There can be no argument that this book is not brilliantly contrived and written. Theroux creates a vast range of characters, with each ones own depth being interlinked and interchangable with that of Allie, the father and centre of this novel. The novel is portrayed through the eye's of the eldest son, Charlie and shows his relationship with his father moving from awe inspiring to hatred and fear. I think that the surroundings in which this book is set where imaginatively woven and really brought me, the reader, into the situation that the family were in. Theroux allows you to share Charlie's pain, humiliation, and brief moments of escape whilst enveloped in either burning sun or pouring rain.

The problem was it took me ages to get into this book, and when removed from it a while to engage again. I also found that my hatred towards Allie started to transpire onto the book itself. When Charlie felt he needed to escape and couldn't bear his living conditions, I felt that I could not bear to join him.

I would recommend this book to anyone with a taste for good, well written literature; anyone who enjoys taking a book and not just reading it, but living it for that time.