Sinning with Annie

by Paul Theroux

The author records his view of life and human relationships in this selection of stories set in various parts of the world

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories

210 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published June 1, 1972

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

[Annabelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have had this book for a decade and a half, part of a windfall from a beloved used bookshop which decided to fold after dwindling sales. Whatever's left inside is yours Annabelle, as we need to give the key back to the landlord. And that's how I found myself shovelling books to the sidewalk, right beside a waiting van. Bless you, Don Kennedy.

What took me so long to read Theroux? Was it a random conversation with someone who told me he wrote travelogues, a genre I intended to read somewhere down the line, just not now? I read the selections at random, which were mostly set "on location," reminiscent of Somerset Maugham's and Graham Greene's stories; as I was about to wrap it up, I was delighted to see the LA Times' Book Review's praises for the book, on the first page, which mirrored my own: "A Wonderful book...Theroux's gift for painting Third World characters...is equal to that of Graham Greene or Somerset Maugham." (Maugham is of course, one of my top favorites, and Greene among my top five.) But that general review is misleading, and each story is different. My thoughts on the stories:

1) The Prison Diary of Jack Faust - Setting, a Russian prison camp. Theroux takes a shot at gallows humor. Succeeds.
2) A Real Russian Ikon - This was funny. Somehow reminded me of Saul Bellow's unfunny The Dean's December.
3) A Political Romance - Theroux meets John Cheever's suburbanites.
4) Sinning with Annie - A most intriguing title, concerning an arrangement I've always been curious (and horrified) about.
5) A Love Knot - (Caucasian) boy (with Indian accent, as he was raised in India) painstakingly engineers a meet-cute with (Indian) girl (with British accent, as she was raised in England). Set in a London reminiscent of the movie Gaslight, this had a curious premise which held so much promise, but fizzles out to an unsatisfactory ending.
6) What Have They Done to Our Leo? - Now this felt like a Maugham read. Our protagonist Leo could use a little bone for his back. One of my favorites here.
7) Memories of a Curfew - Set in Africa during a tribal war, this read like a Greene story, just a wee bit more chauvinistic.
8) Biographical Notes for Four American Poets - Familiar characters, setting, circumstances, and conflicts. Another one of my favorites from this collection.
9) Hayseed - Deft storytelling, from the beginning's carefree banter to the build-up of tension that reveals the story. The best of the lot.
10) The South Malaysia Pineapple Growers' Association - Expats in Malaysia form drama group and meet at the Club on Wednesdays. This had such a great premise, with an interesting, witty cast. But it ended so abruptly, too abruptly--I thought the book had lost some pages.
11) A Deed Without a Name - Cheever's couples on location in Singapore. Smacks of Maugham too, though his husbands would never dare grope a colleague's wife's behind. Not in print, anyway.
12) You Make Me Mad - Can't say I didn't see that coming. Predictable, but still interesting reading.
13) Dog Days - Seemingly uncomplicated young husband teaching at university makes a play for the unattractive maid. Think of Cheever's suburban couples setting up house in Singapore, hiring the locals for help.
14) A Burial at Surabaya - A minuscule Jewish community buries a compatriot at humid, dusty, backwater Surabaya. Memorable for the narrative's visual storytelling, which describes a climate as uncomfortable as that of the Philippines on a stifling, oppressive afternoon, hinting at rains that have yet to arrive.

[Matthew Gibb · Rating 3 out of 5]

These are all short stories written while Theroux was in Uganda and Singapore. Some are better than others and this is not his best work,but towards the end of Sinning With Annie I enjoyed the stories about Southeast Asia. Some of Theroux's short stories have confusing endings. With these charecter driven plots it's a good idea take notes of their names and relationships to follow the story carefully,nevertheless the story,You Make Me Mad about the Mcloud couple was baffling. Hayseed about the Root family also left me in a fog. Equally befuddling was What Have You Done With Our Leo? Which features a menage of couples married and philandering with a scandalous pregancy. Dog Days was the best story about three couples in Singapore each with different servants and a dalliance one foreigner has with one of that he's compelled to make happen after listening to an Indian guy advice at the bar on how to charm a woman quickly. The professor gets more than he expected and the story is more clearly written. This is a short collection of stories written a long time ago.

[Bryan Fox · Rating 3 out of 5]

This modest collection of short stories from the late 60s/early 70s set in exotic locals is a fast read, but I can't help but feeling that Theroux's novels and creative nonfiction have aged far better than his short fiction has. Maybe it has something to do with our changed feelings and expectations regarding "expatriate fiction", but too many of these pieces read like they are from the late 19th century (with characters full of colonialist quips, taking afternoon drinks on verandas, sweating profusely all the while), and not the middle of the 20th.

[Brad Erickson · Rating 3 out of 5]

An old collection of Theroux stories that take place in foreign countries such as India, Russia, Uganda, and Singapore. “Fourteen exotic tales of manners and morality in modern society” the front cover says and that about sums it up.

[Ushan · Rating 2 out of 5]

A few weeks ago I read a collection of Theroux's stories he wrote around age 70, Mr. Bones, and liked it very much. I remembered that some 20 years ago I read another story collection of his, which he wrote around age 30, and checked it out again. An elderly Hindu recalls his arranged marriage at age 13 to an 11-year-old. Expatriates in Uganda deal with curfew after Milton Obote overthrows Frederick Mutesa. A British expat in Tanzania finds a way around an absurd colonial divorce law preserved at Tanzanian independence, with unexpected consequences. A Bengal-born son of a British convert to Hinduism is obsessed with a Bengali-American woman. The stories are not as good as the ones in the later collection. I guess writing fiction, unlike most things, is something you do better at age 70 than at age 30.