Everything about Paul Theroux totally explained
Paul Edward Theroux (born
April 10,
1941) is an
American travel writer and
novelist, whose best known work is
The Great Railway Bazaar (1975), a travelogue about a trip he made by train from
Great Britain through Western and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, through South Asia, then South-East Asia, up through East Asia, as far east as
Japan, and then back across Russia to his point of origin. Although perhaps best known as a travel writer, Theroux has also published numerous works of fiction, some of which were made into feature films. He was awarded the 1981
James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his novel
The Mosquito Coast.
Biography
Theroux was born in
Medford,
Massachusetts, the son of
Catholic parents, a
French-Canadian father and an
Italian mother. His French last name originates from the region around
Sarthe and
Yonne in France. It is quite common in Francophone countries and is originally spelled Théroux. After he finished his university education at the
University of Massachusetts Amherst, he joined the
Peace Corps and taught in
Malawi from 1963 to 1965. While working there, he helped a political opponent of
Hastings Banda escape to
Uganda, for which he was expelled from Malawi and thrown out of the Peace Corps. He then moved to Uganda to teach at
Makerere University. During his tenure at Makerere University, Theroux began his three-decade friendship with novelist
V. S. Naipaul, then a visiting scholar at the university. During his time in Uganda, an angry mob at a demonstration threatened to overturn the car in which his pregnant wife was riding. The incident made Theroux decide to leave Africa. He moved again to
Singapore. After two years of teaching at the
University of Singapore, he settled in
England, first in
Dorset, and then in south
London with his wife and two young children.
Theroux currently lives in
Hawaii. He is currently married to Sheila Donnelly (since
November 18,
1995). He was married to Anne Castle from 1967 to 1993. He has two sons with his first wife –
Marcel Theroux and
Louis Theroux – both of whom are writers and television presenters. In his books Theroux frequently alludes to his ability to speak
Italian,
French, and
Chinese.
Literary work
His first
novel,
Waldo, was published during his time in Uganda and was moderately successful. He published several more novels over the next few years, including
Fong and the Indians and
Jungle Lovers. On his return to Malawi many years later, he found that this latter novel, which was set in that country, was still banned, a story told in his book
Dark Star Safari.
He moved to London in 1972, before setting off on an epic journey by train from
Great Britain to
Japan and back again. His account of this journey was published as
The Great Railway Bazaar, his first major success as a travel writer, and which has since become a classic in the genre. He has since written a number of other travel books, including descriptions of traveling by train from
Boston to
Argentina (
The Old Patagonian Express), walking around the United Kingdom (the poorly-received
The Kingdom By The Sea), visiting China (
Riding the Iron Rooster), and traveling from Cairo to Cape Town (
Dark Star Safari). As a traveler he's noted for his rich descriptions of people and places, laced with a heavy streak of irony often mistaken for
misanthropy. Other non-fiction by Theroux includes
Sir Vidia's Shadow, an account of his personal and professional friendship with Nobel laureate V. S. Naipaul that ended abruptly after thirty years.
Controversy
By including versions of himself, his family, and acquaintances in some of his fiction, Theroux has occasionally disconcerted his readers.
A. Burgess, Slightly Foxed: Fact and Fiction, a story originally published in
The New Yorker magazine (August 7, 1995), describes a dinner at the narrator's home with author
Anthony Burgess and a book-hoarding philistine lawyer who nags the narrator for an introduction to the great writer. “Burgess” arrives drunk and cruelly mocks the lawyer, who introduces himself as “a fan”. The narrator’s wife, like Theroux’s then-wife, is named Anne and she shrewishly refuses to help with the dinner. The magazine later published a letter from Anne Theroux denying that Burgess was ever a guest in her home and expressing admiration for him, having once interviewed the real Burgess for the BBC: “I was dismayed to read in your August 7th edition a story … by Paul Theroux, in which a very unpleasant character with my name said and did things that I've never said or done.” When the story was incorporated into Theroux’s novel,
My Other Life (1996), the wife character is renamed Alison and reference to her work at the BBC is excised.
Theroux's sometimes caustic portrait of Nobel Laureate
V.S. Naipaul in his memoir
Sir Vidia's Shadow (1998) is at considerable odds with his earlier, gushing portrait of the same author in
V.S. Naipaul, an Introduction to His Work (1972).
On December 15, 2005 the
New York Times published an op-ed piece by Theroux called
The Rock Star's Burden criticizing
Bono,
Brad Pitt, and
Angelina Jolie as "mythomaniacs, people who wish to convince the world of their worth." Theroux, who lived in Africa as a
Peace Corps Volunteer and a university teacher, adds that "the impression that Africa is fatally troubled and can be saved only by outside help - not to mention celebrities and charity concerts - is a destructive and misleading conceit."
(External Link
).
Film adaptations
Saint Jack, Theroux's 1973 novel about an affable American panderer operating in Singapore during the Vietnam War, was filmed by director
Peter Bogdanovich (1979). His novel
Doctor Slaughter was made into a film,
Half Moon Street (1986). His novel
The Mosquito Coast was also made into a film of the same name (1986).
Chinese Box (1997), a film about the
British handover of
Hong Kong to the
People's Republic of China, credits Theroux as a source for the story, based on themes he explores in his 1997 novel
Kowloon Tong.
Upcoming projects
Theroux is working on a travel book in which he'll revisit the settings of
The Great Railway Bazaar. Also forthcoming is a novel entitled
Mother.
Novels and short story collections
Non-fiction
V.S. Naipaul, an Introduction to His Work (1972)
The Great Railway Bazaar (1975)
The Old Patagonian Express (1979)
The Kingdom By The Sea (1983)
Sailing Through China (1984)
Sunrise With Seamonsters (1985)
The Imperial Way (1985)
Riding The Iron Rooster (1988)
To The Ends Of The Earth (1990)
The Happy Isles Of Oceania (1992)
The Pillars Of Hercules (1995)
Sir Vidia's Shadow (1998)
Fresh Air Fiend (2000)
Nurse Wolf And Dr. Sacks (2001)
Dark Star Safari (2002)
Other writings
(Review of Naipaul's "Half a Life")
.
Notes and References
"Notable Former Volunteers / Arts and Literature". Peace Corps official site. Accessed 5 January 2007.Further Information
Get more info on 'Paul Theroux'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://paul_theroux.totallyexplained.com">Paul Theroux Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
