Paul Theroux

What if a one of our greatest authors, say George Orwell, believed that “(t)here’s a short period in everyone’s life when his character is fixed forever.” What if he further believed the critical period for him was 1922-1927 when he was a police officer serving in Burma. What is one to make of the fact that the only works he wrote about that seminal time in his life were one obscure novel and two essays? Well, Paul Theroux takes on the task of putting some flesh on that skeleton with a work of fiction that imagines what that time and place would have been like for a young man named Eric Blair. Who knew that was Orwell’s actual name? Theroux keeps it a secret until the very end.

Theroux gives us a marvelous coming-of-age story with a complex and nuanced protagonist in an exotic setting. Blair is a recent graduate of the elite Eton School. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have the wherewithal to enroll in a university, so he gets packed off to Burma as a probationary policeman. He is a naïve, intellectual introvert, who is initially uneasy about his job and suffers several missteps that get him transferred to ever remote postings. Moreover, he increasingly becomes repelled by what he sees of the British Raj in Burma. His colleagues are bullies, racists and hypocrites bent on maintaining order at all costs. Theroux’s Blair, however, is no saint. Often, he goes along to get along. He is embarrassed by his father’s history as a middle level British official in charge of keeping the world supplied with opium; and is tormented by his low status uncle who remains in Burma, but fails at business, and has a mixed-race marriage. Despite these shortcomings, Blair is endearingly normal. He enjoys an active sex life, keeps a dog, chickens, and ducks, and is sensitive about his height —he detests the nickname, “lofty.” He befriends a Burmese entrepreneur and even proposes him for membership in his local club.

Theroux tells the story with a straightforward narrative that builds slowly while providing a sense of a lived experience. As a seasoned travel writer, he is well-equipped to capture the lush settings and local color of Burma. Moreover, as a writer of fiction himself, Theroux is well-acquainted with the psychological intricacies of becoming an author. This is an intelligent portrait of one of our greatest writers. Though fictional, it is totally believable and an enjoyable read.… (lisätietoja)

This book only exists in Dutch; it is a compilation of short stories by Theroux. Travel stories obviously, as that is his genre most of the time. The stories come from two different volumes in English, ‘World’s End and Other Stories’ and ‘Sinning with Annie and Other Stories’.

Most stories seem to follow a similar pattern. Someone working abroad (journalist, aid workers, teachers) trying to find a life in a strange country. This is not easy, broken marriages and lonely people are the logical result.

I like reading Theroux, though I prefer his novels, where his characters get more depth.… (lisätietoja)