Figures In a Landscape: People and Places
(Libby/OverDrive eBook, Kindle)

Essays from profiles and short travel pieces to book reviews and book introductions surely seem quaternary to the prolific Theroux's novels, short stories, and travel books. And yet these pieces, written to make a reasonable living and produce the illusion of respectable employment, now make up a respectable portion of his output: this third collection brings his total to 134 essays over 53 years. Those who've missed these 30 pieces where previously published will be impressed by the breadth of his interests, the depth of his research, and the scrupulousness of his prose. A profile of Elizabeth Taylor (Liz in Neverland) works a miracle, allowing us to view the icon with unjaded eyes. A lengthy profile of a dominatrix (Nurse Wolf) offers genuine insight into both spanker and spanked. Appreciations of Conrad, Greene, Maugham, and Simenon show how book introductions ought to be done. And the closing, more personal pieces the most powerful of which, Dear Old Dad: Memories of My Father, formed the basis for his novel Mother Land (2017) add emotional heft and shape to this wide-ranging, thought-provoking, and eminently browsable collection.--Graff, Keir Copyright 2018 Booklist

Novelist and travel writer Theroux (Mother Land) is at the top of his game with his third collection of essays, a magisterial grouping of intimate remembrances, globe-trotting adventures, and incisive literary critiques. The 30 essays are culled from national publications and book introductions over a 15-year period, melding vivid narratives with shaded renderings of Theroux's inner life. The deeply personal "Dear Old Dad: Memories of My Father," reminisces about a loving yet remote parent who never read any of his son's work. "My Life as a Reader" explores Theroux's love affair with reading as a bookish child, and, later, as a teacher in Africa. "Trespassing in Africa" is his frightening tale of sex and recklessness during a booze-driven bender one Christmas in Zambia. His travels take him to Asia, Africa, Hawaii (now his home), and Morocco. Paul Bowles Michael Jackson, Oliver Sacks, Muriel Spark, Elizabeth Taylor, and Robin Williams are profiled, as well as a dominatrix whose vulnerability comes through amid the salacious details of her work in "Nurse Wolf, the Hurter." A highly versatile, appealing writer, Theroux casts a wide net with pleasing and entertaining results. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

A retrospective of the prolific writer's essays, travel stories, and reflections.In his latest work of nonfiction, Theroux (Mother Land, 2017, etc.) intersperses feature-length articles, essays, and celebrity portraits with miscellaneous shorter pieces on writing, love, and life, including one unforgettable character sketch of his enigmatic father. His many self-assigned subjects during this 15-year span include several complex and contradictory personalities, such as his close friend Hunter S. Thompson, "a boisterous recluse who also needed to be seen and heard," and a professional dominatrix, "Nurse Wolf," whom the author admires for her levelheadedness and her striking degree of empathy. When traveling abroad, Theroux prefers to be "humble, patient, solitary, anonymous, and alert," and he downplays his own moderate celebrity, preferring public transit to state-sponsored tourism. Whether recounting a "drug tour" of the Amazon or describing the many guises of corruption and exploitation that he witnessed during the 1960s in Africahe served in the Peace Corps in what is now Malawihis stories are less travelogues than well-curated meditations on some of the places, people, and moments he has experienced in a lifetime of rambles. Although Theroux claims to avoid all contemporary novels, lest their voices intrude on his creative process, he portrays himself as the last in a long tradition of travel-writing novelists, among them Somerset Maugham and Joseph Conrad, whose work he enjoyed discussing with Michael Jackson. Theroux manages an easygoing, self-effacing presence in his essays, as though his ego were spent somewhere around his 15th novel, and he locates his often witless or mystified self squarely within the frame of each encounter. His spare, unhurried prose style, which is rarely long-winded, betrays a novelist's relish for illuminating details and devastating turns of phrase. Yet despite his long and prolific career, Theroux still finds himself gobsmacked by wonder at what life has shown him, whether traipsing through the Neverland ranch with Elizabeth Taylor or trying to interview Robin Williams while caught up in the cloud of his obsessive, frenetic improvising.A masterfully simple and satisfying collection. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Essays—from profiles and short travel pieces to book reviews and book introductions—surely seem quaternary to the prolific Theroux's novels, short stories, and travel books. And yet these pieces, written to make a "reasonable living" and produce the "illusion of respectable employment," now make up a respectable portion of his output: this third collection brings his total to 134 essays over 53 years. Those who've missed these 30 pieces where previously published will be impressed by the breadth of his interests, the depth of his research, and the scrupulousness of his prose. A profile of Elizabeth Taylor ("Liz in Neverland") works a miracle, allowing us to view the icon with unjaded eyes. A lengthy profile of a dominatrix ("Nurse Wolf") offers genuine insight into both spanker and spanked. Appreciations of Conrad, Greene, Maugham, and Simenon show how book introductions ought to be done. And the closing, more personal pieces—the most powerful of which, "Dear Old Dad: Memories of My Father," formed the basis for his novel Mother Land (2017)—add emotional heft and shape to this wide-ranging, thought-provoking, and eminently browsable collection. Copyright 2018 Booklist Reviews.

Care to visit Ecuador and Zimbabwe? Ride in a helicopter with Elizabeth Taylor and go surfing with Oliver Sacks? Bone up on works by Henry David Thoreau and Hunter Thompson? You can do it all with this essay collection from the shape-shifting author probably still best known for The Great Railway Bazaar.

Prolific novelist and nonfiction writer Theroux (The Great Railway Bazaar) presents 30 pieces written in this century that were originally published in the New York Times and Smithsonian, among others, as well as introductions to books. As the subtitle indicates, the essays are profiles of literary figures (e.g., Graham Greene and Joseph Conrad) as well as public celebrities (e.g., Liz Taylor and Robin Williams). Theroux also offers impressions of places he has visited (Africa, Alabama) and lived in (Hawaii). Some of the selections are much too long, including a New Yorker piece on a dominatrix. Other entries are rather ultracritical of authors with whom Theroux has issues; he takes to task E.B. White owing to White's seeming lack of knowledge on raising geese (Theroux himself has done this and is an expert on the topic). The best selections offer great insights into who Theroux feels are unjustly neglected authors such as Belgian writer Georges Simenon. In a moving piece, the author remembers his late father. VERDICT For all fans of the author's ways of looking at life and literature. [See Prepub Alert, 11/12/17.]—Morris Hounion, New York City Coll. of Technology, Brooklyn

Novelist and travel writer Theroux (Mother Land) is at the top of his game with his third collection of essays, a magisterial grouping of intimate remembrances, globe-trotting adventures, and incisive literary critiques. The 30 essays are culled from national publications and book introductions over a 15-year period, melding vivid narratives with shaded renderings of Theroux's inner life. The deeply personal "Dear Old Dad: Memories of My Father," reminisces about a loving yet remote parent who never read any of his son's work. "My Life as a Reader" explores Theroux's love affair with reading as a bookish child, and, later, as a teacher in Africa. "Trespassing in Africa" is his frightening tale of sex and recklessness during a booze-driven bender one Christmas in Zambia. His travels take him to Asia, Africa, Hawaii (now his home), and Morocco. Paul Bowles Michael Jackson, Oliver Sacks, Muriel Spark, Elizabeth Taylor, and Robin Williams are profiled, as well as a dominatrix whose vulnerability comes through amid the salacious details of her work in "Nurse Wolf, the Hurter." A highly versatile, appealing writer, Theroux casts a wide net with pleasing and entertaining results. (May)