highly recommended by the way), except that he fails spectacularly, and the characters are unprepossessing, boring and unrealistic.The main character, Slade Steadman, has apparently written a best selling travel book some years previously, and Theroux would have us believe that nearly everyone on the plane is wearing a line of travel clothing inspired by the novel.This unlikely scenario becomes excruciating as Theroux describes again and again, ad nauseum, what everyone is wearing and how trite and shallow they all are.

Steadman himself is not likeable, neither is is awful girlfriend,but after grinding through all this, the characters finally get taken blindfolded into the heart of the Amazon, where one would hope the interesting action would begin.

Here, Theroux commits the cardinal sin.He clearly has not researched his material and seems to have no idea what happens when people drink the Yage brew. In Theroux's version, everyone falls to the ground in a twitching heap immediately upon drinking the mixture (in reality, it usually takes at least half an hour before any effect other than nausea is felt). There is no description of the effects - psychological, hallucinogenic or otherwise, and we find ourselves quickly transported to the next morning where our disgruntled travellers are ready to depart.At this point, someone discovers some rare datura-like plant, and further unconvincing antics follow.

I didn't bother to finish the book.Some other reviewers have noted that the novel has been misunderstood as it is meant to be a satire.However, I'm of the opinion that any story - especially if it is a satire, should be well researched and believable.

The Riddle of the Sphinx, Gone Very, Very Dark
What walks on all fours in the morning, two during the day and three at night? Man, says the riddle, with a cane at night, and in this case the cane of a blind man.

In "Blinding Light", Theroux guides us through the three psychological stages of man (with a small "m"): the unfulfilled fantasies and aspirations of the young, remembered here by the main character, one-trick writer Hugh Steadman; the yearning to match those desires both sexually and professionally in the prime of life, also known as Conquest; and the inevitable decline of both his physicality and his perceived importance in society. Some men arc through this progression fairly gracefully, with just a bump in the road here or there, while others clamor for an extra scene or two in the proverbial board room, bedroom or both. They are the ones, Theroux may be saying, who push their luck and set themselves up for a tumble - in this case, literally and figuratively.

There's a good deal of Theroux's usual deft writing in "Blinding Light", and the author's ability to make touch, taste and smell almost palpable again demonstrates his chops as a writer. Unfortunately, the reader must endure what seems like an eternity of literary voyeurism as well as Steadman's considerable deception, nastiness and self-pity to arrive at any payoff.

With only one or two fairly likeable, minor characters, a torrent of purple prose that made me skip an entire chapter, and a pall that envelops much of this work's 400-plus pages, Theroux seems to have "channeled" his protagonist, so much so that it makes his entire work suffer.

"Blinding Light" makes you reflect, but you'll need to slog through too many pages to enjoy that liberty.

A new (still satrical) chapter in Theroux' journey into the mind of a man
I loved this book, but I've loved every Paul Theroux novel.I suspect that most first-time readers of Theroux' novels will be offended and put off by this book.On the surface it reads like an egotistical, self-absorbed, name-dropping exercise in denial.In a vacuum, this novel is a train wreck.But taken in the context of the author's previous works, it is pure brilliance.

I see this book as a natural extension/progression in Theroux' literary exploration of what it means to be a man.For me, this exploration started with "The Mosquito Coast," which I read in 1981, and which has haunted me ever since.From the beginning of "Blinding Light" I saw similarities between Steadman and Allie Fox, the protagonist of "The Mosquito Coast."They are both so sure of themselves, so full of themselves, yet so isolated from the rest of humanity.Each believes he is the only living person who has the Answer to the Human Condition, and each wants nothing whatsoever to do with anyone "less fortunate" than them.In "Mosquito Coast," Allie ("Father") is a tree-hugger inventor/farmer.I believe his children are home-schooled.His idea of freedom, which he preaches to his wife and kids with every breath he takes, lies in returning to the "natural" state of things.He constantly declares to his wife and children, "If it can't be grown here, I have no use for it!"Except, evidently, for the hydrogen and nitrogen and other chemicals he arranges to have shipped to South America when he moves his family there in order to build a giant freezer in the middle of the equatorial rain forest!How different is Steadman's journey?

Like Allie, Steadman is an introvert-snob; he knows he's smarter than 99.9% of the people on the planet.He also knows he's a fraud.His incredibly successful travel book was a complete fluke, an experience nobody, including Steadman, could ever consciously reproduce.To his credit, he definitely tries; he spends 10 years trying to come up with a "great, new" idea, to no avail.One day he hears of a "mind-altering" drug that can only be experienced in the jungles of South America, and he's convinced that it is the only thing that will produce a breakthrough, the subject of which will inevitably become his next book.

It turns out that Steadman is right.The mind-altering drug he finds in the jungle DOES actually transport him to "see" things as he has never seen them before.And it DOES produce fodder for his next book.But, as we all know, there are no free lunches.The insight and vision Steadman receives comes at a price.

In allegorical terms, this book can be seen as the tale of the Garden of Eden: given the gift of the fruit of KNOWLEDGE, how will you use it?Steadman uses it to hob-knob with presidents and celebrities and act like a complete arrogant, idiotic schmuck!Just like Allie Fox.In Allie's case, the fruit of Knowledge was his own brain, but he used it in the same arrogant, idiotic, BLIND way.

Some of the reviewers of this book have objected to the lame attempt at erotica.They are right - but I think it's intentional.My reading of the book is that it's ANTI-erotica.It's satirical.It's making fun of Steadman's belief that it's erotic.

... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Not an enjoyable read
I didn't enjoy Picture Palace for a number of reasons. The first reason was that the main character is quite distasteful. She is arrogant, aggressive and lacking in any charm.I can understand that sometimes authors like to create distasteful characters, but usually they would do that for some point.The disagreeable nature of Maude Pratt does not seem to have any point.

Also the underlying plot is quite distasteful. Maude Pratt dreams of having a sexual relationship with Orlando.The only problem is Orlando is her brother.While Maude does not actually realise her fantasy, Phoebe does end up having a sexual relationship with Orlando.However, Phoebe is Maude and Orlando's sister.Also Orlando breaks up with his fiancee Blanche, after Maude tells Orlando that Blanche had an incestuous relationship with her brother, which was untrue.You probably get the picture.

I particularly didn't like the way Theroux discusses incest, through Maude, in the book.His narrative appears to be quite a sustained defence of the entire idea of incest as an acceptable way of life. Personally, I think it is pretty clear that incest is not a defensible life style.

The most interesting aspect of the book is the descriptions of the various people who Maude photographs - including Graham Green, Aldous Huxley, Picasso, Thomas Mann, Ezra Pound, Evelyn Waugh and William Faulkner. Theroux describes these various individuals in a way which suggests he had some insights into what these people were really like. Needless to say that some of the descriptions are not very complimentary - for example his description of Robert Frost is very negative.

My recommendation is give this one a miss.

A Shame It's Out-of-Print
Though I doubt it will be for long.This is quite possibly Theroux's most ambitious project in straight *fiction*, and it's extremely well-written and well-crafted.The "voice" of the elderly female narrator is at times just a bit unconvincing, but as a novelist, Theroux isn't at all what one might think from his numerous "travel" books--this is riveting and almost shocking, and quite vivid.

Finally, Theroux is one of those few novelists (Iris Murdoch and Robertson Davies come to mind) who seamlessly weaves a large amount of knowledge, history and culture into his narratives.In its way, this is also one of the finest books on photography ever written.I encourage you to find a copy--there's something here for those who like literary fiction, vivid description and...an excellent story.

A very strange book
The premise for this novel resides in the main character's desire to bed her brother.Her desire for him motivates her life and thinking; her brilliant career in photography serves only as a means to gain his respect and um, affection.Sadly, the other sister wins the brother's favors.Our heroine avoids a complete breakdown but does contract hysterical blindness when she learns the awful truth.Theroux sets up a Conradesque narrative framework, and the female narrator often launches into some turgid prose detailing the passionate vagaries of her inner life. What struck me was the incestual motivation for her great work so admired by others.A commentary on the creation of art, its basis not necessarily as pure as we'd like to imagine?

A brilliant novel in many respects, I only subtract a star due to the (in my opinion, of course) overblown nature of some of Maude's rantings.Perhaps that was part of the point -- her visceral passion.

A Story of Love, Photography, and Cape Cod
This is one of my favorite books. Whereas Theroux often has a hard time depicting love convincingly and sometimes doesn't even try, I found the unrequited love between brother and sister in this book to be fierce and intensely tragic. The historical backdrop of the development of photography is brilliantly conceived and realized, as is the ongoing dialogue of the old woman, retired, reliving her past on Cape Cod. In many ways uncharacteristic of Theroux's brash, egocentric style, this book uses a strong feminine voice that evokes a very unforgettable personality. Good fun to read ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (26)

Americans in India Learn and Change
Interesting stories involving Americans in India (confession: I just read the first two and skipped the last one).

The main story n the second one, from which comes the title of the book. An American lawyer goes (practically kicking and screaming) to India. The guy is a real jerk. Then he starts feeling that he "belongs" in India - meanwhile he is running around with child prostitutes, eating Indian food, contemplating Indian philosophy - the guy has clearly changed; but he's still a jerk. An even bigger jerk to be honest. I thought, "where is he going with this?"

Well, the conclusion is tremendously gratifying.

The first story had a similar theme to the second with a sad ending.

Penetrating View of Modern India
The novellas in this book are uncomfortably clear and sometimes the picture is not pretty.In a nutshell, the stories concern how Americans and Indians interact with each other and while there is redemption and nobility in places, there also is sleaze and rank opportunism.But what this book does best of all is portray India in all its facets.Upon completion, you'll feel like you've just spent about a year in this fascinating country.It's been a long time since I read Theroux -- an oversight I intend to correct by reading many of his other books.

India: what you see; what you only guess
Powerful stories. There is a lot in them of what we western foreigners see when travelling in India, and a lot of what most of us only guess. After reading the three stories even your own memories are somehow changed. I have read quite a few books about India, fiction and non fiction, and this one is by far one of the most uncomfortable, and beautiful, though!

Do not feel discouraged about going to experience the country after reading this book, as some reviewers say; on the contrary, it will help you understand what makes India so fascinating.

On the other hand, the book is beautifully written and paced, and in my opinion it is good literature. It will surely leave most readers with something to reflect upon.

Message undermines the medium
The Elephanta Suite serves as a well written and easily digested (albeit unpleasant and disturbing) warning to those who would attempt to get a close-up view of India. However, Theroux's apparent need to steer his characters in directions that will deliver this message works against the quality of the fiction.

Innocents abroad
This is my first Paul Theroux experience and even though I can now see how he is as much acclaimed as a travel writer as a straight novelist, reading this book left me with a feeling of great unease and just a bit scared. This trilogy of very loosely connected characters, reveals how India with all of her ancient mysteries, deals with westerners whose young eagerly try to become devotees of mystic religions, living in ashrams, chanting and dressing in the local style. The first story concerns a married, middle aged couple who plan to have a short, relaxing stay at a spa run by a holy man, where the massages, music and perfumed oils cause them to drift into a state of lethargy which causes sexual desires to emerge. The second story involves an American businessman who falls into the sexual clutches of a young woman who uses him solely for financial reasons and the third and the most powerful to my mind is the story of a young, well educated American woman who befriends an elephant and his mahout, while being terrorised by a young Indian man and the complex processes of Indian law..this last one scared the living daylights out of me. Theroux's descriptions of Indian cities with their wealthy upper classes speaking a form of "Raj" English and the poverty striken beggars in the gutters are almost terrifying in their reality and made me realise that I'd rather read about India than experience it first hand. ... Read more

Product Description
Hood, a renegade American diplomat, envisions a new urban order through the opium fog of his room. His sometimes bedmate, Mayo, has stolen a Flemish painting and is negotiating for publicity with "The Times". Murf the bomb-maker leaves his mark in red whilst his girlfriend Brodie bombs Euston. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

a more hopeful Secret Agent
Theroux is reprising Conrad's Secret Agent.The hero, Valentine Hood, is originally a US Consul in VietNam, but quits in disgust after punching a leading Vietnamese politician for saying "These people aren't worth it."Hood is hiding in London, trying to get in with the Irish Provos to bring down the 'Establishment.' The ultimate explosion and shooting deaths destroy only anarchists and their materiel.That sketch is essentially Conrad's Secret Agent as well, but Conrad's story held nothing but stupidity and pointless scheming.The world is hopeless, and the only thing worse than the establishment running it is the nincompoops trying to destroy it.Theroux, on the other hand, offers some hope, based on the family unit, and on normal people who can tell the difference between struggling to make life better, vs. just blabbing about it.
Theroux makes no secret of his take on the Secret Agent; he mentions it explicitly several times, and refers to characters from it an additional few times.Theroux's plot is as full of impossible coincidences as A Midsummer Night's Dream, but he doesn't pretend to be serious about that part.. it's very entertaining to watch him weave all the characters together in one big net.
My personal choice of sentence quotes:"Sex, an expression of freedom, made you less free: the penalty of freedom was a reverie of loneliness."The warmth and feeling of "family" are woven throughout the book.

Gripping Tale of London's Poor Laced With Violence
Without question, Paul Theroux has been among our most astute observers of human nature writing in the English language. In "The Family Arsenal", a terse, compelling look at crime in London's slums, Paul Theroux takes an unflinching, often brutal, look at the interplay between adverse poverty and crime. Furthermore he adds to this compelling mixture an intriguing look at IRA terrorism being waged on the streets of London. All of this is told through vivid, well-crafted prose. Fans of Paul Theroux's work will not be disappointed with his latest fictional excursion into an abyss of contemporary Western society.

From the dark side of life...
Theroux has always been an unflinching narrator on human nature. With a novel like Mosquito Coast he gave you a look at the mind of a genius and his estrangement to materialism. With The Family Arsenal, Theroux gives you a look at the close knit troubles of family life in the slums of London, and the frightening results of sudden violence that can arrupt at any moment. A haunting portrait of a society on the downward trend towards hell on earth. ... Read more

Product Description
A reign of terror begins for Alfred and Emma Munday when they take their failing marriage to the solace of an old country house. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

A fine American entry in the English ghost story tradition.
English anthropologist Alfred Munday has returned to his homeland for health reasons after a decade in Uganda studying the Bwamba tribe.Frustrated by this forced change in his life, Munday finds himself unable to begin preparing his research for publication.His marriage sits on precarious ground, and he and his wife have just taken on a domestic disaster: the home they leased site-unseen--Bowood House, "the Black House" to locals--is ruinous, inhospitable, and apparently haunted.Munday's superior, intellectual airs quickly alienate the couple from their neighbors in the town of Four Ashes.Then the beautiful Caroline appears, and she initiates a torrid, reckless affair with Munday, whose old troubles are quickly exchanged for new ones.

There is a prevailing tone of despair, even damnation, to Paul Theroux's ghost story, THE BLACK HOUSE.Munday is a pathetic creature, a surly egoist unable to make or keep friends or to fill his roles as husband and scholar.He allows the trappings of his identity slowly to be stripped away until he is only a shadow of his formerly serious and professional self.He invites an African acquaintance to Four Ashes for a visit, but Munday, under the influence of this growing malaise, becomes suddenly embarrassed by the very sight of the man and abuses him at every turn.Though clearly he needs no help at it, some of his new neighbors are more than willing to aid Munday's decline: while giving a presentation at a local church about his anthropological work in Africa, a valuable and dangerous Bwamba artifact is stolen from him; the theft drives Munday to distraction, sensing that if he should ever see the object again it will not be under happy circumstances.The great irony which unfolds over the course of the novel is that this anthropologist, who considers it his vocation to make one African tribe comprehensible to the outside world, cannot himself adapt to the simple community of Four Ashes.In placing himself above small town life, Munday rejects the basic principals of social integration, thus making himself ideal prey for the mysterious Caroline.

The quality of Theroux's writing and the dark mix of psychology, intense sensuality, and metaphysical unease place THE BLACK HOUSE in the estimable company of Richard Adams' THE GIRL IN A SWING and Robert Aickman's "strange stories."This is a territory in which unexpected and inexplicable episodes drive the narrative: Munday glimpses two mutilated dogs under a tarp in a local man's garden; a woman applying for a maid's position at Bowood House leaves information leading the Mundays to the wrong address; the scorching eroticism of Caroline's surprise visits threaten to leave the Mundays' home in flames.Such incidents accumulate over the course of the novel, tempered by Theroux's cool but entrancing prose.From this grows a palpable tension that--perhaps in keeping with its nature--never actually resolves.One almost anticipates the novel's vague, indecipherable ending, a point at which Theroux compels his readers to share, for a moment, Munday's banishment to a maddening limbo.

Really boring....
This is the first book that I have read by Paul Theroux. I am generally a Stephen King reader but unfortunally my English teacher does not allow him for a book report. Anyways, I had an oral presentation to do today on The Black House, and since this book didn't catch my intrest, I only read to page 25. Come on! I was falling asleep. I still give all regards to the author but I just couldn't stand the boring lit.

Dreadfully boring
I could only bear the first 110 pages.I can't stand reading anymore.Argh!I gave it this much time of my life because he is a renowned author and deserved some respect, but, one can only take so much boredom.Sorryto all the Theroux lovers.

Not impressed
I love Paul Theroux, I've read most of his work, but this cruelly disappoints. He can write great fiction : look at The Family Arsenal, but this is not great fiction. I couldn't get into the book at all, thecharacters didn't grab me, the plot seemed forced, and the sex scenestowards the close of the book seemed almost to be there to encourage thereader to actually finish the book. Disappointed.

Good luck in your efferts to create a truly the black house
achilles heel -not truly the black hous ... Read more

Product Description
Thoreau's classic account of his meditative, beach-combing walking trips to Cape Cod in the early 1850s, reflecting on the elemental forces of the sea. With an introduction by Paul Theroux. This is one of the first titles in Penguin's new Nature Library series. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

MAKE SURE YOU BUY THE CORRECT EDITION
This is a comment about the edition rather than the book:

I bought this edition based on the review about the very helpful index.Please be careful about what edition you are actually buying.Many of these reviews are about different editions.I bought the BiblioLife paperback book with a picture of the green bicycle on the cover. I just received it and there is NO INDEX.

It looks like the original text from an original printing (with smaller physical dimensions) was photocopied page by page and put into this paperback book.This will do the trick but I am a little disappointed and wish I had bought a different edition.

It is confusing on amazon because when you click "look inside" it shows an index, with a tiny note saying the "look inside" refers to a different edition.

Our History, in a very readable format
Cape Cod, by Henry David Thoreau, a book review

Reading Cape Cod is like visiting with a distant relative or a fond acquaintance.Thoreau, who we have all heard about for most of our lives, rarely lectures or preaches on these pages.The chapters ramble through a Cape Cod of yesteryear and are comprised of articles and journal entries from Thoreau's walking holidays in 1849, 1850, 1855, and 1857.He describes the countryside, the tame and wild vegetation (complete with botanical names), architecture, people, food, farms, ships, fishing, economic activity, and everything else that presents itself to his view.

While Thoreau waxes poetic, and even philosophical, from time to time, this reads like a casual travel log, albeit from a very learned and intelligent scholar.The text includes quotes in a variety of languages, including Latin, Greek, and French, which are notall translated.Those looking for uncommon quotes are sure to find a few juicy tidbits.If you are looking for encouragement for reading the Christian Bible, exhortations against organized religion, or beautiful thoughts on nature and solitude, you will definitely find them here.

What I found most fascinating, is the ecological destruction that had already occurred in the area.Some native shellfish had been nearly wiped out, and "seed stock" was being imported from other areas.Trees no longer reached the height that they had originally grown, crop land was no longer as productive, and erosion was enough of a problem that the government had stepped in with programs and regulations.Thoreau documents that the people blamed "Providence"--meaning the Creator--when their crops or natural resources failed them.It seems it never occurred to them that their own actions might be detrimental to their environment.

Thoreau also documents the thinking about the ocean and its resources back in those days.Even he sees the ocean as nearly infinite and unlimited.This thinking is reflected in the fisheries and especially in the take on what they called "blackfish." The "blackfish" is a small whale, or perhaps a dolphin, with a blunt shaped head.Schools of these creatures are chased aground by men and boys in small boats.They are then murdered for their blubber and left to rot.Thoreau asks one of the "fishermen" if the meat is good to eat, and the fishermen replies that he prefers it to beef--when it is fresh.Thoreau's only comment on this waste is that the poor soil needs the nutrients that this "manure" supplies.

The edition that I read, which was arranged with notes by Dudley C. Lunt and was published by W. W. Norton & Company in 1951, contains a history of Cape Code in the appendix.This history, written by Thoreau, is rambling and disjointed, but worth reading.We all know that we have been sold a bill of goods in regards to Plymouth and the Pilgrims.A close reading of this history emphasizes just what a good sales job it was.The first thing that really grabbed me is the fact that three prior successful, permanent, European settlements had been established in North America (before Plymouth);one in Florida,--one I believe he said--in New Mexico, and one in Nova Scotia.(The one in Florida I have read something about before.When doing some research on the first Thanksgiving I ran across an article about a Florida town that claims it was celebrating Thanksgiving before the Pilgrims even thought of coming to the "New World.")Thoreau also documents early Viking and French visits to the area, and quotes texts that claim European people had been fishing in or near Cape Cod for many hundredsof years before "America" was "discovered."

Anyone researching the history of the East Coast, New England, or early contact between the two continents will find this a rewarding read.Thoreau sites the documents he quotes and others that may contain valuable information.However, you don't have to be a scholar or a student with a project to enjoy this book.Anyone with an interest in sustainability, history, botany, or the writing of Thoreau will be enriched by the time spent between these pages.

A Beautiful Book
I have the Princeton Classic edition (1988; 2004), but the text is essentially the same.Thoreau is at his best here in his descriptions of nature and the people inhabiting this (then) difficult place.The book really is a paean to the Sea...Thoreau is awed by its power and beauty.Much of the work tends to be descriptions of the sea or its influence on the land.More than once he mentions that one is never far from the noise of the breakers or the winds.He also discusses man's influence on the land (usually negative), yet how mankind is still dwarfed by the power of the sea.Even if you are not a Thoreau fan, read this.It makes for a good read on a cold winter's night.

Travel to the cape with Thoreau
(My review is on Thoreau's Cape Cod rather than this specific edition).

While some literary critics seem to slight this work by Thoreau, saying that it is not as "powerful" as his other works, etc., I personally find this one very enjoyable. Sure, it does not have as much "philosophizing" as other books by him, but it is full of humor and very fun to read. The part where he describes the old man spitting into the hearth is particularly hilarious. The part about him sleeping in a lighthouse is also very funny. It lets us experience the more jovial side of Thoreau. This is probably one of the easiest to read among Thoreau's books.

Published posthumously, this volume is surprisingly consistent and complete (unlike "The Maine Woods" which is chopped into three different parts), it gives one the feel of walking along the entire cape, although the materials are quarried from several different trips. One only wish Thoreau had lived longer and had seen the West, imagine him taking a trip in the Sierra! Oh, well, meanwhile, we still have this one to enjoy.

BEST EDITION AVAILABLE, BY FAR
This hardcover edition from Peninsula Press is unquestionably the best available edition of Thoreau's Cape Cod, for these reasons:

1) While all other editions are based on Thoreau's journal entries from only his first three visits to the Cape, this edition includes an epilogue compiling Thoreau's notes from his fourth and final visit, in which he traveled south to Chatham and Monomoy.

2) This is the only edition to translate the many, many Greek and Latin phrases Thoreau includes throughout the work, and it is also the only edition to provide illustrations, maps, and sidenotes in-text.

3) This is the only indexed edition ever created.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for fans of both Cape literature and Thoreau in general. ... Read more

Product Description
In this unique and hugely entertaining railway odyssey, Theroux vividly recounts his travels--and the people, places, and landscapes he encountered--on the Orient Express, the Khyber Mail, and the Trans-Siberian Express, through such countries as Turkey, Iran, India, Southeast Asia, Japan, and the Soviet Union. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (36)

Made me a fan of travel literature
The Great Railway Bazaar is a unique book, to me. I can't say exactly what is so interesting about it - maybe the variety of situations, scenarios and stuff. I could really see myself inside old trains among the lavish vegetation of India or Southestern Asia, the rough sea between Russia and Japan, or the Middle Eastern deserts. I've tried, but up to now I haven't found a book as interesting as this one.

The journey is the destination
In The Great Railway Bazaar, the journey is the destination for Paul Theroux. Not concerned with checking off sites in a guidebook, Theroux winds his way across Asia and back again by train. I have often contemplated a similar venture. I believe it forces us to look away from the tourist sites and forces interaction with the people and customs that make up a culture, if only to pass the time.

By doing so, Theroux encounters a wide cast of characters that are interesting and able to bring out some ugliness in the author. However, this is all too human. That's what makes this book, and Theroux's other travel work special.

I see him as the antithesis to the hosts of shows like Globe Trekker, who can't stop from smiling and enjoying the job the producers of the show have done to get them into situations the average traveler mostly won't encounter. Where was the crap they had to deal with? Did they ever get mad at anyone? Did they ever get hassled? If the answer is yes, we never see it. But, Theroux adds all that to his work. I think that is the truth of travel, and is a better guide than most guidebooks around.

This was the third travel book I have read of Theroux's and I wonder how I would have liked it if it was my first. With the other two (Old Patagonia Express and Dark Star Safari) you can tell he is a much more mature, if still misanthropic writer. I think I still would have enjoyed it, because it is a truthful narrative of a traveler on a long-term adventure with an unsure end. Perhaps that what makes this book so open and raw.

I highly recommend The Great Railway Bazaar. It is a great travel narrative that provides some historical insight into train travel in Asia due to the changes that have occurred since the author wrote it.

Grumpy Travels of a Fine Writer

I recently read Ghost Train to the Eastern Star (which re-creates the trip described in The Great Railway Bazaar and comments on the earlier trip). Although I thought that the writing is better and more interesting in The Great Railway Bazaar, this book lacks the perspective on writing that makes Ghost Train to the Eastern Star special for authors.

For many years, I traveled across the United States by slow trains (on a free pass) over 72 hours. I was always glad to have the trip end . . . except for that one time I met an interesting young woman (but that's a story for another time).

I would find the kind of trip that Mr. Theroux describes to be unendurable. It's not surprising that he did, too. And that spoils much of the potential fun of this book.

He is fixated on giving you more than you ever wanted to know about bad meals, poor ticket-buying experiences, missing visas, getting drunk, poor sanitary facilities, and unpleasant companions. Mr. Theroux takes himself very seriously. That's too bad. A little humor about his situation would have helped.

From Ghost Train to the Eastern Star, it's not hard to know why: His marriage was falling apart and he couldn't really afford the trip. All I can say is that his problems show.

Imagine instead that a poor person had been granted this same opportunity: It would have been like a magic carpet ride. Unfortunately, you take yourself with you when you are a travel writer.

There are some good moments in the book. Occasionally, Mr. Theroux has enough knowledge about a country and its people to use his journey to comment in a helpful way about the culture. Most Americans will be fascinated to read about South Vietnam after American troops had pulled out and before the final reunification by force. In the early going, a fellow traveler makes the mistake of spending a little too much time at a station . . . with consequences that Mr. Theroux has some fun with.

Japanese people may not like the portrait that Mr. Theroux displays of their nation. It has little to do with railways and railway travel.

Fans of India, by contrast, may enjoy his relative enthusiasm for that populous and challenging nation.

Sometimes the material isn't in the best of taste. I didn't really need to read about his investigation of the ladies-for-hire offerings in an Asian country.

Good, but...
I enjoyed this book for its wonderful sensuosity, but found the author's superior and condescending tone frustrating.I found myself wondering why on Earth he took the trip if he wasn't going to at least try to appreciate the people and cultures he visited?Still, he took me on a journey I'll probably make myself and, while Theroux may not have relished the adventure, I did.

GENTEEL VOYEURS
It hardly needs repeating that Paul Theroux is an exceptionally gifted writer. Moreover, this is a very skilfully written story, full of original and acute perceptions put across with wit and point. Theroux recounts a series of train journeys, interspersed with boat trips or aeroplane links where the rail option is not available, as for instance when making a sea crossing or in railless Afghanistan. In the course of this journey he has a number of lecturing engagements, presumably arranged in advance, for which I assume (although he does not say so) that he received a fee. I assume also that what took him away from his home and family for so many long months was not just the enjoyment of rail travel that he owns up to, but financial recompense for the book that he intended to publish as a record of his trip.

Earning an honest living by writing, and by travel writing in particular, is a worthy and honourable pursuit. However when the people represented in the story are real people, and the incidents are true occurrences, and the statements recorded are what people really said, there are to my way of thinking certain standards of taste and propriety that should be carefully adhered to. Personal records of travel and encounters along the way are presented impeccably in, say, Germaine Greer's `Daddy We Hardly Knew You' or in Peter Hessler's River Town and Oracle Bones. In these narratives the authors have reasons for being where they are and for meeting who they meet. These are accounts of research, investigation and exploration from which the books are a spin-off. They have not just taken a trip with a view to parading whoever they might happen to meet before the public at large, which is really what Theroux is doing here. Was the permission of Mr Duffill or Mr Molesworth sought before their statements and actions were made public? I doubt it somehow, but my idea of propriety doesn't even necessarily require that. The parties reported sympathetically by Dr Greer obviously knew what she was doing, but the personae she disliked would not have been consulted about what she intended to say about that them, and that is fine by me. What I am not happy about is going out on a fishing trip and subsequently dangling the fish on a line to be gawped at or derided. Some instances are worse than others. It is not particularly offensive to pillory the downmarket press of any country, such as the Indian weekly `Blitz' which informed him regarding some rowdy individual that `He was high and headstrong...Hurled abuse at some and then fisted a guest', in which the last verb is not used in a more recent sense but means `punched'. I also can't deny that I was amused (rather guiltily) at the clever representation of his Japanese host's offer to show him the local Tiergarten `You want to see tzu?' `What kind of tzu?' `Wid enemas'. Very smart, very clever, but coming from someone who spoke no Japanese more than a little patronising and de haut en bas.

I think it is perhaps the chapter on Japan that brings out in particular the slight sense of distaste I feel for this book. Theroux recounts at some length and with some particularity erotic shows and publications patronised by placid-seeming middle-class Japanese. I confess I find the shows as he describes them somewhat disgusting, but in a rather detached way. What revolts me more acutely is the spectacle of the audiences themselves, and that brings to the fore in my mind the nature of Theroux's own narration. What exactly is he doing there in the first place? He is another audience on the next tier. Does he have some mission to tell the world about all this? Is he engaged in academic research? None of that, and he does at least show awareness of the issue, admitting that he is a bit of a drone amusing himself idly and in the process making rather free with other people's privacy for the entertainment of a paying public.

All that said, the book still has plenty to recommend it. I felt that the later chapters are better than the earlier, which have too much sense about them of `oh look at these people doing these things' and `this guy said this three-quarter's of a page worth to me'. There was a sharp improvement starting with the chapter on Singapore, where Theroux's trenchant comments seem to me to be not only valid in themselves but also to satisfy one of my own requirements from a book of this kind by offering analysis and generalisation rather than just random detail. Also, the book was written in the early 1970's, and so is a reminder of an epoch. This was pre-junta Burmah, for instance. It was the time of the cold war. South Africa was still under apartheid although the availability of the industrial capacity of the Japanese obtained for them the status of `white' from Mr Botha or whoever was in charge in South Africa at the time in question. Above all, it was the time of the war in Vietnam, and the vignettes of that ravaged nation as recounted by so talented and independent a storyteller made a vivid impression on one reader at least.

At one point Theroux comments that travel narratives turn into autobiography. The books I have instanced by Greer and Hessler are certainly autobiography and rightly so. I only wish this book had practised what it preaches. Theroux gives away comparatively little about himself apart from his participation in a few dialogues, the purpose of which is largely to pillory his interlocutors, and I particularly miss precisely this sense of personal development which he himself says one should expect.

There is next to nothing for railway geeks, but if I remember one thing above all from the book, it is the tantalising semi-description of the viaduct at Gokteik in Burmah. ... Read more

Product Description
Library edition, 16 audio cassettes, approximately 23 hours. Narrated by Norman Dietz. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (21)

too long but it has its moments
Some of it is quite well done - how blindness as a choice (because of the drugs he consumes) at first is seen as empowering but eventually becomes a disability when he can no longer control it, the cameo appearances by Clinton, the satire on rich eco tourists, the ego of the main character and so on. But at the end of the day the book is too long and repetitious for anyone except hard core fans - hard core Theroux that is, not pornography. The sex scenes everyone seems to be getting all flushed about are a bit limp really. This book was a worthy candidates for the "bad sex in fiction award" -
[...]

Worst Paul Theroux ever?
I too have been a fan of Theroux for a long time. This book, however, was a major disappointment. Another reviewer had it right when they said it was a poorly written porno novel. No thank you, and his depiction of the doctor character, even though she does deal him a bit of his own "medicine" at the end, is flat and misogynistic.

Disappointing
While I enjoy Theroux's ascerbic travel commentaries, I have always had more problems with his novels, and that is certainly true of his latest effort.
The whole plot is quite contrived and from the moment that the narrator starts experimenting with datura the end result is pretty predictable.
There are some interesting set-pieces, including some very perceptive encounters with Bill Clinton (never actually identified in the novel)but in between those entertaining passages I found myself flipping pages of material that had simply become boring and repetitive.
I found his main female companion, a doctor no less! was simply a cypher who seemed to play along with all of the narrator's sexual fantasies, no matter how infantile. At times I wanted to shake her but then reminded myself that she was just a figment of the narrator's ( author's)overwrought sexual passions, including what can only be described as an obsession with oral sex.
At no point in the novel was I ever persuaded that the narrator had gained any insights from his consumption of the drug.Towards the end I rushed to finish it and ultimately was left with an empty, unsatisfied feeling.
Theroux?There's nothing wrong with being a travel writer...please stop trying to be something else.

A new Blindness giving A new Vision ,
The story is simple,inducing temporary blindness might give you another
plane of Vision- accepting that blind persons have augmentation of other sensory perceptions- this temporary blindness might give new 'light'and a new vision for ourselves,present,past and future?

His prose is as usual scintillating,and the flashbacks to earlier
life show human sexuality at times beyond imagination.

In fact its so uncannily well done I fear Mr Theroux must be an extraordinarily experienced lover,I was a bit envious of the main character, but as a mix of fantasy and reality this made aremarkable
novel, novel.

So thats my personal opinion, Theroux is a brilliant writer,and this is not a travel book

But beware,do NOT read if you haveprudish tastes or dislike fantasy as part of normal healthy human behaviour!

Faust
No one else has mentioned that this is a retelling of the Faust legend, so I thought I'd add this note.
The story had me completely absorbed.So much so that I felt used up after reading it.It rang true with me emotionally and afterwards I guess I was a bit frightened that I was so absorbed in this character who was, after all, making a deal with the devil.
However, most retellings of the Faust story do sympathize with the soul that wants more than we're normally allotted in this life. ... Read more

Product Description
Spencer Savage, the hero in Theroux's The Consul File, savors the endless treasure trove of British characters and misplaced Americans in "the last habitable city" - London.A vengeful Arab, a newly impoverished aristocrat, a male embassy employee who sports an earring and dozens of other richly imagined portraits complete this marvelous tale of surprise and adventure, of private passions and public follies. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A minor US diplomat is posted to London
This is a book that has gone out of print. Secondhand it is available for as little as 0.01 euro. Brr.
Paul Theroux (PT)'s The London Embassy TLE) is a collection of 18 interconnected short stories, almost a novel, describing Spencer Savage(SS), formerly US Consul in a Malaysian backwater, in his new role as Political Officer in the US embassy in London. Unlike the stories in The Consul's File about his Asian dealings and encounters with spirits and real people, none of SS's adventures in TLE have been previously published in magazines or literary journals. Six years separate the two books. For PT, TLE has probably been a slow work in progress, while researching and writing real travels books and substantial novels.
In the London embassy SS is a PO-1 (the PO-2's are spooks) and his responsibilities are many but ill-defined. SS is an excellent observer and resourceful operator, who has to deal with awkward issues within and beyond the walls of the embassy. Having spent so much time in Africa and Asia, SS's initial reaction to London is pure awe: where else in the world can one walk for miles in a metropolis without stumbling on a slum? TLE contains good, great and lesser stories. A constant factor is PT's eye and ear for situations and dialogue, his nose for atmosphere and smells, and his talent to describe and let people talk.
Paul Theroux (PT) is an impossibly productive and versatile author who has long been a role model for thousands of more sedentary, now greying males, and perhaps some females too: he joined and left the Peace Corps in his twenties. He subsequently entered and left the garden of academia to embark on travelling and writing novels. He has been producing books and journalistic work about every country he lived in or passed through until this day. And who does not like his son Louis, a charismatic underdog TV documentary maker/interpreter of the soul of the United States?
Unless I am wrong, TLE is the only book where PT granted a comeback to an earlier book's hero. More recently, PT successfully re-applied the format of interlinked stories becoming a novel in Hotel Honolulu.

London Embassy
Paul Theroux is probably best known as a travel writer and the author/creator of such films as "The Mosquito Coast" and "Half Moon Street." First person narrative of an American foreign service official who has been posted to London. A biting, sarcastic, and satirical series of stories.

Fun in the foreign service
While written in 1983, this book is not at all dated.Paul Theroux invents a collection of bizarre characters associated in some way with an Anerican foreign service officer serving in the American embassy in London.The stories are hilarious, satiric, or touching.Theroux is a great author. ... Read more

Product Description
In the travel-writing tradition that made Paul Theroux"s reputation, Dark Star Safari is a rich and insightful book whose itinerary is Africa, from Cairo to Cape Town: down the Nile, through Sudan and Ethiopia, to Kenya, Uganda, and ultimately to the tip of South Africa. Going by train, dugout canoe, "chicken bus," and cattle truck, Theroux passes through some of the most beautiful — and often life-threatening — landscapes on earth.
This is travel as discovery and also, in part, a sentimental journey. Almost forty years ago, Theroux first went to Africa as a teacher in the Malawi bush. Now he stops at his old school, sees former students, revisits his African friends. He finds astonishing, devastating changes wherever he goes. "Africa is materially more decrepit than it was when I first knew it," he writes, "hungrier, poorer, less educated, more pessimistic, more corrupt, and you can"t tell the politicians from the witch doctors. Not that Africa is one place. It is an assortment of motley republics and seedy chiefdoms. I got sick, I got stranded, but I was never bored. In fact, my trip was a delight and a revelation."
Seeing firsthand what is happening across Africa, Theroux is as obsessively curious and wittily observant as always, and his readers will find themselves on an epic and enlightening journey. Dark Star Safari is one of his bravest and best books. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (68)

Good
Theroux is usually pretty dead on in his
travel books. This one is no exception,
the only parts of these books that are boring
or irritating is when he meets other authors
or describes his unbelievable talents...he speaks
fluent mandarin spanish arabic and swahili and and
and... But these really don't detract from the
books. He is not sex obsessed in this book thank
heavens.
In this book he sucks up to some leftie author
in Johannesburg he gets his kharmic due for that
as you will see in the ending.

One of Theroux's finest books
I have read just about all of Paul Theroux's travel books and I find them consistently informative and enjoyable.Certainly it is a personal vision and selective.He focuses a lot on places where he lived and worked in Africa in previous years.He was a Peace Corps volunteer in Malawi in the first years when much of Africa became newly independent nations.He alludes to his expulsion as an undesirable alien when he gets mixed up in the politics in that country and his relocation to Uganda in the 1960's. But he doesn't repeat himself.If you want the full story on that episode you should read "The Killing of Hastings Banda" in his collection "Sunrise for Seamonsters".

Nevertheless it is a personal memoir.He does not presume to comment on the whole of Africa, just the parts he saw and experienced.This is not, for example about west Africa at all but follows the great rift valley down the Nile and all the way to Cape Town.As a kind of reporter, world literature is his beat. He visits Nadine Gortimer in Johannesburg and Naguib Mahfouz in Cairo, both Nobel Prize Laureates for Literature. He also focuses on the people he meets across Africa, not so much the scenery or the animal life, and is kind of the anti-tourist.His adventures are in some ways the travails of travel, for example, the trouble he had getting a visa to visit the Sudan, the constant pestering of white people for baksheeh or just handouts.He avoids (for the most part) the luxury and insulated comfort travel of the tourist.He goes by land if at all possible and in some danger (for example, bandits in southern Ethiopia, reckless minibus drivers in Tanzania).He waits and waits for a boat to take him from Uganda across Lake Victoria to Tanzania and finally gets passage on an train ferry which did not usually take regular passengers at all.He is continually warned away from certain places because "There are bad people there" but almost always goes anyway.This is a bit worrisome but apparently not for Theroux.One half expects to read in the paper some day of his final disappearance from the earth someday like Ambrose Bierce disappeared into Mexico.

As he said "All news from Africa is bad" and you sense that one reason he visited Africa after the interval of thirty years or so, was to see what was happening on the ground.With the devastating AIDS epidemic and the replacement of colonialism with native corruption, it is not an entirely uplifting story.At the same time humanitarian aid, in Theroux's opinion has not been a success, but instead has fostered a culture of corruption, hypocrisy, and dependency.The schools and the libraries that were built with foreign help have fallen into disrepair, the books stolen and sold. You see whole nations getting by on duct tape and a prayer as the infrastructure, largely built with outside help, falls apart. You also see a continent of desperate poverty where the natural resources, the trees and land are being gradually destroyed by the ever present human exploitation. It makes one wonder if what has been gained by the seemingly inevitable westernization of Africa is not much less than what has been lost.

In short it is a thought provoking journey through Africa, unsparing as always towards the absurdities and tragedies of a still rather dark continent.

Get to Know Africa
An amazing story of a journey from the top to bottom of Africa. Very little joy here but it sounds sadly real. An extraordinary description of apartment building with people dumping their waste onto the road, young prostitutes, and goals not met.

Engrossing ...
I have always liked travelers who like traveling on a whim and who can spontaneously react to a travel urges. And, if the traveler is as erudite, well-traveled and hypercritical as Paul, then the resulting sojourn will enthrall readers with delectable prose that covers a wide spectrum of topics ranging from spiritual journeys, solitude, despair, sublime happiness, humor to socio-politics. Very few travelers seem to have some many facets.

His epic journey takes him through Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and South Africa. The chapter covering his visit to the Dervishes in Omdurman and highlands of Harar are particularly noteworthy. His prose takes on a surreal quality and you won't be able to avoid the vivid imagery from flashing in your mind. Then, suddenly he survives an attack from Shifta bandits on the notoriously-named Bandit Road. Equally hilarious are his interactions with (what he calls) agents of virtues missionaries and aid-workers. One of the best interactions is with a Portuguese-speaking agent of virtue from Ohio who is serving in Mozambique and exacerbating the poor people's (already miserable) lives by making them believe that they are sinners and only the Almighty can absolve (?) them. Amidst all the challenging travel he finds time to pen his erotic novella (wonder if it is out already) while warding of kids teasing him "Muzungu Muzungu"

A couple of years ago, I had written a very critical review of Patagonia Express expressing regret over Paul's critical (bordering harsh) comments and the seemingly missing spiritual side. However, since that review I have undertaken many long & dangerous journeys myself and can relate to his experiences much better. Travel is like exploring unknown realms within the self. It is a journey into the past and also into the future whilst enjoying the present. Travel will dissolve all impurities, break the deceptive veneer and will rejuvenate your mind.

He is up amongst the best travel writers of all times. Kudos!!!

Another Paul Theroux adventure
"Being in Africa was like being on a dark star."

Paul Theroux isn't a "travel writer."He is a "traveler who writes."The nature of this beast is that Theroux is totally uninhibited about discussing smells, ugly people, dirty rooms, and sad situations.He is very real in a... Paul Theroux way.Others would have a different approach to describing their travels, and adventures.

On African cities:

"Even at their best, African cities seemed to me miserable improvised anthills, attracting the poor and the desperate from the bush and turning them into thieves and devisers of cruel scams.Scamming is the survival mode in a city where tribal niceties do not apply and there are no sanctions except those of the police, a class of people who in Africa generally are little more than licensed thieves" (p. 93).

"I was in no hurry, I wasn't due anywhere, yet whenever I arrived in an African city, I wanted to leave" (p. 255).

On international aid workers:

"That was to be fairly typical of my experience with aid workers in rural Africa:theywere, in general, oafish self-dramatizing prigs, and often complete bastards" (p. 146).

This is Theroux's reputation:a critical and cynical observer of people [I wonder what he really thinks!].This book should be titled Dark Star Safari for the Thick-Skinned. ... Read more