Grab bag

Here's some quick reviews of what I've been reading over the last week or so....

Peter Greenberg: DON'T GO THERE! (2009) -- Greenberg is the Travel Editor for NBC's TODAY SHOW. His book was filed in the Humor section of my favorite local used book store, so I thought it might be funny. It wasn't. Basically, Greenberg spends 250 pages warning you about lots of places NOT to visit in your travels, all of which illustrate Karl Malden's First Rule Of Travel: Don't Leave Home. I can see where Greenberg might be funny on TV, but after the first couple chapters warning you away from Chernobyl, Bhopal and Love Canal, it all gets kind of dull.
I was also shocked that none of the places I've lived made any of Greenberg's "Must Avoid" lists. Ankara, Turkey didn't make it into the Top 10 for Worst Air. Worland, Wyoming didn't come anywhere near Most Boring. And Washington didn't break into the Top 10 Suicide States -- though Wyoming did....

Richard Burton: DIARIES (2012) -- A former big-time actor, Rich had all the same problems as the rest of us lower-earners: Hating his job, being bored, not wanting to be around most people, and whether he should buy ANOTHER million-dollar diamond ring for his wife. His diaries are surprisingly readable, very good waking-up reading. I was reminded in places of another actor's diaries published a decade or two back, Charlton Heston's AN ACTOR'S LIFE. But Burton goes into more depth -- when he's in the mood, and not drinking heavily. And it's interesting how much stuff he pours out onto the page when he's happy with his wife Liz. When she's not around, he pretty much clams up. Parts of the book are laugh-out-loud funny, but there's 650 pages of it.

Alice Sebold: LUCKY (1999) -- It takes me awhile to Get things, sometimes: The Cars, Madonna, Prince. Sebold was quite a publishing sensation a decade or so back when she published the Number 1 bestselling novel THE LOVELY BONES. This memoir came first: It tells how Sebold was beaten and raped while a student at Syracuse University. It is brutal, shocking, and absolutely riveting to read. You THINK the toughest, hardest-to-read part of the story is right up front. And it IS tough. But more shocking stuff follows. There are signs that Sebold maybe didn't know where to END her memoir, but it was worth the trip. She was lucky that she was a strong and quirky person, and she's doubly lucky that her family was a bunch of fruit loops who stood behind her and helped her hold her life together.

Pat O'Day and Jim Ojala: IT WAS ALL JUST ROCK AND ROLL (second edition, 2003) -- O'Day was a disc jockey and station manager for Seattle's KJR AM in the '60s, back in the days when that station was one of the premiere AM stations in the country. His descriptions of what it was like to work in radio back in those days are unique, solid and enjoyable, and when he talks theory about what he -- as a manager -- thought made for an enjoyable AM station and talented AM DJ's, he's on solid ground. I still think there's a great book waiting to be written about working in AM radio in the '50s and '60s, and O'Day has a good start on it here.
But this isn't the book. Much of O'Day's rock-'n'-roll history-writing is from the first-the-earth-cooled-then-the-dinosaurs-came school, and his stories about hanging out with rock stars (Jimi Hendrix, The Beach Boys, Three Dog Night, more) aren't funny or revealing (even the story about Hendrix returning to his alma mater, Seattle's Garfield High School), they're just kind of sad.
O'Day writes ONE PAGE about his alcohol problem -- the cure for which he's been doing radio and TV commercials about in the Seattle area for a decade. There was maybe the basis for another book there -- but O'Day says he was a happy drunk, and that all his friends and co-workers agreed with him....
There are other problems. Glen Campbell and Ahmet Ertegun are among the well-known names who get their names misspelled more than once. Pat sometimes writes women (plural) when he means woman (singular) -- this also happens more than once.
This is the updated second edition of Pat's book. It looks great, and there are some nice black-and-white photos of Hendrix, Elvis, The Rolling Stones, Paul Revere and the Raiders, The Mamas and Papas, The Lovin' Spoonful, and other stars who played in Seattle. But did anyone proofread the book?

#750: Readin' and writin'

Hey there. Sorry I haven't posted much lately. I don't have direct access to the Net at all times anymore, plus I've been busy.
The horror novel I was working on was put on hold a week ago, when I suddenly got an idea out of the blue that might allow me to finish that Rock Group Novel I've been trying to write for years, plus get some of my other lifelong musical obsessions out in some kind of useable form.... Plus, it's a nicer, brighter place than where I was heading in the horror novel. So I'm working on that instead. I'll keep you posted.
Meanwhile, I was reading lots of horror as homework for the novel I was working on -- most of it was pretty forgettable. One big disappointment: Alan Goldsher's silly zombie mash-up novel, PAUL IS UNDEAD -- the previously untold story of The Beatles as zombies, leaders of The British Zombie Invasion. I thought it had real comedy possibilities -- but the cover painting, showing the Fab Four shambling across Abbey Road as parts fall off of them -- promises much more than the book delivers.
I got maybe 100 pages into it before I gave up. It's basically a one-joke book. Everybody either becomes a zombie or gets eaten up by zombies. Goldsher, a session bassist, clearly did his homework, and knows LOTS of trivia about The Beatles -- you'd have to be a big fan just to "get" the book's title. But beyond the one central zombie joke repeated over and over, there's not much here.
I liked the idea of John Lennon and George Harrison living on practically forever as zombies, but ... I just wish Goldsher had done more with his basic idea. Plus, Goldsher's Lennon sounds nothing like John Lennon -- too bad I'd just finished re-reading Lennon's famous 1970 ROLLING STONE interview.
If you want the real untold comedy story of The Beatles, track down Mark Shipper's PAPERBACK WRITER -- that's where you'll learn about the '50s-style MOR "crooner" album Paul released BEFORE joining the Fab Four, among other shockers.
As for PAUL IS UNDEAD, I haven't been so disappointed with a book since Terry Bisson's THE PICK-UP ARTIST. Still, the illustrations are cute....
Other reading: Mostly short stories, novels still have to be pretty great to keep my interest all the way through. Stephen King's "The Road Virus Heads North" was above-average; Kelly Link's "The Specialist's Hat" was odd and creepy, with lots of spooky atmosphere; M. John Harrison's "The Great God Pan" was pretty low-key, with the real terror implied but never directly shown -- just what were his characters DOING with those mysterious mind-experiments back in the '60s? I've read lots of other shorts, but nothing real stunning or memorable.
When not reading or writing, got some travel time in with the girlfriend a couple weeks back -- visited historic Port Townsend and Port Angeles, 50+ miles up the coast from us. Port Townsend was especially cool, with its old downtown on the flats down by the water, and with the old sailing-era "captain's houses" on the bluff overlooking downtown -- all of it immortalized in Jack Cady's novel THE OFF SEASON, which I also wasn't able to get more than 100 pages into.... Was so distracted watching a deer wander through somebody's front yard that I almost got hit by a truck. ...Pretty cool neighborhood, though. Also interesting how I keep wanting to spell it Port "Townshend" -- ah, yes, Port Townshend, founded by famous British explorer and rock guitarist Pete Townshend about 150 years ago....
Port Angeles was a little less historic, but pretty country with the gorgeous Olympic Mountains seemingly looming up over downtown.... Nice drive there and back, my only complaint was there was nowhere to pull over and look out at the water stretching 50 miles north to Canada....
Got bored at work again and took a big bag of CD's back in last week, music from which helped get me through a couple of bad nights before the Memorial Day Weekend. Still listening to the same old stuff, but it sure beats the radio....
Well, this is just a quick update. I have high hopes for the new music book -- a kind of rock and roll meditation, that will hopefully sum-up what music has meant to me over the past 45 years. God knows how it's all gonna fit together, or if, or whether it's all gonna make sense. I don't even care much. At least I'm writing something....
Cheers! More soon....

#703: It's a long way there....

Spent all of Monday on a LONG road trip, down to Salem, Ore., to meet my Girlfriend's Father. That all went fine -- I was MUCH more worried about whether The New Car (bought back around Christmas) would break down somewhere along the road than I was about meeting the GF's Dad.
The trip down was four hours on busy I-5. It was around 90 degrees at our destination outside of Salem. Just south of Portland, with the temperature outside the car hovering around 89, the GF FINALLY convinced me to give the air conditioner a try, & it worked wonderfully -- & I drove the rest of the way there in a dreamy haze. Ain't technology wonderful?
Got there, met her Dad & some of the rest of her family -- nice people. Talked a lot, had some good food, tried to stay cool. Around 7 or so, we figured it was time to head back home, & it was still around 85 outside.
So I had one of my BRILLIANT IDEAS & suggested we head for the Oregon Coast, where it would be at least 20 degrees cooler than the Willamette Valley. The car had been running fine all day, I didn't want to fight the I-5 traffic again, & I hadn't seen the ocean in 10 years. It would be a nice relaxed drive home for us, so...? She said if I was up for it, she was.
Four hours down, EIGHT hours back home.
I was an idiot. I couldn't guess distances right. I was familiar with the roads north of Tillamook, Ore., so I had some idea of how far the drive back home would be. & I knew it was only about 50 miles to the ocean. What I didn't know was some of the stuff we'd encounter along the way. Not that we didn't have a fun, interesting time....
Driving into the sun as we headed west from Salem. Winding climbs into the low Coast Ranges. We saw the Marine Layer of low overcast clouds coming in from a distance, then curved off to the north to head for Tillamook. Climbed up what I thought was the last range of hills between us and the coast....
And drove right into a huge fog bank. The temperature dropped from the low 80s to the low 50s in a matter of minutes. We'd gone from summer heat to winter cool in less than 50 miles.
In the middle of the thick, shrouding fog was a road construction project -- a 15-minute wait before a pilot car led a long line of us drivers through the five-mile-long pavement-resurfacing project.
But when we dropped back down out of that and came out of the fog, we drove through the rolling green farms and leaping forest-topped hills of Tillamook Cheese country. To see all this gorgeous greenery with lakes and inlets sprinkled all through it in the evening twilight was like seeing paintings of The Shire in Middle Earth. It was all quite pretty, seemingly deserted, & very quiet around 8:30 or so.
By the time we hit the coast at Tillamook, it was pitch-dark. & apparently on Oregon's North Coast the sidewalks all roll up by 9 p.m. We finally found a gas station to fill-up the car, & bought a couple mocha frappes for some caffeine to keep us going. And we kept heading north.
Put on some music to -- I hoped -- keep me focused and motivated: Journey, Pete Townshend, Todd Rundgren, Keane. When that started to get boring, I turned on the radio and found a few "modern country" stations to keep the GF happy. Heard some pretty good stuff, too -- done mostly by women. For me, country songs seem to have more depth of feeling when women sing them.
Drove through some beautiful coastal fishing villages, gorgeous lights sparkling on the water -- almost all of them closed down tight. Could see & hear the ocean but couldn't get close to it. At one point when the caffeine got to me, we pulled over & I downed some aspirin ... and I could hear the ocean waves roaring off below us. But I couldn't see a thing.
Drove through my old stomping grounds of Raymond and South Bend, Wash., both looking very quiet in the 1 a.m. darkness. Amazing how much stupid, petty crime happened in two such small, quiet towns while I was a reporter there.
Stopped for more strong coffee at Montesano, topped-off the car and dashed for home. Finally got back to the house around 3. Was a little shaky in places -- between Tillamook and Astoria it seemed at times as if the shadows on the road in front of me were sinking into the pavement in slow motion as the bright lights from the car made them vanish. More than once or twice I thought I was seeing things. I didn't mention any of this to the GF. I KNEW I'd been driving for WAY too long.
It made for an 18-hour day, most of it on the road. I will certainly try to NEVER do THAT again. My vacation's coming up in another two weeks, and I still hope to make it over to the ocean.
During the DAYTIME, next time....

#686: Music in Turkey

I'm sure there must have been some. I just can't remember much of it.
Outside of the ghostly, wailing, howling Islamic Call to Prayer, which happened 6 times a day starting around 5 a.m., I don't remember hearing much genuinely Turkish music. At one point I received as a present a cassette of a fairly modernized Turkish-woman ballad-singer, who sounded almost pleasant when I heard the music in someone else's apartment ... but on my own I couldn't get into it. For awhile I was disappointed by my failure to adapt & enjoy a new culture, this failure to blend in.
& then I stopped worrying about it. I figured if the music was good enough, IT would grab ME, as always. & that never happened.
My family & I were in Turkey for 2 years -- late 1989 thru late 1991, when the country was just starting to get "modernized." At least that's what the Turks thought. A Pizza Hut had opened in Ankara, & a brand-new McDonald's had just opened in the busiest central square downtown. We never went to either. They were always JAMMED with customers -- all the hip young Turks wanted to be in on Something New.
There were no CDs in Turkish stores back then, but cassettes were EVERYWHERE -- on the shelves of the smallest hole-in-the-wall stores, in the covered stalls of the open-air markets. I bought a Turkish-made cassette of Al Stewart's LAST DAYS OF THE CENTURY there, & though a friend thought it might have been "pirated," it looked fairly legit, complete with the legend "Made in Istanbul" on the cassette, & the official Enigma Records logo & all the artwork & etc. I remember playing the title song & "Red Toupee"; can't remember if I ever got to "Josephine Baker" or "Ghostly Horses of the Plains." But I've still got the tape around somewhere. It still works....
I remember a new Fleetwood Mac album being released just as we went overseas -- BEHIND THE MASK, which shockingly didn't include Lindsey Buckingham. I remember putting it on early in '90 & hoping it would somehow lift us out of the worst of the place, this new land of heat & dust & smog that we'd discovered on our arrival -- & the Mac album failed 2 deliver. It seemed awfully flat & dull, somehow. Or perhaps it was just the heat, I remember thinking. I never even got as far as the hypnotic "In the Back of My Mind," which likely would have woke me right up....
A year later, the same sort of flatness occurred with the Moody Blues' KEYS OF THE KINGDOM, which I had hoped would be a return to the level of their earlier, excellent THE PRESENT -- & which I played all the way through one especially hot summer afternoon while washing dishes. I failed to hear a single memorable melody. By then I was SURE it wasn't the Turkish heat.
There WAS some Good Stuff out there, though because we were so far from home, we had only the sketchiest sort of idea of what was rockin' U.S. ears. I 1st heard Rush's "Show Don't Tell" in Turkey, buying a cassette of their PRESTO cheap & hoping for a repeat of their earlier MOVING PICTURES. Nothing else on PRESTO grabbed me that much -- I don't know if I ever even finished it -- but the opener woke me up....
First heard Kate Bush's THE SENSUAL WORLD in Turkey. Mainly bought it for the devastating "This Woman's Work," & of course I'd heard Kate's 1st 3 albums 10 years earlier. I must've played "This Woman's Work" a lot -- it was my son's favorite song in the world when he was 2 years old.... There were some other good things on SENSUAL WORLD, like the steamy title song & the one where she dresses up like a rocket....
Thanks to the Base Exchange (a "department store" about the size of a big 7-11), we felt like we were fairly up-to-date on music while overseas -- I first saw CD's in Turkey, before I was really sure what the heck they were. When they arrived they came all at once, with no apparent rhyme or reason: Copies of Van Morrison's then-current ENLIGHTENMENT and HYMNS TO THE SILENCE sat right next to the Stories' excellent (& mostly overlooked) early-'70s ABOUT US. But it took me a couple of years before I was "converted" by the value of CDs -- I had to get back to America & notice the extra bonuses & previously-unreleased tracks before I began thinking these funny-looking tiny new discs might actually catch on....
Tho the BX kept us pretty well-stocked, there were some things that were still a mystery: We knew Sinead O'Connor suddenly Got Big seemingly out of nowhere, but it took YEARS before I heard the intensity in her voice in "Nothing Compares 2 U." For years I couldn't figure out what all the fuss was about....
We knew INXS had become a pretty big deal back in the States, but we didn't know HOW big. We'd heard KICK, but we didn't realize what a string of hits they were cranking out Back Home.... Janet Jackson was suddenly a huge deal with RHYTHM NATION 1814 right after we arrived overseas. & none of us could figure out at the end of '91 what the heck a Nirvana was supposed to be....
One of my co-workers was a big Country fan, & was Pretty Country herself -- she actually USED words like "moseyin'" in casual conversation. Though she tended to listen to stuff like John Anderson's "Swingin'" (which I couldn't stand), she also had decent taste -- she was a big Steve Earle fan, & I first heard "Copperhead Road" coming out of her tape player at work....
There were other co-workers who were into stranger stuff, which I might have taken more notice of if I hadn't been distracted by a new country, new culture, writing my ass off for the base newspaper, etc. One was a broadcaster at a nearby base, who had two cats named Fripp and Eno. His casual mention of them one day made me pull the world's longest-delayed whiplash-double-take, & I said we needed to sit down & Talk Music at some point. & naturally, we never got the chance....
I even checked-out Turkish radio a few times, but there wasn't much out there: More wailing women singers, lots of atmospheric, droning Middle Eastern music.... The BBC World Service was out there somewhere, broadcasting faintly from a LONG way off -- they just reinforced the sense of foreignness we already felt. Home was literally 10,000 miles away. I've never felt so disconnected in my entire life. Not even when I lived in Wyoming....

#635: Money-making secrets of the Illuminati -- Revealed!

So, if you're going out for dinner you might want to know in advance what kind of sounds the restaurant's muzak system will be playing -- it might make the difference between a great dinner & indigestion, if you're a big enuf music fan.
So, if you're gonna be around the Bremerton/Port Orchard, Wash., area anytime soon, here's what a few local restaurants will be playing while you try to eat. Can't speak for the rest of the country, of course, but this research is To Be Continued....

International House of Pancakes, East Bremerton -- Too much new stuff, but 1 song stopped me in mid-bite: Dwight Twilley Band's "I'm on Fire," which I hadn't heard since about 1976. Also Chic's "I Want Your Love," which I also hadn't heard in awhile. Music's at just the right volume, tho again there was 2 much stuff from the past decade. + we had the place 2 Rselves at 8:30pm & the food was good & cheap. Grade: A-.
Shari's, East Bremerton -- Decent mostly-upbeat '60s/'70s hits, played not-quite-loud-enuf, not too much overplayed crap -- the big minus they earned for playing "Desperado" is more than outweighed by the + they get for Heart's "Love Alive." Other songs: The Chain, Wild Night, Levon, For What it's Worth, Loves Me Like a Rock, Poor Poor Pitiful Me. You can also overhear intresting conversations from nearby booths. Overheard from the young couple in the booth next to ours: "California's REALLY tough on smokers." Ha, welcome to Washington, kids -- you ain't seen nothin' yet. B+.
Family Pancake House, East Bremerton -- Mostly '70s pop & R&B hits by Nilsson, Cat Stevens, Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight, The Stylistics. Sounds good. Decent food, too. B+.
Shari's, Port Orchard -- Mostly obscure '50s & '60s rock&roll, R&B and pop hits that will keep your head spinning. Everything from Little Richard (doing WHAT? Couldn't place it) to "Along Comes Mary." Should be LOUDER. B+.
Shari's, Silverdale -- '70s hits played TOO LOW. The big minus they got 4 playing Dr. Hook's "Only Sixteen" & Elvin Bishop's "Fooled Around and Fell in Love" was more than counterbalanced by big +'s 4 "The Only Living Boy in New York" & "Morning Has Broken." Food was great, service was solid. B+.
Family Pancake House, Bremerton -- Everything from '50s rock&roll to current rock & country, played a little bit too low. Too much alternative rock. B-.
Denny's, Bremerton -- '80s hits by the likes of Blondie, The Clash, Split Enz, Wang Chung, Duran Duran, Thomas Dolby, Tommy Tutone, The Knack (ugh), Squeeze(?), etc., played so low that they R mostly buried by the heavy-metal radio sounds coming out of the kitchen. The atmosphere & the employees R usually pretty great. The food is sometimes pretty good too. But still, musically speaking, C+.
Spiro's, Silverdale -- Too much low-key current stuff, with 1 suprise: Florence + the Machine's raucous "Dog Days Are Over." Music played 2 softly, tho the view's nice & the pizza & lasagna were Xcellent. C+.

Not-cranky travel writing!

Paul Theroux earned a reputation as a rather downbeat realistic novelist (THE MOSQUITO COAST, MY SECRET HISTORY), & as a really cranky travel writer (A KINGDOM BY THE SEA, THE GREAT RAILWAY BAZAAR, RIDING THE IRON ROOSTER, FRESH AIR FIEND).
Part of the fun of reading Theroux's often marvelous travel books is his grumpiness -- his sour moods, the way he depicts the odd people he runs in2, the way he always seems 2 get them embarassing themselves with their own words.
Tho there's some of that in THE HAPPY ISLES OF OCEANIA (1992), Theroux is happy thru most of it as he island-hops his way across the Pacific Ocean in a kayak -- & at the end he arrives at a new home ... in Hawaii.
The book opens w/ Theroux reeling from his separation & divorce, using the Xcuse of a book tour as a reason 2 run off 2 Australia & New Zealand. The opening section in which Theroux meets the Kiwis is vivid & hilarious, & U will SEE some of the breathtaking places Theroux visits in those islands, so vivid R his Dscriptions.
But 4 me the book bogs down about 100 pgs in, when Theroux starts wandering aimlessly around the Australian Outback -- writing that should have bn vivid & funny drags instead. I've already 4gotten parts of this section. Paul hangs around 4 pgs w/ Aboriginies & beachcombers & I had 2 put the book down 4 awhile -- for 8 months, as it turned out.
But then it gets better. Theroux takes his kayak & heads north 2 New Guinea, then east thru the Solomons, Fiji, Tahiti, Samoa, the ghostly Marquesas, on 2 creepy Easter Island, & then finally 2 paradise in Hawaii.
Tho the Hawaii section may simply reinforce the visions of that island paradise we've all seen, Theroux's other stops R eye-openers. Each island is diffrent, each 1 stranger & more beautiful than the last -- even Easter Island with its ghostly rock faces -- & the people R an almost constant mystery. Dspite visiting some 60 islands in his journey, Theroux only gets hassled by natives a few times. The rest of the time he lives a life a lot of us might envy -- camping on the beach, paddling thru scenic gorgeousness, living cheaply, paddling on 2 a new destination when he gets bored.
There R some suprises. Theroux has always bn 1 4 including all the delays in his travels -- where he got hung-up & why, which bureaucracies gave him trouble, etc. In this book it's clear he would never have made it across the Pacific without catching a plane or 2 -- Easter Island's 2,300 miles from NEwhere -- but he hardly ever mentions this. Also, at the end it's unclear how a travel writer trying 2 live cheaply can afford 2 stay in a $2,500/day luxury bungalow on Hawaii's Big Island. But mayB he thot we didn't need 2 know that much about him.
In all of Theroux's previous travel books I've read, the final sections R always a kind of homecoming -- clearly that's the place the traveler has bn heading all along. It happens here 2, as Theroux Nded up spending at least 6 yrs in Hawaii.
This is a long book (530 pgs), but it's worth the trip -- & as w/ writers like John McPhee & Tim Cahill, you will SEE the places Theroux's bn -- U'll sweat in the hot ocean sun, U'll squint as the sun reflects blindingly off the water, U'll feel the waves splash around U, U'll see the ocean of stars overhead at nite, U'll see those wind-carved rock spires that line Kauai's Na Pali Coast 4 miles. It's like watching a really good nature video. Since most of us Rn't gonna C this stuff in Real Life, this book's the next best thing.
My fave Thoreaux book is still A KINGDOM BY THE SEA, about his walk around the British Isles, which I've read 2wice. It is, as is all his work, vivid & hilarious. But OCEANIA has all that & a really happy Nding. If U're a fan of the South Seas, sailing, island life, check it out.
As 4 me, I think I might go back & C what I missed in that Australian section when I fell asleep. He said he was gonna go visit Ayers Rock, & I don't remember that happening AT ALL....

Great cranky travel writing!

Tho he's gotta reputation 4 Bing cranky, travel writer & novelist Paul Theroux can B a lotta fun 2 read. Summa his travel writing is Xtremely vivid & funny, & (like John McPhee) after reading Theroux's books U almost feel like U don't need 2 go C summa the places he Dscribes. & summa them U wouldn't WANT 2 visit....
I got hooked on Theroux during 3 wks I spent in Greece in Summer 1991, broke & bored & working 2 hard. Dspite the gorgeous scenery all around me (which I couldn't afford 2 go get a closer look at), 2 fight the boredom I picked up Theroux's RIDING THE IRON ROOSTER, a 500-pg recap of his train trip across China in the late '70s. The book is Xhausting but vivid, & I started looking 4 more.
THE GREAT RAILWAY BAZAAR recaps Theroux's 1st travel adventure, across Europe & Russia via the Orient Express in the early '70s. Tho not 2 long & quite vivid, cranky & funny, Theroux's loneliness gets 2 him, & the whole last 1/4 of the book is 1 long Xhausted return home.
Theroux's best travel book (of the 1's I've read) is A KINGDOM BY THE SEA, about his long WALK around the coastline of the island of Britain in the early '80s. It's (as always) vivid & funny & Dtailed -- he meets some very eccentric Brits, & gets himself in2 some amazing windswept, Ghod4saken locations -- not leaving out the gritty, dull, drab landscapes that surely Xist around the isles as well. The book made me love the British Isles (where I've never bn) even more.
FRESH AIR FIEND is a big collection of shorter pieces, & tho it's uneven there's some amazing stuff included -- among them R Xcellent reviews of other travel writers' works like those of Bruce Chatwin (Theroux makes him sound better than he is), & an overview of Apsley Cherry-Gerrard's THE WORST JOURNEY IN THE WORLD, which sounds like the Ultimate Travel Book: it's a recap of Cherry-Gerrard's walk across part of Antarctica in the early 1900's. There's also an intresting look back at Theroux's 1st few novels, written while he was a Peace Corps volunteer in East Africa in the early '70s.
Some of Theroux's novels R Xcellent 2, but some R just dry & MT -- THE BLACK HOUSE is a boring "atmospheric" chiller in which NOTHING HAPPENS. But MY SECRET HISTORY is brilliant, immediate, vivid & devastating -- tho it shows-up the writer as a real creep, a 10dency continued in MY OTHER LIFE, which has sections well worth skimming, but is awfully tuff 2 get All The Way Thru.... MOSQUITO COAST is also quite good, vivid, involving, even terrifying -- tho perhaps not quite as good as the movie made from it. There's also a creepy murder&sex-change-switcheroo novel called CHICAGO LOOP which is worth taking a look at -- at least it's short.
Theroux has dozens of other books, including sevral more volumes of travel writing I've bn looking 4. THE PILLARS OF HERCULES is about a canoe trip thru the Greek isles, & SUNRISE WITH SEAMONSTERS has Paul & his kayak paddling thru the 1,000 isles of Indonesia! But somehow I bogged-down about 50 pgs in2 his South American railway adventure, THE OLD PATAGONIAN EXPRESS....
Theroux can B cranky, but he's usually funny, & he has a sharp eye that doesn't miss much. Check him out....