Mr. Bones

by Paul Theroux

A dark and bitingly humorous collection of short stories from the “brilliantly evocative” (Time) Paul Theroux A family watches in horror as their patriarch transforms into the singing, wise-cracking lead of an old-timey minstrel show. A renowned art collector relishes publicly destroying his most valuable pieces. Two boys stand by helplessly as their father stages an all-consuming war on the raccoons living in the woods around their house. A young artist devotes himself to a wealthy, malicious gossip, knowing that it’s just a matter of time before she turns on him.

In this new collection of short stories, acclaimed author Paul Theroux explores the tenuous leadership of the elite and the surprising revenge of the overlooked. He shows us humanity possessed, consumed by its own desire and compulsion, always with his carefully honed eye for detail and the subtle idiosyncrasies that bring his characters to life. Searing, dark, and sure to unsettle, Mr. Bones is a stunning new display of Paul Theroux’s “fluent, faintly sinister powers of vision and imagination” (John Updike, The New Yorker).

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Horror, Literary Fiction, Audiobook, Travel, Anthologies

368 pages, Hardcover

First published September 30, 2014

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

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first thing you should know is that many of these stories have already been published in The New Yorker, the Atlantic, and other esteemed magazine. The second thing is that they’re good – deceptively simple, powerful, and in the end, unsettling.

Take the eponymous story, Mr. Bones, for example. On the surface, it’s about a cowered husband and father – a shoe salesman – who has become nearly invisible to those around him. He puts on a mask and adapts an attitude for an old-fashioned minstrel show and suddenly becomes intimidating and untouchable. It’s not a far stretch to say it’s about how we all hide behind our inscrutable masks with hints of the racism and marital problems that pervade society.

Another, Minor Matt, questions what we value the most. In this one, an obscenely wealthy art collector bids on and then slashes valuable art work from top artists. The art world complies, knowing that the destruction will jack up the prices of the remaining works.

There’s Siamese Nights about an American manufacturer who begins an intoxicating affair with a “ladyboy” and learns – to his horror – that the delicate creature he creates in his own mind is not the same as the person who truly possesses assurance, insistence, and certainty. And there’s I’m the Meat, You’re the Knife, where a writer verbally torments a former English teacher, now helpless and dying, with subtle reminders of his past abuse.

These are tales of revenge, self-recognition and sometimes, redemption --often rooted in the common situations (such as the war against raccoons). Two of the stories are composed of “short-shorts” and a few resort to a formula – the last line provides a stunning insight, leaving the reader slightly stunned. All in all, a very worthy collection and I give it a 4.5.

[Ana · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very enjoyable collection of short stories about broken people. The characters range from mentally ill, to filled with vengeance, to spineless individuals who can't fight for their own lives. Unless you're into this kind of literature, you'll probably be very annoyed - no story in here has a positive outcome, or even implies positive things about humanity.

[Lori L (She Treads Softly) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mr. Bones by Paul Theroux is a very highly recommended, wonderfully descriptive collection of twenty short stories. There should be a story that will appeal to almost everyone in these masterfully well written stories, many of which take common-place occurrences and put a twist on them.

The collection includes:

Minor Watt: A wealthy man destroys his priceless treasure simply because he can.
Mr. Bones: A mild mannered father has a drastic and startling personality change.
Our Raccoon Year: A plague of raccoons changes a family's already fluid dynamics.
Mrs. Everest: A painter meets a gallery owner who courts his company even though she doesn't like his work.
Another Necklace: An author has a secret.
Incident in the Oriente: An overseas contractor wields his influence over those he employs.
Rip It Up: Anxious, pimply fourteen-year-olds devise a plan to extract retribution on their bullies.
Siamese Nights: A man is assigned to work in Bangkok where he keeps a pictorial diary of drawings and meets someone special.
Nowadays the Dead Don’t Die: A man in the bush is asked to take a man with no family to the hospital. When the ill man dies on the way, he is unceremoniously buried - but then things begin to go wrong.
Autostop Summer: A writer visits Italy and recalls a trip there many years ago.
Voices of Love: This is a collection of short vignettes, first-person flash fiction, of unfaithful people.
The Furies: A man marries a much younger woman and his past begins to catch up with him.
Rangers: Scam artists hook-up and hit the road.
Action: A young man runs an errand for his father, who is very protective of him.
Long Story Short: Another collection of short first-person flash fiction stories that feature young men coming-of age.
Neighbor Islands: A Hawaiian police officer catches his wife in a compromising position and then the incident is looked at from several viewpoints.
The Traveler’s Wife: A travel writer's wife starts expressing her opinions.
The First World: A wealthy man retires to Nantucket where he wishes to build his dream house.
Heartache: An elderly writer dies in the deep South.
I’m the Meat, You’re the Knife: A man who is back in his home town for his father's funeral visits his old English teacher who is dying.

Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt via Netgalley for review purposes.

[Abby · Rating 1 out of 5]

I received this book as part of a Goodreads First Reads Giveaway.

I barely got halfway through this book before I put it down and just couldn't make myself pick it up again. The characters in each of the stories I read were nasty, without a shred of relatable humanity to be found. The story lines, while imaginative, were entirely perpetrated by characters I could not possibly care less about and whose motivations were indiscernible, making it impossible to get into the story with any real interest. I'm a fan of Theroux's travel writing and was very much looking forward to reading his fiction but suffice it to say, the magic doesn't translate.

[NoScreenName · Rating 5 out of 5]

Theroux is a gifted writer; this is my first time reading him and it's great to discover a new author. He is capable of creating complex character and inspiring a range of emotions in the reader. This is hard enough to do when writing a novel much less short stories; no word is wasted and nothing is overwrought/heavy handed either.

A few stories were very brief and a bit outre; they left a lot to interpretation which might frustrate some readers but I enjoyed this actually. It's like looking at a painting; each person who looks at it comes away with an entirely different perception of it's meaning. And that's what happens with a well written short story.

My least favorite story was the first one 'Mr. Bones.' A miserable hen pecked husband takes on a hobby, vaudeville performing little shows. His kids and wife see his descent into eccentric behavior as a betrayal and his persona veers from hapless and happy to sinister and erratic.

'Voices of Love' is series of first person vignettes. Some of the stories examine lost love, relationships of convenience, unrequited love and 'whatever happened to so and so' memories. Poignant, unvarnished and thought provoking, these stories are very relatable and brutally honest. It reminded me of that 'Humans of New York' series (with less corny sentiment). Reading these reminds you that everyone not only has a 'story' but their story can teach you something profound. 'Long Story Short' is another series of first hand accounts of life's wonderful stranger-than-fiction weirdness.

'Heartache' is the heart rending account of a lonely southern widow (Miss Kitty) dealing with the sudden alienation of her adult adopted son. The son's wife, a strange cold woman - oddly refuses to see Miss Kitty. For no reason Miss Kitty's son and daughter in law stop visiting and never allow her to see her grandchild. Kitty starts to write, gains some success but still she'd trade it in to have her son back in her life. Her faithful housekeeper Perta Mae remained her only confidante and true friend. Kitty's sense of loss and alienation are raw; then you realize this actually happens to some parents more often than you realize. Children bring us endless joy but the thing no one talks about when they're young is this: what happens if they go their own way, live their own lives and you're left behind? No one wants to think about this of course. But Theroux handles this taboo subject with great sensitivity.

The most entertaining story is 'Siamese Nights'. Osier, a stalwart old school 'company man' type is nearing retirement and on one last jaunt to Thailand to complete a job. An accountant, he oversees projects in a factory and then chastely returns to his hotel and calls his long time wife. Except one night he accepts an invitation from two boorish co workers to 'just go out for one drink'. Osier becomes enamored of an aloof but beautiful young woman at a seedy bar. He returns to speak with her and they develop a friendship then become intimate. But! There's a catch... she's not a lady! She's a 'ladyboy' and she's older than she looks (still, creepy white man in Thailand on a trip. Will it end well?) and also has a rapier wit and Osier decides damn the torpedoes! I'm in LOVE! Ignoring the admonitions of his wary coworkers, he pursues 'Song', the new love of his life. One odd but heart breaking part of the story: Song brings him to her little apartment to meet her mom who cooks endlessly for Osier and humbly asks for him to 'take care of her' i.e. please look after my son (er, son that looks like a girl). It makes you very sad to read this because it reminds you of all of the sex workers there living in penury, waiting for a white knight (aka creepy white man to gallop in to um, sponsor them) and the parents are often complicit, they feel this is the only option for their children. So it's deeply depressed me reading this bit especially. Yet Osier becomes convinced he will love Son even if he didn't realize she was a ladyboy when they met and he decides to commit to her at some point. He also decides he'll just tell his wife about this sooner than later.

The ending is insane. As in you will laugh out loud - nervously. It's so damned funny and let's just say SONG DON'T PLAY. But such an odd little story; it's a bit like the storyline for ' Lost In Translation' but with a knife carrying lady boy who doesn't like to take no for an answer.

[William Koon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mr. Bones Paul Theroux’s hand is deft and at times brilliant in this collection of stories. I particularly like his brief fiction, that is a page or two. In the volume are one or two stinkers in the twenty stories, but when he is good, oh, my, he is good. Of course he is the finest travel writer we have had in the English language. He uses various locales to his advantage, particularly Bangkok and Maine. Theroux is a treasure.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Usually, short story collections include one or more stinkers that don't quite make the grade. I was delighted that Paul Theroux's Mr. Bones: Twenty Stories kept me entertained throughout all twenty stories. I have always loved the author's travel books, and it is only recently that I have begun to sample his fiction.

The collection contains a novelette entitled "Siamese Nights" set in Bangkok about a lonely accountant's affair with a Thai "ladyboy." I would be hard put to single out other stories without enumerating all of them, many of which are set in remote parts of the world where Theroux has lived or traveled.

[Hans · Rating 2 out of 5]

It took me over 12 months to finish. Not bad, but just never quite connected with me. I would push through a little way and kept being pulled into other books. Should probably have moved on sooner, but you never know when you'll find the hidden gem in a short story collection.

[Gaylord Dold · Rating 2 out of 5]

Theroux, Paul. Mr. Bones: Twenty Stories, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, New York, 2014, (359pp.$27)

“Art is swindle,” counseled the German refugee teacher and painter Josef Albers, whose book “Interaction of Color” has become a classic, though in practice at Black Mountain and later at Yale, Albers rarely strayed from a deliberate approach to his work, stripping away decoration, illustration and, yes, even expression from his painting, winding up with blocks of color that produced surprising effects on viewers. Paul Theroux’s new book of collected stories (most previously published in The New Yorker, Harpers and The Atlantic) leads off with an over-heated little number called “Minor Watt”, so-named after the transgressive title character, a spiteful old goat whose great wealth has led him not to treasure his collection (sculpture, modern oil painting, ceramics, etc.), but to destroy it in public, piece by beautiful piece, in a deft attempt to outrage and horrify the gallery-world. Art is not only swindle, but hyper-swindle. He gets a taste for swindle when his ex-wife Sonia drops by the penthouse to pick up a priceless Chinese vase, part of the divorce settlement. Minor lets it drop to the floor, where it shatters into countless shards at the feet of his horrified ex-wife. “Sorry,” Minor says softly. After a series of bizarre episodes in which Minor conducts more and more creative acts of destruction, Theroux writes, “more ingenious in devising ways to destroy these works of art, each one appropriate to the object, his intention was to make the destruction as memorable as the object itself: the memory of extinction.” If art is swindle, Theroux seems to argue, its destruction in public ought to be equally delicious by way of spectacle.

Sadly for Minor Watt, he’s later caught up with Mara, an out-of-work gallery clerk, who is vaguely Asiatic and winds up first tantalizing Minor and then outright humiliating him with a Burmese dah dagger, sending him naked into the city streets streaming blood from a neck wound. The art world stands front-and-center in another Theroux story, “Mrs. Everest”, the title character of which is a gallery grand dam whose frosty opinions and hard-to-scale esteem mark her as a taste-maker and reputation-breaker. The narrator, by contrast, is a painter praised for his “impartial realism”, but not by Mrs. Everest, who regards his portraits and landscapes as “so self-explanatory as to be banal.” More to Mrs. Everest’s taste is a work by the artist Felix Gonzales-Torres, which Theroux describes as “175 pounds of wrapped candy heaped against a wall.” In Theroux’s telling, it takes a number of years for the narrator to break away from the clutch of syncophant moths fluttering around Mrs. Everest’s flame. Taken together, “Minor Watt” and “Mrs. Everest” can be taken only peripherally as stories about the art world; rather, they reflect the now dominant influence of great wealth in American society and how money deflects and dampens originality and freedom of thought, not to mention the lamentable effect of highfalutin criticism on artists’ and writers’ self-esteem.

Paul Theroux is a very famous writer, whose fifteen works of highly sportive and keenly observed travel books are almost all classics. In his travels, Theroux takes the dim view of human nature, one that allows him to navigate through some pretty distasteful, even dangerous places, ever ready for the next disappointment or surprise. He seems a man who, in real life, doesn’t mind riding the twin rails of whimsy and fear, watching them ever-converge at a horizon just over there. A book like “Dark Star Safari” or “The Last Train to Zona Verde” will scare the pants off any reader, yet feel at the same time like a dose of pure oxygen. The thirty works of fiction are less consistent, more sanguine, and contain a number of outright embarrassments, though just as often real gems and a classic here and there (eg. “My Other Life”, “My Secret History” and “Saint Jack”). “Twenty Stories” is much the same, an uneven collection, featuring many transgressive males behaving rather badly.

In the title story, for example, a youthful narrator contemplates his dead father from a distance of ten years. He recalls his father as a distant and incomprehensible man, a jovial fellow without qualities, wit or smarts, under the thumb of a dominant wife. And then one day, the singing group he enjoys decides to put on a minstrel show. Over a short period of time, Dad transforms himself into Mr. Bones, telling lustful and other off-color jokes around the house, singing minstrel tunes, turning himself out in Black Face at every opportunity, even adopting the pose of Mr. Interlocutor at times. The family, in part distressed and in part mystified, can do nothing while Dad becomes cruel and manic before their eyes. Show over, Dad reverts to the meek shoe salesman he once was. Equally, in “Our Raccoon Year” another hapless Dad is plagued by raccoons, who eat the garden, infest the attic, and roam at will through the house at night. Trapping first, then poisoning, then outright bludgeoning the raccoons becomes Dad’s raison d’etre, to the extent that he loses his reason. In “Another Necklace”, a writer on tour receives threatening text messages which lead him to disaster; or, in “Siamese Nights” an American contract worker in Thailand falls in love with a transvestite who holds him in thrall to the point of suffocation; or, in “The Furies”, a middle-aged dentist jettisons his portly first wife to marry a comely assistant, only to find disaster in a bevy of harpies at a high school reunion. In “Rip it Up”, a threesome of unhappy nerd teenagers discover in bomb-making both their psychological revenge on bullies and their undoing.

Stylistically, Theroux’s short fiction is plagued by serial commas, run-on adjectives, and strange syntax. (“But he knew she was a lady-boy, cute, rather small, pigtails, a miniskirt, knee socks.”) Sometimes, Theroux writes puzzling sentences (“That night, the Wednesday, Osier went to Siamese Nights.”). And, of course, Theroux utilizes the infamous sentence fragment as well. His transgressive males, impending disasters full of violent threat and menace, as well ambiguous sexuality plaguing both genders, all remind one of short stories by W.W. Jacobs, Saki, O.Henry, and even Guy de Maupassant. And in most of Theroux’s stories, the leitmotif of revenge lurks: In “I’m the Meat, You’re the Knife”, a man takes an insidious Sheherazade-like revenge on a dying high school teacher who’d abused him years before.

“Twenty Stories” is an uneven collection at best. But one must give Theroux his due. He holds to his vision, revealing to his readers a deep commitment to dark truths held close to the vest, then let out in the world to flutter in the dark like cave bats.

[Mieke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bundel van kortverhalen. Sommige erg beklijvend en fascinerend. Andere nogal leeg.

[Paul Boger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Something gets lost here, between the idea and the execution. Every story begins with a provocative concept, include several insightful paragraphs and observations, only to bog down in unnecessary description and explication. They lack any sense of tension and release; I've never seen insanity and depravity look so casual and boring. Maybe that was Theroux's goal, but getting through this collection was a frustrating slog.

[Angus McKeogh · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is my first foray into Theroux's shorter works. Until now I've been immersed in his travel writing and novels. So this was certainly different. A strange amalgam of stories about relationships and sex. Mainly written about foreigners and expatriates in Eastern Asia. The longer pieces I found really engaging. There was also a handful of micro-fiction pieces which didn't do a whole lot for me. But it was still a good read on the whole.

[Ron Chandler · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did not like this book. The writing was decent but not particularly special, and I did not like the stories or the characters. Some stories had an interesting premise (the only reason for my 2 star rating), yet I felt that another writer might have done much better with the idea.

I had to force myself to finish this book, hoping that 'the next story might be better'. Alas, it never was.

[Jeff Tankersley · Rating 1 out of 5]

"Mr. Bones" (2014) is a collection of twenty short stories by author Paul Theroux, who has written some novels and also has these short stories published in magazines like the New Yorker and Atlantic over the past few decades. About half of these are modern horror stories, and the other half are travelogue slice-of-life pseudo-mystery narratives.

The horror tales are psychological and immersive mystery-slash-horror stories with odd characters in modern situations (with some exceptions) who lend a hopeless and desperate edge to the world we live in. Theroux is good with these character studies and these flawed people, though at times gratuitously-grotesque or sick. Halfway through any of these stories, if you don't like how it's going you should just skip ahead; you won't miss what you skip (it is going to continue, and the ending won't be fulfilling).

The travel stories are more like pictures of characters dealing with adult relationships and societal stigmas, a lot of adulterers and oddballs and with a lot of bad foreign-speak dumb-down dialogue ("You say my lie" is the Vietnamese girl's "you saved my life," for example; pages and pages of this prose).

These stories just go nowhere and then they end, and then you'll feel like you were on the receiving end of some boisterous story shared by a self-righteous drunk world traveler at a cocktail party that everyone around nods along with before collectively sneaking away to another part of the room.

Verdict: One of the horror tales is good ("Our Raccoon Year"), but the rest of them and the life-abroad relationship vignettes are nothing special.

Jeff's Rating: 1 / 5 (Bad)
movie rating if made into a movie: most PG-13 or R

[Owen Townend · Rating 3 out of 5]

That Theroux is known to be a travel writer is evident from the tropical settings for these tales.
However, what is most interesting is his approach: that a White male tourist of age in an Eastern country is not so much intrepid as he is vulnerable to the point of being pathetic.
This, of course, extends to Western environments where arguably the male protagonists are more loathsome though the women in their lives are also framed as embittered and henpecking.
While I remain unsure how to take these insights into weak-willed men at home and abroad, I did appreciate Theroux's exploration of the short story form and vivid scene-setting.

Notable Stories

• Minor Watt - there is something oddly thrilling about the destruction of priceless artefacts.
• Siamese Nights - for so long the love story is heart-warming and then, at the last, it twists.
• The Furies - the bitter truth of a misspent youth has never been so unrelenting.

[Lisa Cobb Sabatini · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won a copy of Mr. Bones: Twenty Stories by Paul Theroux from Goodreads.

No two stories are alike in Mr. Bones: Twenty Stories by Paul Theroux. Readers are caught up in each prisoner's life, finding those lives at times familiar, at times bizarre, yet always surprising. Although these stories are dark, they shine a light on human frailities, evils, ignorance, and strengths. Readers may encounter familiar characteristics in the protagonists and supporting casts that cut too close to home, delivering uncomfortable insights to themselves as well as others. Perhaps we readers have all met too many of these characters in real life.

[Kevin McAvoy · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first look at Mr Theroux's fiction and I liked it.
I wonder if some of these tales are from conversations with people he met during his many travels.
Poor Mr Bones, the first story is really well presented.
I listened to the audiobook free at Audible.com
Several narrators helped bring the tales to life.
I prefer Theroux's travel books but will take a gander at another of his fictions.
One star short because some of the fake accents were poor and not needed and some stories were too short to get interested in.

[Ubaid Dhiyan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A superb collection, rich with characters and brilliantly done sketches. Thoroughly enjoyable except for the stories about old white men getting in, or thrusting themselves into, romantic situations, with very young, Asian (or "Asiatic") women (mostly). I have found this to be a disturbingly recurring motif in Theroux's recent work ("Mother Land") and don't enjoy it all - there's a weird creepiness to it that I just can't get comfortable with.

[Sienna-Rose D.R · Rating 2 out of 5]

”her breasts.... Seemed to have a personality of their own. When leaned they seemed to swing for him”. God, I am beyond sick of men trying to write women characters and having 0 understanding of basic biology or anatomy. What are these monstrous, anthropomorphic things on her chest?

And grossly describing an Asian woman as ”Beautiful, more so for looking submissive”.... Was this written by a weeabo who watches too much anime porn?

Such a shame, because the stories themselves are interesting. Paul Theroux could have made something great out of Mr Bones.

[Doug Lewars · Rating 2 out of 5]

*** Possible Spoilers ***

There are 20 stories in this book. I enjoyed 4, disliked one so thoroughly I didn't finish it and found the remaining 15 to be okay - but nothing special. I would not recommend this book. It's not really bad. It's just that there are so many better works out there that I can't see wasting time on this one.

[brettlikesbooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

meaty, rich, & evocative + wide range of settings and characters, all exposing the dark underbelly of man
☠️
“‘I have a mental list of people I want to kill,’ Mrs Everest used to say, and her gargling old-actress voice made her sound more murderous. ‘Not die a natural death—I want to deal the fatal blow...Quite a long list. I keep adding to it.’”
☠️
instagram book reviews @brettlikesbooks

[Ella Grunt · Rating 1 out of 5]

Really hamfisted "woke" short stories, obviously awarded acclaim for "deconstructing masculinity" or some tired nonsense. I had high expectations, but there's nothing substantive here to learn. There are no interesting angles, plot twists, or anything to elevate this. Its straight down the line, politically puerile, lazy, award-baiting chaff.

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. I enjoyed many of the stories very much, but the overall impact of the collection was mixed. The stories were well written and full of ideas that made me think. But there are also some troublesome characterizations of Asian women that keep reappearing. Mostly stories about privileged white men, which I suppose is the main audience for this book.

[Jody · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first third of this collection was interesting but I have to say the middle was muddle of quite short stories that made little sense and had no kind of conclusion and little satisfaction. the final few longer stories were just ok. This from a writer whose novels I have enjoyed. Not highly recommended.

[Pablo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well written as all his work is but - unexciting. I had thought to say boring but that is'nt quite it. I find Theroux a crap shoot. My last book of his, "The Lower River" was brilliant- and then this. UGH!
" stars for the quality of writing.

[Lise Mayne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent writing, highly observant of human nature, but I found the writing aloof and at the end of each story, I went, "Meh, and so?" I just don't like this style. I find it pointless to read something that has no goal, at least to my mind. Wasn't interested in reading more.

[Matt Daneman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Worthwhile just for the title story and “Our Raccoon Year,” which were scarier than the scariest Stephen King in showing a domestic life spiraling down unpredictably.
Some really interesting pieces, a couple I skimmed or didn’t finish. This was my first Theroux. I’ll read more.

[Mike Heenan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Expecting more like The Great Railway Bazaar or The Mosquito Coast my only other books by him. I mean the guy can write, let’s not kid anybody. I just found the collection hard to get through after such a departure from what I was expecting/hoping for.

[Tom Baker · Rating 4 out of 5]

These stories range from ho hum to brilliant. Some of the longer ones in the second half of the book are what Paul Theroux does so magnificently. That is bring the mundane to a much higher level. Ethereal.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Depressing