La calle de la media luna

by Paul Theroux

Offers a menacing, sinister study of the double life of a scholar who moonlights as a prostitute and its deadly implications

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, Literature, Contemporary, The United States Of America, American, Audiobook

145 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1984

About the author

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 known as a travelogue writer, Theroux has also published numerous works of fiction, some of which were made into feature films. He was awarded the 1981 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his novel The Mosquito Coast.

He is the father of Marcel and Louis Theroux, and the brother of Alexander and Peter. Justin Theroux is his nephew.

Reviews

[Linda Franklin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been very lucky during Covid-19 staying at home. I had/have huge piles of books, and so now is the time to be reading them. Half Moon Street is another book where I have had personal experience...I stayed in a hotel on Half Moon Street back in the 60s. So I kept flashing on the room there while reading this. It's sort of a combo of thriller and murder mystery and oddly comic in places. Very visually interesting. This book has a lot of very clear, declarative sentences which I have come to really appreciate. Maybe this is just the time for it, for me. Also, there are echoes (although backwards) of things we worry about and think about and fight now...almost 40 years after this book was published (1984). "Petrodollars" being one of them. "Beancurd and bran flakes" another. Iran-Iraq and Arabs and weird old guy sex stuff.
~ Linda Campbell Franklin

[Clifford · Rating 4 out of 5]

How very odd. The book is two novellas, "Dr. Slaughter" and "Dr. DeMarr," one set in London and the other on Cape Cod and Boston. I preferred "Dr. Slaughter" but that might have been a function of the narration (I listed to them in the car). Both worth the time, though. I'm not a big fan of the author's non-fiction travel narratives, which strike me as terribly arrogant, but I've always liked his fiction.

[Michael Compton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two short novels, unrelated except in theme: a damaged person, living precariously, takes a wild chance on a kind of double life, and thinking they are in control, come to learn that they have only undone themselves. In Doctor Slaughter, an academic in London becomes a high-end escort, and soon finds herself involved in international intrigue. In Doctor DeMarr, a loner bachelor attempts to step into the life of his deceased twin brother. Each story, told in vivid, pointed style, plunges the reader into mysteries that are never quite solved. But these are not genre mysteries, and the "solution" is not what makes them worth reading, but rather the unsettling spectacle of tenuous lives flying apart. These are stories that will stick with you.

[Janet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this long ago, but it has stayed with me like a really good meal eaten outdoors in a foreign city, by water, lanterns swaying, and flirting with a near stranger. Sexy, exotic, intriguing. Greenian, but lacks the bottom note of Greene. Oh well. A great read.

[Anne Sanow · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second story's a bust, but "Dr. Slaughter" is twisted in all the right ways. You'll want to take a shower after reading it. Made into a strangely inert movie version starring Sigourney Weaver.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

(1984) The first story, Dr. Slaughter, was corny. The second was excellent.

Both stories in this slim volume work off different genres, but double each other in intriguing ways.

Doctor Slaughter is a tawdry 1980s tale about a woman leading a not-so-secret double life as an escort and researcher in London. She’s kinky and power-hungry and more a product of fiction than of real life, and though the details of the novella are brisk they felt irrelevant and I was impatient throughout. The story becomes more commercial as it goes on, turning into passable chick lit—surprising from Theroux—then (spoiler) coalescing at the end into a political thriller. Basically it’s the story of a woman who thinks she’s wild but gets humbled by truly dangerous people. With a little more care the twist could have packed more of a punch. I can see why they made it into a movie though.

[Allusions: Frogger!]

“Dr. DeMarr” is a long short story of madness and crime and doubles. It has the same driving energy to the prose as the other one, but even angrier—suitable to this noir-ish comedy about inimical twins. It’s about an imposter impersonating an imposter and is very compressed and complex. This is Nabokov’s Despair done right.

I had to wonder too if Theroux wasn’t paying homage to Hawthorne’s brilliant story “Monsieur du Miroir,” also about enemy doppelgängers. The titles certainly seem to echo each other. I emailed the author to find out. Hopefully there’ll be an update.

[Joey Payne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Already beginning to dislike the star rating thing.

Anyways, decided to read the myriad books on my bookshelf that have gone unread for years, and just yanked this one off on a whim, as I thought one book split between two short novels was interesting.

It was. It was really good. The book is, appropriately, about people living double lives. One is about a woman pursuing her post-doctorate in economics in London who, some time after getting divorced, becomes a high-end escort. The other is about a twin brother who adopts his brother's life after his untimely death.

All I really want to say is I really enjoyed both stories. They're breezy reads, but never feel like they're making light of their rather dark subject matter, and are, in fact, illuminating it. That, to me, is a really accomplishment.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

The two short stories in this book take rather different tacks in exploring the surface and what lies beneath. The protagonist in Dr Slaughter is a US visiting fellow/scholar by day and call girl by night, seeing very different sides of 1980s London; it heads into realm of espionage story but also has a touch of Henry Miller to it. Doctor De Marr, set in Boston, is shorter and less developed, but a dark little caper of its own.

Having just read Theroux's Mosquito Coast a few weeks earlier, I was also impressed by the entirely different tone of these tales from that work, released only a few years earlier.

[Lily O'Donnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

At first I hated this book. I thought it was highly sexist and racist and like Dr. Slaughter was a female character written very much by a simplistic man. Once I got to the end of the first novella however I was totally pleased as all things I hated about the character almost seemed to bite her in the ass. I thought it was really, really great commentary on the petty need for exceptionalism. The second story was really interesting in a mythological way. That ancient death of a mythological double is something I always find to be really cool. I liked the twist at the ending; just felt there could of been a better ending or more build up??

[Nina Vukelic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Theroux’s bite-sized double novella concerning the double lives of two unwitting transgressors fed me exactly what I ordered: a seedy, guilty-pleasure read that was textured and tantalizing as I consumed it… but a bit insubstantial and devoid of anything actually nourishing upon digestion. & that’s ok! It was provocative & cunning enough to keep me interested in either protagonist’s foray into the underbelly of the Western world. A swift thriller overall, even if it was a bit of an eye roll at times.

[Rita Chastre]

An interesting and uncommon novel, divided in two stories, each completely different from one another. Their characters are simply outline but enriched as the stories come to an end. Each ending left me in shock, highly recommend

[Colleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars. Never read Theroux before and don't know how representative these two novellas are. They were entertaining, highly original, quirky, and united by the common thread of double lives. At times very funny, and at times sad or grim. Hard to categorize.

[Lisbeth Solberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two novellas with unusual and mostly unsympathetic protagonists who may or may not have learned big lessons. This book has been in my stacks forever.

[Kristin]

I do not remember this book at all. Read it a long time ago.

[Barry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really deserved a 3+ rating or a 4-. Easy page turner with both novels (Half Moon Street, Doctor DeMarr) providing twists.

[Graham · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had fun taking this used hardcover down to Barton Springs Pool, allowing the woolen studiousness of Theroux's portrait to stare out from the back of the jacket at passers by. It seems like he could have used the vegan treatise "Skinny Bitch" to conceive of Dr. Lauren Slaughter, had that book been written twenty years earlier. Slaughter, an unscrupulous but alert vegetarian hottie who is seemingly free of delusions. The strength of the book is more in the dialog. The plot seems a few steps behind; you get the sense that Theroux didn't know what to do with this character after about 100 pages. The book descends into a vague cautionary tale, with our female icarus flying too high into the harder-headed realities of global politics and getting burned.

I'm going to take another reader's advice and just assume the second story is a bust.

[Irene · Rating 4 out of 5]

After seeing the movie Half Moon Street with Sigourney Weaver, I really wanted to read the novella. This book actually contains two stories with similar themes about the consequences of living a double life. I read both years ago, so the plot details escape me. What I do remember is that they were both engaging dark stories. Part of the appeal of this set was that I could read them quickly at a time when my life had little free time for reading. When I was in high school with a required reading list, I'd often read Edgar Allen Poe to escape some of the literary cannon that English teachers like to force feed teenagers. This novella set gave me that same sense of escape.

[Христо Блажев · Rating 4 out of 5]

Улица “Полумесец”: http://knigolandia.info/book-review/u...

Две повести са събрани в книгата, и двете изследват въпроса за самоличността и идентичността, но тематиката е добре разтворена в криминално-трилърни сюжети. В първата, на която е именувана и книгата, млада, образована и интегентна красавица решава да приключи с мизерния и неудовлетворяващ живот и да стане скъпоплатена компаньонка. Качествата й бързо я издигат в новото поприще, но човек не може да си играе вечно с огъня, без да се опари.

"Фама"
http://knigolandia.info/book-review/u...

[Moira Harrington · Rating 3 out of 5]

First fictional work by him that I've read. I was intrigued and pleased enough by his writing to try some other novels. These were tightly drawn thriller-type work, which I generally don't appreciate so the fact that I liked them -- the Dr. Slaughter story better and the Dr. Demere one -- is a plus.

[Ariadna73 · Rating 5 out of 5]

No sé bien por qué no permitían sacar este libro de la biblioteca; y por eso tuve que leerlo allí "in situ", como dicen, pero valió la pena, porque la historia te atrapa desde la primera página y no te suelta hasta algunas páginas antes del final (un poco forzado, pero bien) cuando lees las pocas páginas que quedan como un agradecimiento a este autor por sus esfuerzos en entretenerte.

[Jacob · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very well done, but not particularly memorable pair of stories. Dr. Slaughter illuminates the dark underbelly of humanity and certainly is as 1980's as it can get. I found the shorter Dr. DeMarr a short story of the ilk I've read many times, but Theroux paces the story nearly perfectly - making it a very good example of what can be done with a short story.

[Mary-Ellen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read this book to try and figure out why Sigorney Weaver would want to play the role of the main character. The novella was better than the play, but I still do not understand why Weaver took the part.

[Lindsay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Paul Theroux is one of my favorite authors, but this book was confusing. I hadn't realized it was two short stories and when it crossed over in the middle I couldn't figure out what was going on or what happened to the heroine.

[Mike Harper · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first story is rather sordid, but it kept me interested . It was just OK. The second story is eerily good: the protagonist - whoever he may be! - puts a new spin on the life of an identical twin. I could have stretched and given this a fourth star.

[Leonard Pierce · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this because of the movie where Sigourney Weaver played a crazy hooker. Probably not the best introduction to Theroux.

[Gerald · Rating 5 out of 5]

Two novellas, one set in London, the other in Boston. Teasing mind games for short-attention-span reads.

Gerald.
Boychik Lit

[Ainsley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good Paul Theroux. I like the combination of two stories about double lives

[Aaron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good, fast-moving

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

scandalous

[Anandraj · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was ok. Easy english. Not too thrilling though.