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zvonologist
Joined: 06 Apr 2005
Posts: 2
Location: New Orleans
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 Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2005 9:51 pm Post subject: strange and difficult subject |
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| This is the only book I have read by this author and it is probably not his best (judging by book reviews). I plan to read Mosquito Coast as soon as I finish "I am Charlotte Simmons" and I wiol probably like that book more. However, the book ( Palazzo D'Oro) is compelling enough that I did read it very quickly in order to find out the ending. |
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Rio J. DeNiro
Joined: 24 Apr 2005
Posts: 3
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| Posted: Sun Apr 24, 2005 9:00 am Post subject: Re: strange and difficult subject |
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| zvonologist wrote: | | This is the only book I have read by this author and it is probably not his best (judging by book reviews). I plan to read Mosquito Coast as soon as I finish "I am Charlotte Simmons" and I wiol probably like that book more. However, the book ( Palazzo D'Oro) is compelling enough that I did read it very quickly in order to find out the ending. |
Not typical of his work-- more of a genre piece than anything else he's done, really. The Mosquito Coast should give you a much better sense of his fiction. You might also be interested in finding the collection of his African novels that's available in paperback (On the Edge of the Great Rift.
His travel writing stands on its own. There's something in common between the Theroux-as-traveller voice and some of the narrators of his fiction (characteristically keen observation and the use of humor to reveal otherwise obscure truths), and the clarity and transparency of the prose is immediately recognizable as his. It's all pretty good, but the first three travel books-- The Great Railway Bazaar, The Old Patagonian Express, and The Kingdom by the Sea-- are outstanding: funnier, a bit more innocent, and a lot more focused than the later stuff. |
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Rio J. DeNiro
Joined: 24 Apr 2005
Posts: 3
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| Posted: Sun Apr 24, 2005 9:13 am Post subject: |
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| By the way, the writing of The Stranger at the Palazzo D'Oro-- from the conception of the plot and characters to the writing of the fair copy-- overlays the north-to-south journey of Dark Star Safari. I suppose throughout the non-fiction and the quasi-autobiographical fiction (My Secret History, My Other Life), Theroux leaves a kind of verbal schema of his books-- their creation and the inflection the events of his life leaves on his fiction. It's a lot less self-indulgent than the overt post-modernism of Philip Roth, say, or Martin Amis, who write themselves into their novels, but Theroux is more committed to modernism by the naturalism in his writing. He's more indebted to Conrad than any other contemporary writer I can think of, and not just because of the settings and themes. |
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