I was intruiged at the beginning, especially since our main character is an unusual 62-year-old man who is recently divorced. However, the character's (Hock's) behavior is unsettling and I had to stop reading about halfway through. This is a man who begins the book by discussing the numerous attempted emotional affairs he had. He is a man who visits a remote African village when he is 62 years old and admits to feeling lust for a girl who is at most 16 years old. That just disturbed me, that and the numerous other lustful comments the character made. He is a thoroughly unlikeable character is most aspects and that is a huge downside of ANY novel. I like to think of myself as a glass half-full person but when it comes to my literature I like a half-empty writer. This explains my love for Thomas Hardy--no one can make a character's life more bleak and miserable than Hardy (see The Mayor of Casterbridge). I like to think of Paul Theroux as the modern equivalent. I don't know why but I do love to read a tragedy or about a fall from grace. Maybe it is just a reminder of how good my own life is or a my own ward against tragedy.I was at my book club Saturday night and mentioned I had just started Theroux's latest novel, the Lower River. One of my friends said, "I hate Thereoux" and admitted to throwing one of his novels in disgust. Another friend sitting next to me said she didn't like Hotel Honolulu--too sexist. I can understand this feeling about Theroux. He often writes about the misguided American abroad in his novels--his most famous being the Mosquito Coast. His characters often have high hopes and dreams and then we get to see them dashed again and again. Even his non-fiction travel writing can seem bleak. He usually travels in the Third World, on trains for the most part and in my mind I always picture Paul Theroux sitting in a dusty depot somewhere waiting and waiting. But getting back to his latest novel about a misguided American. In the first few pages the hero Hock receives a new cell phone and it is this piece of modern technology that ends his marriage in the first two pages. Hock as he reflects on his life realizes that his happiest memories were those he spent in an African village making a difference by building wells and a school. Hock decides to light out, telling no one and returns to the village. And of course since the author is Theroux--you can never go back. The village has disintegrated further, the school is closed and in ruins and the happiness he saw there because of a revolution has turned to despair and there is menace in the air. Hock makes more than one foolish decision and before he knows it he is trapped in the village unable to leave. I liked the book--the opening was written by a master of story. Theroux lays a heavy hand with a treatise on poverty and the culture of aid (he in part is reflecting on his own time spent in Africa as a youth and his eventual return). The use of Snakes in the book as a theme is used a bit much. (Warning! Snakes everywhere in this book!) I was compelled to keep reading to find out what happens to Hock. I found the book to be very satisfying.
