Paul Theroux
Paul Theroux was born and raised in Massachusetts. One of seven children, he developed an early interest in books and writing. The written word, he quickly learned, offered a special kind of privacy, rare in so large a family, and was the most forceful and final way to express his ideas. Since that early discovery, Theroux has continued to write and to refine his considerable talent.
Theroux graduated from the University of Massachusetts and did graduate work at Syracuse University. In 1963 he joined the Peace Corps, serving as a teacher in Africa. He was assigned to the small country of Malawi, which achieved independence during his residency. Staying there for five years, he left in 1968 to assume a teaching position at the University of Singapore.
Theroux's first book, the novel Waldo, was published in 1966. Over the next five years he published three more novels: Fong and the Indians, Girls at Play and Jungle Lovers. All three are set in Africa, catching vivid, convincing detail of the hapless collision of Western appetites and ideals with the fragile, uncertain, impoverished new world of Africa. "Paul Theroux," the South African novelist Nadine Gordimer has written, "is without peer as the merciless obituarist of colonialism. He knows why his way matchlessly about the milieu where no one was ever at home. . . . Theroux's novels are neither apologia nor accusation; wit is his rare medium, and that lays bare both. He is a large, lively, outrageous talent."
Theroux resigned his position at the University of Singapore in 1971 to devote himself entirely to writing. In the years since, his output has been both prodigious and diverse. He has published the novels Saint Jack, The Black House, The Family Arsenal, Picture Palace, The Mosquito Coast, O-Zone, My Secret History, Chicago Loop and Millroy the Magician. He has also published four collections of short stories: Sinning With Annie, The Consul's File, World's End and The London Embassy; and a book of two novellas entitled Half Moon Street. He has written two books for young readers, A Christmas Card and London Show, and published a critical study of the works of West Indian novelist V.S. Naipaul.
Paul Theroux has traveled more widely than almost any other major writer of his generation. His explorations of the remote, rough corners of the world, and of the complex, troubled nations of Africa, Asia, and Central and South America have been reflected both in the brilliantly observed, fresh, compelling setting of his fiction and in his celebrated bestselling books of journeys. Among his widely read travel books are The Great Railway Bazaar, The Old Patagonian Express, The Kingdom by the Sea, the bestselling Riding the Iron Rooster and The Happy Isles of Oceania. On October 17, 1995, G.P. Putnam's Sons will publish The Pillars of Hercules: A Grand Tour of the Mediterranean.
Paul Theroux divides his time between Hawaii and Cape Cod.
My Other Life
by Paul Theroux
Houghton Mifflin Co., New York, 456 pages, $24.95
Reviewed by Francis X. Archibald (481 words)
When the story begins he is a 23 year-old Peace Corps volunteer teaching English in Africa. During a school break he travels to a leper colony where he endures an unsatisfactory tryst in a convent. Then a sojourn teaching in Singapore is followed by a long stay in London and finally it is home to Boston in the autumn of his years.
All this time he is scribbling in his notebook, struggling in his writing and eventually being published and reaping the rewards. Sort of a Horatio Alger motif: virtue begets riches and success.
Whether it is fiction or a selective remembrance of things past is the unanswered question. Indeed, the author, Paul Theroux, tells us in an advance note that My Other Life is simply "an imaginary memoir," the fictionalized story of a life he could have lived. Nevertheless, the principal player is named "Paul Theroux.".
The question does not have to be answered fully for the reader to enjoy the latest in Theroux's long line of fiction works (he has written 20 others). The consummate eye for descriptive detail is a sharp as ever. The six pages devoted to the young man's bout of fever at the leper colony will bring on an empathetic shivering, sweating and dreaming. A pub manager has "the dirty fingers and enormous thumbs you associate with a strangler."
Theroux loves to poke fun at the British class system and he is at his amusing best during "Paul's" book review and early writing periods. Dinner with the Queen is later reported with sparkling wit and understated sarcasm. Theroux shows us the absurd lengths an American will go to hobnob with the royalty.
He also enjoys pricking the pomposity of successful businessmen and two such stories are a couple of the best chapters in the book. The structure of this novel is one of its strong points. Almost without exception any chapter can be read and savored as a short story, yet the flow of the book remains intact.
As in any life, some chapters are less exciting and occasionally Theroux repeats himself. Hors d' oeuvres are carried "by waiters and waitresses who were better dressed than most of the guests." Two hundred and fifty pages later drinks are brought around by "flunkies" who are also "better dressed than the guests." Seldom does a writer pass through life as an actor, most often he is only a spectator who later writes about what he has remembered. If Theroux has fictionalized events of his own productive literary life, as seems most likely, old and new fans are the beneficiaries.
(Mr. Archibald has recently been teaching English in China and on his return to Charleston spent time visiting along Theroux's route from Singapore to London to Boston.)
AOL chat with the great paul theroux
OnlineHost: Paul Theroux returns to Houghton Mifflin with a brilliantly playful novel that fictionalizes the events of his life. Ranging from New England to Africa to London and back again in "My Other Life," Theroux uses a fictional "Paul Theroux" to confront his past and rearrange the outcomes of a life rich in incident and exotic locale. Welcome to AOL Live!
AOLiveMC8: Good evening and welcome Paul Theroux to AOL LIVE !
PTheroux1: It's wonderful to be here, to be able to answer questions of any kind that may arise.
Question: Generally, when you begin a novel, do you start with your life, or do you begin with strictly fiction?
PTheroux1: I usually begin with an idea, a character or a particular place which I can relate to intensely.
Question: How do you feel about all the praise from non-American audiences?
PTheroux1: It's very gratifying to write a book which is accepted and understood in other cultures. I am particularly pleased to have large readerships in places such as Japan, Germany, Italy, Latin America and oddly enough, the largest sales of paperbacks outside the U.S. are in Holland.
Question: Have you enjoyed the script writing as much as writing novels?
PTheroux1: No, honestly. Script writing is like compiling a recipe. There is no pleasure in the writing. The pleasure is all in the imagining, and it's often a group effort, almost as though it is being written by a committee.
Question: How do you feel about some of the British papers complaints about your portrayal of the Queen?
PTheroux1: I find it very strange that anyone should complain about a fictional portrait, and, as a matter of fact, I thought the portrait of the Queen was done with affection and restraint. But in British terms, she is the defender of the faith and perhaps I did not show the sort of respect that a British person would. My excuse is, I'm an American.
Question: Is there a common thread that runs through all of your novels?
PTheroux1: I don't know if there is a common thread. I think only a reader who had read all my books would know the answer to this. But I suspect that there is a sense of dislocation, and of loneliness, and the idea that' America is not the world -- that there's a big world out there.
Question: How did it feel to be published in "The New Yorker"? Had any of your other works been in it?
PTheroux1: Yes, I published my first story in the New Yorker in the early 1980's when William Shawn was the Editor. It was an enormous satisfaction to me because I associated The New Yorker with the best in American writing.
Question: Do you travel a lot yourself, as background for your novels?
PTheroux1: Yes I do. But not deliberately to find material. I travel out of curiosity and for pleasure. But, by the way, I often find that I get great ideas when I'm traveling, and these are often the basis of a book or a story.
Question: When did you know that you wanted to be a writer? How did you go about getting published?
PTheroux1: I felt the desire to be a writer when I was about 16 or 17, but I found it very hard to tell my parents or friends that I wanted to be a writer, because I had no idea whether I would succeed. And so after college, when I joined the Peace Corps and went to Africa, I was able to experiment with different forms of writing and I think that being away from home helped this whole process.
Question: Does "My Other Life" represent the life you wish you had?
PTheroux1: Yes. It's partly what I wished and partly what I had feared, since most of it is based on the proposition of "what if".
Question: Can you see yourself adapting one of your novels into a movie?
PTheroux1: I have adapted several of my novels with the help of directors. One was "St. Jack" with Peter Bogdanovich. It came out in 1978. And I helped with the movie "Mosquito Coast" and a number of movies for television.
Question: Can you tell us something about the movie script, based in India?
PTheroux1: It's a movie to be made by the Merchant-Ivory Company, and it's adapted from a book by the hunter of man-eaters, Jim Corbett, set in 1926. An adventure story.
Question: Do you enjoy writing fiction or non-fiction more?
PTheroux1: I love to write fiction, but I am sometimes puzzled and don't have a new idea. At that point, I go on a trip, and usually that results in a travel book.
AOLiveMC8: We have a comment from an avid reader of yours.
Comment: Mr. Theroux... an unabashed rave here. You've been my favorite author for years and I've read everything you've written. I look for only one author in the travel section and in fiction. I mean that! This is a thrill to me chatting with you!
PTheroux1: It is delightful to meet someone in this way. I'm very grateful for your kind comments.
Question: And forgive me for talking so much, but what about the next travel book? I mean, I've read most of them twice!
PTheroux1: I've written six travel books and I'm always looking for new places to go to. I don't know where the next one will take me, but it could be Africa, Brazil, the Philippines, the Northern Hemisphere, or possibly to some corner of the US
Question: Is the survival instinct you portray in "My Other Life" what keeps you writing?
PTheroux1: That's an interesting question! I don't think of myself as having a strong survival instinct, or didn't until you mentioned it. But I suppose the very act of writing fiction is a way of imagining various forms of survival, and more than survival -- of prevailing over circumstances.
Question: Why did you brother attack you in Boston Magazine?
PTheroux1: I haven't seen the review that my brother is supposed to have written in Boston Magazine.
Question: Does it excite you to be involved in the making of the last movie in Hong Kong, as we know it?
PTheroux1: Yes, very much so. Because I believe that when Hong Kong is handed over to the Chinese, it will lose its soul.
Question: How much truth is in the leper story in your newest book?
PTheroux1: The circumstances of the leper colony are all accurate, but the rest of it, the plot, is a work of the imagination.
Question: Have you ever "stole someone's life", as you say in "My other life"?
PTheroux1: No, that's just a metaphor.
Question: I'm really not a cook...just your most avid fan. Is there any way to correspond with you? Everyone always wants to know.....who you are, who is Paul Theroux? On the other hand, who do you believe your avid reader is? A sports enthusiast, women, armchair travelers who live vicariously through your travels? Or just sexual perverts?
PTheroux1: Yes, very easily. If you write in care of the publisher, Houghton Mifflin Company. The address is in the flyleaf of the book. I think probably all of the above.
Question: Do you find that people expose themselves to you in real life, because you are a writer?
PTheroux1: But what surprises me when I give a reading or visit a book store is I see people of all ages, all backgrounds, and many nationalities. It's very gratifying because I feel that I'm able to reach a large number of people who obviously have a great deal in common. I find that rather reassuring. No.. because I don't advertise myself as a writer. I think that other people are much more interesting than I am and I have tried to cultivate the art of being a good listener.
Question: Any favorite spots that you've found throughout the world?
PTheroux1: Many! I think too many to list here, but the countries that I've found that I often dream about are India, Italy, and the islands of the Pacific.
Question: I've heard that you especially enjoyed your visit to the Kingdom of Tonga? Was it great? Tell me about the king? Is he really large?
PTheroux1: The King of Tonga is an amazing man. Big hearted, sensible and very intelligent. He's also physically enormous. He was very kind to me when I visited Tonga.
Question: What major differences do you see between the United States and the rest of the world? We seem to be in our own little world sometimes.
PTheroux1: That's true. We hardly think about the rest of the world while the rest of the world spends a lot of time thinking about us and wondering what we're going to do next.
Question: Am I reading too much into this or was the Magician novel a prelude to my other life? It seemed such a departure.
PTheroux1: No, I think of "Millroy the Magician" as a sort of sequel to "The Mosquito Coast".
Question: Who is the most interesting person you've ever met?
PTheroux1: That's a very hard question, but high on the list, certainly, was my meeting with the South American writer Jorge Luis Borges, a marvelous writer.
Question: A base question of economics. When your work is excerpted in the New Yorker, are you paid or is the exposure of its pages the remuneration?
PTheroux1: The New Yorker has rates for everything they publish.... so much per word or a fee for the article itself or the story. In most cases, whenever something appears in any magazine, the author is paid something.
Question: What would you most like to do, that you haven't done so far in your life?
PTheroux1: There are many places I'd like to go, but I suppose the thing I most regret is that I didn't go from college to medical school. I had really hoped that I could become a doctor as well as a writer. But I made that choice way back in 1963.
Question: How can you possibly carry around all those books you mention reading while on your travels? And some so obscure!
PTheroux1: It's true. Many of them are obscure, but those are books that I either brought along or found along the way. I always bring paperbacks with me and when I'm finished with them, I give them to people I meet or swap them for others.
Question: Who is *your* favorite author?
PTheroux1: I have many favorite authors... far too many to list. But let me say today, because his 100th birthday was three days ago, that I think with gratitude of F. Scott Fitzgerald whom I have reread recently with great pleasure.
Question: Which country was the most beautiful geographically, that you have visited?
PTheroux1: There are many. It's hard to think of one, but Tibet and many islands in the Pacific and parts of South America and my home town stand out.
Question: I hesitate to ask, but why the terrible time you seem to give Christianity in your books?
PTheroux1: Oh no! I don't think that's the case. Though I have many times questioned it, I don't think I've given it a terrible time. In "Millroy the Magician", I used it as the basis for a philosophy that revitalizes people.
Question: What's the next big project you are undertaking?
PTheroux1: My current project has to do with Hong Kong which interests me a great deal because I think it will change so much after June 30 of next year. I would like to do something substantial and meaningful in Hong Kong while it's still possible to do it.
Question: after living so many years abroad and now living in the U.S. what has changed the most in U.S. society?
PTheroux1: I actually think American society has changed very little. The problems that existed when I left in the 1960's are still with us -- race relations, inequality, and rising prices.
Question: You often come off as being so much gentler in television interviews than the curmudgeon of your books. Which is real?
PTheroux1: I think my irony is often taken to be sarcasm of grumpiness. Really, I think I have a sense of humor that may not be shared by people who are very literal minded.
Question: Are there any causes that you are involved in?
PTheroux1: I am a member of Amnesty International because I think that organization does such good work in the area of human rights around the world.
Question: Is your September tour your first? Do you think you'll enjoy it?
PTheroux1: I have been publishing books for almost 30 years. This is perhaps the 20th or more book tour. I actually enjoy meeting readers and people who love books. It only goes on for a couple of weeks and then I return to my work.
Question: How would you like people to remember you after you are gone? :)
PTheroux1: That's a very tough question. But I think that the work that I leave behind -- my books -- will be my monument. And I hope they will give pleasure to people who will come after me.
Question: In "Hercules" you said you weren't interested in politics, but you constantly made reference to each country's political system, history, and characters. please explain.
PTheroux1: I'm not interested in the pettiness of politics, but the political process does interest me since people's lives often hang in the balance where politics are concerned.
AOLiveMC8: Our time is running short, this will be our last question, this evening.
Question: You mentioned that a future project might be a corner of the U.S. but why have you not done any extensive travel writing on the U.S.?
PTheroux1: I may not have done extensive travel writing about the United States, but I have written many novels set in the United States, and it seems to me that a novel is even more intense, more passionate and more meaningful a statement than a travel book. I think I have perhaps written a dozen novels which have a direct bearing on the United States, but some day I hope to write more, if I am spared by the Almighty.
AOLiveMC8: Paul Theroux, thank you for joining us tonight and answering our questions.
PTheroux1: It was a pleasure and I hope to be back live with AOL some time soon. Thanks for logging on. Thank you for your questions!
AOLiveMC8: We would love to have you. Thank you audience for being here and for your great questions. Goodnight!
WHAT OTHERS HAVE TO SAY ABOUT PAUL THEROUX'S BOOKS
ustomer Comments
aliloh@aol.com, 04/08/97, rating=9:
A must read for Paul Theroux fans
Having lived in several of the countries Mr. Theroux has written
about, including Malaysia, Singapore and U.K. and also being a
great fan of his favorite authors like V.S. Naipaul and Graham
Greene,I highly recommend "My Other Life" to anyone who is
interested in the inner life of a writer. This book is certainly one of
his best and mirrors his own growth in both his personal and
professional lives. I was afraid that this book would bore me, having
already read "My Secret History", but I have to say that this book
only increased my appreciation for Mr. Theroux as a writer. His
abilities in self analysis and in being able to weave a complex story
in a thoroughly readable manner makes him one of the most
interesting authors around. Whether Mr. Theroux is trying to coyly
deceive us into believing that "My Other Life" is only fiction or
whether he is only tantalizing us with semi truths is unimportant. This
book will keep you wondering at his ever increasing skills as a
writer and have you only begging for more.
Andy Safir (asafir@msn.com), 12/12/96, rating=7:
Insight and entertainment--what else can you ask for
Theroux's fiction, while entertaining, often has lacked the intense
obervation and insight of his travel books. This one has insight
a-plenty. --This text refers to the hardcover edition of this title.
shettle@msn.com, 11/13/96, rating=7:
Paul Theroux fans will enjoy this book. It is a combination of fiction,
autobiography and travel. He steps his way through his life revealing
brief sections at a time.. Some of the chapters are self indulgent but
it is a fascinating look into his either fictional or real life. You'll find
yourself liking him in one chapter and being disappointed in another.
Defenitely recommended. --This text refers to the audio cassettes
edition of this title.
ElSmocko@aol.com, 09/26/96, rating=9:
Biography or autobiography?
I ordered the book from our library as soon as it was published. I
had read about briefly and assumed it was Paul Theroux's
biography. I happened to glance at the forward as I was one-third
into the book and he explains that it is his life if he directed it to his
own liking. I believe it is almost totally autobiographical. I have read
most of his "travel books" and Theroux reveals enough about
himself, that everything in the book has a ring of strong truth. It is
mostly humorous, somewhat sad, and definitely memorable. I find
myself reading from midnight until about 2 am, not wanting to quit
but hating to have it end. Fortunately, Paul is young enough we can
follow the rest of the story in a sequel. I am quite upset that my
husband made dinner plans tonight and I must attend because I have
a ticket to meet him tonight in Glenview. I am sending my daughter
instead who also loves his writing. --This text refers to the audio
cassettes edition of this title.
ElSmocko@aol.com, 09/26/96, rating=9:
Biography or autobiography?
I ordered the book from our library as soon as it was published. I
had read about briefly and assumed it was Paul Theroux's
biography. I happened to glance at the forward as I was one-third
into the book and he explains that it is his life if he directed it to his
own liking. I believe it is almost totally autobiographical. I have read
most of his "travel books" and Theroux reveals enough about
himself, that everything in the book has a ring of strong truth. It is
mostly humorous, somewhat sad, and definitely memorable. I find
myself reading from midnight until about 2 am, not wanting to quit
but hating to have it end. Fortunately, Paul is young enough we can
follow the rest of the story in a sequel. I am quite upset that my
husband made dinner plans tonight and I must attend because I have
a ticket to meet him tonight in Glenview. I am sending my daughter
instead who also loves his writing. --This text refers to the audio
cassettes edition of this title.
Customer Comments
A reader, 06/17/97, rating=9:
Travel writing for the truly adventurous
The writer explores an unconventional region of the
world and develops his perceptions and feelings
towards his host countries by conveying
feelings about his immediate
environment - the insides of various trains
used to convey him across Asia.
Sharp insites into social, political,
and cultural aspects as gleened from
endlessly facinating descriptions of
fellow travelers encountered along the way.
I agree; he does lose some steam
at the end. But I think that's the reality of such
a long exhausting experience and,
ultimately, the author's point.
THE MOSQUITO COAST
arp@u.washington.edu, 06/13/97, rating=9:
Exciting, a probe into human thinking.
One of the best stories to ever examine the human psyche, craftily
done through the eyes of a child. Allie Fox represents the purist in
all of us, a genius not gone mad, but obsessed with his own selfish
dreams. Charlie Fox tells the story of how his family "escapes"
America to establish a new way of life in the steam and heat of the
Mosquito Coast. But Charlie's father Allie destroys what he labored
so hard to create, not because it wasn't perfect, but because Allie
himself could not deal with real world that surrounds us all.
chisox@execpc.com, 04/17/97, rating=10:
A study of ideals
Paul Theroux's best novel ever explores the mind of a genius who
wishes to estrange himself from American materialist society, told
through the eyes of his adolescent son Charlie. Any Theroux reader
can sympathize with the main character's mind as he tries to create a
utopia in the tropics of Central America: his motives, his rise to
pwer, and his downfall.
bilawcha@cadvision.com, 02/17/97, rating=9:
Gripping! Theroux's tale of a fanatical genius is amazing!
The Mosquito Coast is a masterful piece of work. Paul Theroux's
tale of Allie Fox and his decent into madness rivals many of our
greatest works of literature. It's like "Robinson Crusoe" gone
wrong, as a brilliant inventor shuns the American way of life and
attempts to build himself and his family a paradise on the Mosquito
Coast. His dream turns into a nightmare as his paradise crumbles
around him. For ANYONE who loves great literature, The
Mosquito Coast is the new standard in storytelling.
Email: lazer@the-lair.com
