The Collected Short Novels

by Paul Theroux

This collection of Theroux's short novels span his fictional from a pair of post-adolescent malcontents hiding from their future to a vulnerable ageing stripper and single mother who finds God. Theroux's characters struggle with indeterminate, and often cruel, destinies.

Genres: Fiction

435 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Paul Edward Theroux 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 travelogue 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.

He is the father of Marcel and Louis Theroux, and the brother of Alexander and Peter. Justin Theroux is his nephew.

Reviews

[Taylor S. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am a huge Paul Theroux fan. But, his short stories are predictably witty and lack the drawn-out character development of his full-length books. Though cute and creative, these stories lack depth or understanding of the characters, especially the stories written in third-person. I am finding the first person pieces more believable.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Weird. And not always in the best way.

[Dan Piette]

Short stories