সবুজ দ্বীপে

by Paul Theroux, সেলিম হোসেন টিপু (Translator)

Pocket sized, paperback book

Genres: Fiction, Literature

Unknown Binding

First published September 1, 1995

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

[Tobias · Rating 4 out of 5]

A gripping, well written short story. Sometimes with a bit too much description and not a lot of happening. But Theroux transfers the feeling and emotions very well.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve got another Paul Theroux book sitting on my shelf; it’s about traveling by train from Chicago to the bottom tip of South America. I got it in a used bookstore in Boston when I drove east from Iowa; I was thinking it would be good reading in case I do any similar traveling…so I’m going to save it for later. But this is the last of my really short books; it’s a 50 page story about some young college kids who run off to Puerto Rico because the boy gets the girlfriend pregnant…it’s from the Peace Corps library. The story is set in the 60’s and published in 1980, but to me it seems really dated in its morality and depiction of Puerto Rico. First, I don’t know if getting a college girl pregnant is such a shameful disaster that you have to run off to some island, but maybe it was in the 60’s. Second, it’s weird to me to think of Puerto Rico as exotic or mysterious…if there is any place in Latin America that isn’t those things it has to be Puerto Rico. But in the story the island is poor and full of brown people who can’t seem to find any profession but prostitute or beggar. Part of it might be that the author is trying to show how the two kids feel about being in a bad situation and in a strange place…and maybe it was a lot poorer and danker back then. Still, it’s an unfortunate trend that I’ve noticed in some of the books I’ve read here that have to do with travel…it’s a little offensive and I guess I don’t like seeing Latin America through these people’s eyes…I remember On the Road was like that too…once they got to Mexico it was all starving dogs and teenage prostitutes. Anyways, in the story the couple runs off to Puerto Rico thinking they can get away from their problems, but they don’t really get along or have anything to do with their time…they just hang out in a tiny rented room and fight.

[L J Field · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent novella exploring love between two very young people with an unexpected baby on the way. The question of marriage, their general feelings for each other, the seemingly numberless years ahead wherein they may keep struggling to keep their feelings alive. For a volume that is a quarter of a usual book, the quandary they fight through is explored in minute detail. A very enjoyable, yet sober, book.

[John Ross · Rating 5 out of 5]

From the author's Wickopedia page notes: "I really did have a child with my girlfriend that we put up for adoption and he really did come back into my life and is a wonderful addition to the family. That happened. We went to Puerto Rico in 1961 to have the baby, just as in the book."

So for the the reviewers who rate this story as depressing . . . well, Paul Theroux actually lived it.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short fiction by Paul Theroux tells of a young man and his pregnant girlfriend who have set up house in Puerto Rico on a minuscule budget. The stresses begin to tell on them as they slowly drift apart.

[Delaney · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good enough that I would've read more about the characters, but alas, it was only a short story.

[S S · Rating 4 out of 5]

Timidity for sale is all too familiar

[Vincent · Rating 5 out of 5]

So don't read this book if you aren't ready to do some soul-searching about your life. While it centers on the young couple from the United States who escape to Puerto Rico when she becomes pregnant, the story is in fact all about The choices we make and how we feel about them days or weeks or years later. In this case the choices involve having children, getting married, taking a job because you have to pay bills etc. Theroux is a wonderfully simple and direct writer and the story is easily read during your lunch hour and again the next day if you want to savor the sadness.

[Patrick Nichols · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two young lovers run away to a tropical paradise...and find penury, alienation and doom. Oh, and a lot of cockroaches and a little cockfighting. Definitely one of the most unremittingly bleak tales I've read in a while. Theroux's usual theme of arrogant westerners facing dissolution within ancient jungles may be at work here, but for the most I was just glad it was so mercifully brief. A serious bummer.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The tiniest little book i've ever read.

[Annabelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Puerto Rico doesn't sound too inviting, the way Theroux tells this little tale. A tiny book from BM, which I didn't realize was already in one of my books containing short stories, also from BM.