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Paul Theroux

novella

novella

Active Member
I haven't seen any discussion of Paul Theroux. Has anyone read him?

Funny enough, though he's best known for his travel writing, I'ver read mostly novels by him and they were quite weird and memorable.

I found Hotel Honolulu really entertaining and bizarre. Also Kowloon Tong.

I have his travel book Sunrise with Seamonsters on the shelf waiting to be read, but I sort of dread that "English chap in khaki shorts misses his tea and biscuits' type of perspective (Palin, Bryson--acts English even if he's not, Chatwin to an extent), and I really hope he doesn't do that.

I want to read more of his fiction, but I want it to have that bizarre amusing quality of KT and HH. His writing is pretty diverse, so I don't know what to go to next.
 
I actually just got Blinding Light from the library and intend to start it in the coming week. This is someone I've been meaning to read for some time.
 
novella said:
I haven't seen any discussion of Paul Theroux. Has anyone read him?

Funny enough, though he's best known for his travel writing, I'ver read mostly novels by him and they were quite weird and memorable.

I found Hotel Honolulu really entertaining and bizarre. Also Kowloon Tong.

I have his travel book Sunrise with Seamonsters on the shelf waiting to be read, but I sort of dread that "English chap in khaki shorts misses his tea and biscuits' type of perspective (Palin, Bryson--acts English even if he's not, Chatwin to an extent), and I really hope he doesn't do that.

I want to read more of his fiction, but I want it to have that bizarre amusing quality of KT and HH. His writing is pretty diverse, so I don't know what to go to next.
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I recently read a book called stars and stripes by william boyd, it reminded me a lot of kowloon tong, you should give it a try, also john mortimer's book paradise prosponed. What is Hotel Honolulu like? same vain as KT?
 
I'm halfway through Blinding Light and it's doing my head in because of him repeating everything all the time. But I want to carry on reading because I think the story is a good idea.
 
victorlaslo said:
I recently read a book called stars and stripes by william boyd, it reminded me a lot of kowloon tong, you should give it a try, also john mortimer's book paradise prosponed. What is Hotel Honolulu like? same vain as KT?
Click to expand...

Those are good recommendations.

I read Stars and Bars several years ago, and also A Good Man in Africa and Armadillo. The last was a little strange and I gave Boyd a rest after that. William Boyd is an engaging writer, much more of the expat colonial than Theroux, but sharp and paces things well. He seems to me like the successor to Graham Greene.

I also have read all or most of John Mortimer, who is great. I'm a huge fan of his Rumpole books and early autobiographies (Travels Around My Father), but the later novels I find a bit depressing. He seems to have lost his satirical edge recently and have mortality on his mind a lot.

Hotel Honolulu is very different from KT. It's a closely observed novel from the perspective of an easygoing local haoli (former mainlander) with a lot of Hawaiian cultural color, which is unexpectedly crass and wacky. The book doesn't have the dark perversity of KT, but is a better read I think. Theroux lives in Hawaii at least some of the time, so he knows his stuff.
 
seems we may have some similar tastes in fiction. I have just remembered another book written in a similar vain to the ones above, Don't stop the Carnival, written by Herman Wouk. I'm about to read Boyd's newest book, Any Human Heart.....have you read it?
 
No, I haven't read Any Human Heart. Do post about it when you're done. I also haven't read any Wouk.

I think of these guys as good, solid writers, in the same line as Ford Madox Ford and Evelyn Waugh. There's something straightforward and craftsmanlike about them, no gimmicks. I like that.
 
I just gave up on Blinding Light. I started reading it again last night, and it was the same thing: he repeats things too much, and there's too much pervy shagging. It's boring and there's no need for it.
 
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