Paul Theroux is blessed with a consummate talent for writing and a restless nature for travel. Taken together, we readers are blessed that he combines these qualities and shares them with us. Like Jonathan Rabin (a friend of Theroux with whom, they both have informed, he swaps book galleys prepublication), Theroux is equally adept at fiction and non-, but Theroux spent some time as a young man working for the Peace Corps, in the landscape he describes as did Elias Hock, central character in this his latest book. Since that time, unlike Hock, Theroux has not been stored in mothballs but has traveled the world, writing and experiencing life. In at least one occasion, he recreated his Railway Bazaar journey of 40 years prior and chronicled it beautifully in Ghost Train to the Eastern Star.

Hock's return to the Lower River to realize his over romanticized dream of the place, is a coming of age for a man of 62, awakening him to the realities of what has occurred since his abrupt departure, a rethinking of what actually was going on at that time 40 years prior, and a further realization of his place in the current world. This is a fabulous book on so many levels, at once an adventure, a thriller, a commentary. The final section of the book is a collection of thoughts on travel by celebrated writers, and more of a look into the heart of Paul Theroux -- a man who feels comfortable at home, but truly alive when on the road.