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My Other Life
by
Paul Theroux
In the Washington Post Book World, Sven Birkerts called this exuberant novel "a complex and gripping work of invention and confession . . . I understood again how the prose of a true writer can bring us to a world beyond." The book spans almost thirty years in the life of a fictional "Paul Theroux," who moves through young bachelorhood in Africa, in and out of marriage, af...more
Paperback, 464 pages
Published
September 15th 1997
by Mariner Books
(first published August 28th 1996)
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I get the feeling that I will love Theroux a little more with every book of him that I read. And you know what? The man has written a lot of books. A LOT of books. Just thinking about all the ones I haven't read yet makes me all giddy with anticipation.
"My Other Life" is a fake biography (which is why I'm filing it under biographies). But it could be real. It feels real. In a typical Theroux fashion, he puts himself out on the line in a way that makes you...feel. I know no other writer who gets...more
"My Other Life" is a fake biography (which is why I'm filing it under biographies). But it could be real. It feels real. In a typical Theroux fashion, he puts himself out on the line in a way that makes you...feel. I know no other writer who gets...more
I've had my face stuck in natural science, history and memoir for so long that I've practically forgotten about fiction. Why have I never read Paul Theroux? His writing is so engaging and trots along so effortlessly, I found myself reading it aloud on the bus stop bench. Another wonderful find on the free-for-the-taking shelf at the library.
As I move into this book, it just gets better. It reads like linked short stories, following the protagonist through his early writing years as a Peace Corps...more
As I move into this book, it just gets better. It reads like linked short stories, following the protagonist through his early writing years as a Peace Corps...more
The outline of Paul Theroux's life is well known to his readers: he has always been a writer and an English teacher, born in Massachusetts and living in Africa (including a leper colony in then-Nyasaland), Singapore, England and the United States, writing novels and travel books. Here he takes the skeleton outline of his life and adds improbable adventures at each step. For example, what if when he was in Singapore, he had run across an American millionaire who was a published poet, who would ha...more
I've read a great many of Paul Theroux's non-fiction travel books and have thoroughly enjoyed them all. This is the first novel of his that I've read, and I can't say I truly enjoyed it or felt a sense of resounding intellectual satisfaction when I finished it last night. I had two issues with it: the anecdotal meandering story line and the doppleganger artifice.
I like novels, whether they are literary or genre, that have a beginning, middle, and end. I want the novelist to make some points abou...more
I like novels, whether they are literary or genre, that have a beginning, middle, and end. I want the novelist to make some points abou...more
Elements of Paul Theroux's outlook & writing I find maddening, but as soon as I think, this guy's a self-absorbed prickwad with an amazing life, he writes a paragraph that endears me to his storytelling & perspective all over again. Notably I enjoy the patchwork quilt nature of the various phases of his life; this felt more lifelike and realistic because the narrative is full of being broke, making split-second choices that alter the next 9 or 10 years of his life, and toward the end, th...more
My heart initially sank at the epigram from Borges. "Not another thinly veiled autobiography, roman a clef, self-analysis masquerading as novel, under the forgiving blessing of 'I do not know which of us has written this page' bullshit," I thought. It turns out to be better than that. Essentially the story of 'Paul Theroux's' (the scare quotes are necessary) marriage and divorce, set against the background of his increasing commercial success. There are some lovely stories here--the novel procee...more
Like My Secret History, this is a fictionalized account of Theroux's adult life. My Other Life is presented as a series of vignettes--almost short stories, really--and focuses more (though not exclusively) on Theroux's writing career. The segments are hit and miss, but the writing is always good.
Theroux succeeds in conveying his sense of writing as a solitary act. We get a long look into his somewhat sad married life as a rising expat writer in London and then his unhinged post-divorce period pr...more
Theroux succeeds in conveying his sense of writing as a solitary act. We get a long look into his somewhat sad married life as a rising expat writer in London and then his unhinged post-divorce period pr...more
Mar 17, 2013
Christian Lincoln
added it
Very well written. Funny. Memoir-ish. A bit tawdry, nasty at times. Provocative, in that he is clearly referencing friendships by name and extrapolating some of the lewder bits of meat from his awkward social abilities and encounters. He nearly raises his own personality to the same sobering light, but stops short unfortunately, which can come off in a vaguely egocentric tone -- this is pre-self deprecating error of literature. But he is an adventurer, which is likable, always.
My other life is about the life of a writer (it is supposed to be the author desired life), which moves around the world, experiencing coutries all over the globe. For me, it sounded as a good storyline, but then it turned out too slow in some parts,where nothing remarkable happens. It wasn't as motivating to read, since the story didn't drag me in.
When I first picked up this book, I had never read any of Paul Theroux's work, but I heard him interviewed and was intrigued by his description of the book. It is a fascinating examination of his life, and what it could have looked like at several junctures had things been different. This is an entertaining and unique work... definitely give it a try!
Okay, so technically I didn't finish it, but that's because I liked the beginning and then got tired of it. It seemed an awful lot like a vanity project - Paul Theroux writing about a fictional Paul Theroux. I couldn't get into it as a memoir, obviously, or as a novel, so it didn't stick with me.
I read this years ago, but don't remember that much about it. I do remember his depiction of the solitary nature of writing, and how difficult it can sometimes be - a whole day to write two or three sentences, for example. But, when those sentences are good ones, maybe it's worth it!
Paul Theroux's novel/faux biography of a writer by the name of Paul Theroux. It is a well written devilish inquiry into the nature of identity, the relationship between author and text and the age of celebrity.
See above for my opinion of Paul Theroux as a person (or at least, of the persona he's created for himself in his books). But anyhoo, this book is a really interesting example of semi-fiction. I wonder how many of Theroux's relatives and friends were either pissed off or terribly hurt by the way he portrayed them in this book. It's daring, but on the whole I'm going to take it as a warning of the risks you run when you turn people into characters.
After Riding the Iron Rooster and My Secret History I would like to find time to read more of Theroux. If I find it in a 2nd hand store I will snap it up. Till then sits in my wishlist
Aaaargh! Frustratingly fractured. Passages -- even complete stories-within-the-story -- beautifully written, sometimes hitting that perfect high C of rarely attainable insight and poetry. But put it all together, and it just doesn't work to fulfill the premise of the book's framework: a fictionalized work of non-fiction. The author as biographer rather than autobiographer of the self as protagonist. A cool idea that got in the way of the story often enough to be distracting. But as with all the...more
Paul Theroux, ever so endearing at his most irritable and cantankerous in this fictional biography that rings very true to the reader.
this is one of my favorite books. i fell in love with him and i've read almost everything he's written.
A provoking and ruthless book, yet also both imaginative and interesting.
In my favorite top 5 reads of all time. This book found me at the perfect time.
I find Theroux to be pretty self absorbed and it shows through in his writing.
Apr 27, 2011
Dan Piette
added it
What could have been, or maybe what was?
Oct 02, 2012
Gina Lacqua-catalano
added it
Great follow-up to: My Secret History
Snarky, snarky. Love it!
LOVE LOVE this book.
My first Paul Theroux, I will be reading more. The book provoked so many emotions - lots of laughter, a bit of sexiness, and a few tears. The first section, about his Uncle Hal, was probably my favorite to read. Andreas Vorlaufer's story, the saddest and maybe the most lovely.
A well written, semi-autobiographical book (note to Paul Theroux, modern authors tend to drop the 'semi' from books of this kind, think James Frey) that is great to read when you are backpacking around the world. I feel a bit guilty writing a review of this book, as I haven't read the ending. This is because I loaned the book to a fellow backpacker in Bolivia WHO NEVER RETURNED THE BOOK. Mike, I forgive you. Peace Out.
I've read all the books he's written that are available in the US, probably 15 or so, and he must be a genius. His understanding of human nature is amazing. The type of writer that makes you stop and think before continuing. And he has written about his travels, like kyacking (sp) around the Pacific. Yes, that's what I said...
Exposes, attempts to expose, the secret other life or lives that writers cannot help but have in the most interesting engaging personal way. I do love Paul Theroux, I confess.
A- Interesting book that is a composite of many of his autobiographical books with lots of fudged facts
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Paul Edward Theroux is an American travel writer and novelist, whose best known work is The Great Railway Bazaar (1975), a travelogue about a trip he made by train from Great Britain through Western and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, through South Asia, then South-East Asia, up through East Asia, as far east as Japan, and then back across Russia to his point of origin. Although perhaps best know...more
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May 14, 2008 06:22pm