The only Paul Theroux I had read before was a non-fiction travel diary called The Happy Isles of Oceania. I was surprised to open this and find it was fiction. And very strange fiction.This is a story of a brilliant but mentally ill man. He has a genius for mechanics and invention, but he is sure that the United States has become a destroyed society destined for war. He states a lot of current political truths and feelings but magnified into a paranoia that results in him taking his family (wife, 12 year old Charlie, younger brother Jerry - 8 or 10 years old?, and 5 year old twin girls) to Honduras to live, to escape the catastrophe that he believes the U.S. is headed for. He has them walk away from their home bringing nothing except camping equipment and gear that he has purchased for this trip. They get on a cargo ship that contains a missionary family and a Honduran family and off they go. It is rather amazing to see what this man is capable of organizing and building, he builds this compound in the Honduran jungle that he calls Jeronimo and it is comfortable and self-sustaining for the most part. He is manic and brilliant, but he has this obsession with ice, making ice. He has invented a huge ice maker that is fueled by fire and it really works but contains the dangerous elements of hydrogen and enriched ammonia.When a situation develops that threatens the family, disaster ensues and Jeronimo is destroyed. The remaining sanity of "Father" is also destroyed. He and his family stagger away from this disaster with Father, still following him as he has always been their leader. The life they lead then is untenable as he makes a series of mad decisions and drags his family with him as he makes these decisions.Reading this story I was always tense and feeling dread. I thought this is what it must be like to follow a cult leader; someone brilliant and charismatic but absolutely insane and getting worse. He also has a strange relationship with his sons, a magnification of a type that I have seen before, where the father challenges the son to do dangerous and difficult things in order to teach him and make him a man. The oldest son responds with loyalty although he knows something is wrong with his father. The younger son, without the maturity to make allowances, just sees that his father is a madman and going to destroy them all. One of the twins is fiercely loyal to her father, the other is more of a non-entity in the story, more babyish than her sister. All of these kids have been homeschooled and have both the advantages of that type of education and the isolation that comes with it. Each of these children respond differently to their bizarre life, the wife is loyal to the end. She truly loves her husband and works hard to realize his dreams. The story is tragic, the man needed medication although it certainly would have dulled his brilliance and energy. After the destruction of Jeronimo there was no more hope for him. It was a very tragic and nerve-wracking story.
It’s not the craziness and hypocrisy of American evangelical Christians and other nuts building utopias, or realizing their personal dreams among the ignorant and poor peoples of the under-developed world, but writing descriptions of rare sights: "It sank [an outboard engine:] into the weeds and began bleeding rainbows." of nature: "The howler monkeys were drumming in the thunder rumble across the black lagoon, and the rains boom and crackle made a deep cave of the earth and filled the sky with dangerous boulders, too big to see. And all around us in the wet and dark was this dark edge of monkeys." and thoughts and feelings (of Charlie, the first-person narrator): "Once, I had believed that Father was so much taller than me, he saw things I missed. I excused adults who disagreed with me, and blamed myself because I was so short. But this was something I could judge. I had seen it. Lies made me uncomfortable, and Fathers lie, which was also a blind boast, sickened me and separated me from him." The last quote is an example of Therouxs grasp of the way a teenager thinks (in this he is very much like Ian McEwan). But in the end it is the mind of the perfectionist near-religious nut, Father (Allie Fox) that stands out. His crazy philosophy, the way his mind works is what drives a great part of the message of this book home: "Man sprang out of this faulty world, Charlie. Therefore, I’m imperfect. What’s the use? It’s a bad design, the human body Skin’s not thick enough, bones aren’t strong enough, too little hair, no claws, no fangs. Drop us and we break... We weren’t meant to stand up straight, our posture exposes the most sensitive parts of the body, heart and genitals. We should be on all fours, hairier, more resistant to heat and cold, with tails. What happened to my tail, that’s what I’d like to know. I had to turn inventor. I was too weak to live any other way... Yes, sir, I’m going to live on all fours from now on. And that’s what I’m fit for, hands and knees!" With such an extremist, furious madman of a father, it’s no wonder Charlie, the narrator, and his family, fear him as the followers of some ancient religion would fear their god after going through some terrible natural catastrophe or war: "There were moments when we half-expected him to show up, although we knew he was dead-- expected him to appear somewhere astern and fling himself aboard and howl at us... Seabirds rested on this boat. I saw them, and heard Fathers howls in the wind... It made us watchful. We never talked about him, not a word."
What do You think about The Mosquito Coast (2006)?
(read date is a BIG guess--which most of my "read" dates are, so take them with a grain of salt; I am a CRS sufferer)When I read this book many years ago, I was convinced Theroux was the new great writer. His use of symbolism and foreshadowing is marvelously well-done: smooth, simply a part of the story-telling until one stops to examine it. His story-telling is superb, his characterization beautifully (and at times painfully) real, and his message timely even today. Though I have read nothing else of his that comes close, I still pick up his books in the hope that that first impression will be verified.
—Nomanisan
I hate Paul Theroux with a passion. I had to read this 'book' for year 11 and it was so painful that instead of reading the last quarter of the book I borrowed the Harrison Ford movie and wrote my essay based on the movie.....I guess they both ended the same because I got a good mark for my essay.I don't know whether it was the characters that I hated or just the whole storyline, but all I know was that I was glad when his boat house sank...?? Did it sink?? Or did the son shoot the father or am I just making it up because I was so traumatised that my mind has blocked it all out and given me an ending that I felt should have occurred??Either way, dont do it!!
—Liz
I do research in spoken language technology, building software that people can talk to. Right now, our main project is an app that lets beginning language students practice their speaking skills; if you're interested, you can find out more here. We have been working on it for about three and half years, and so far we don't really know if it's a good idea or not. We get mixed messages from the people who have tried it out. Some of them are enthusiastic and say it's really improved their French or Japanese. Others complain about this and that: not fast enough, speech recognition isn't sufficiently reliable, doesn't let you practice enough different things. We continue with it, because we believe in the basic concept, but it's quite possible we're just going down a dead end. I read this book about 25 years ago, when I was starting out in this field, and it's a frightening parable for anyone who works with new technology. Ally Fox is a gifted engineer who completely lacks any kind of common sense. He conceives an insane plan to move his family to Honduras and set up house in the jungle. He will build an enormous refrigerator and make large quantities of ice. The near-savage inhabitants of the area have never seen ice. For no particular reason, Fox is convinced that they will be amazed and thrilled by it. They locate a good spot to pitch camp, they build their house and their monster refrigerator, but no one comes asking for ice. Fox decides he has to go to the clients. He wraps up some big blocks of ice, insulating them as well as he can, and sets off to find his user base. If you're in the tech innovation business yourself, you will probably find this book fascinating. But be warned that it could also give you nightmares.
—Manny
