Product Description
At one time, expatriate Jack Flowers was the youngest drinker at Singapore's Bandung Club. Now, at 53, he is a fixture. But he is beginning to fear death, alone and vulnerable in the alien tropics. And Jack still dreams of success. How can he convert his "perfect dream of magic" into reality, away from the seamy waterfront that has become his home? A funny and sophisticated novel from an acclaimed and popular writer. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Great for armchair tourists
While I am primarily a mystery reader, I have found Paul Theroux's books quite fascinating.This is definitely one of his best in the depiction of an expatriate in Singapore.There is humor here, but there is primarily the drama of the main character's life against the backdrop of the area.The story of the events leading up to the title character's tatoos is especially engrossing.This is one of theroux's earlier works and it definitely is a great literary read although it is fast and easy reading.

Quick read, highly recommended for expats and tourists
Theroux is a well-traveled, workmanlike writer with a fondness for the raffish and louche, apt to find in it a premature redemption in order to wind things up in a snappy Yank fashion. To his credit younger and shallower readers think he has a Bad Attitude, which is one of the names under which Moral Seriousness goes these days.

Saint Jack's original may be found throughout the formerly Far East, on many a bar-stool and in many an AA meeting. The hero of this novel is undistinguished by wealth or fame and is instead of the so-called Greatest Generation, who served in WWII.

Writers of the immediate postwar like Bellow celebrated the American "logistical tail", which was extensive and included any number of typists; Tommy Wilhelm in Seize the Day, for example, flew a desk.

This may have been for the writer a labor-saving device. Having the character serve in a rifle platoon would mean the writer would have to deal with the large issue of how the combat affected the hero.

As the reader, you should realize that Saint Jack is a creature of the 1970s and a Singapore that is, as the guy below me in the postings here says, no more. He dates in other words from an era when a middle-aged and undistinguished guy could carry a message, the twilight of the Common Man as opposed to the trooping masses, destined, if they know what's good for them, only for approved lifestyles, dragging the kids to Disneyland, or Camp Snoopy in Sha Tin, their hopes for a better world downsized permanently.

Thanks to the guy below me for the suggestion of Theroux's novel Kowloon Tong. I shall definitely give it a read.

One great benefit from reading Saint Jack was a number of jokes, wheezers and gaspers popular twenty years ago in the saloon bar of the Peninsula or Raffle's after the women had left the room, to conspire.

Great Novel of Singapore
Fine, absorbing literary novel follows the exploits of expatriate American stuck in Singapore because he has neither the ability nor the luck to go anywhere else.The novel has a nice atmosphere which reminded me of Graham Greene, Saul Bellow and Gore Vidal, and effectively evoked the sleazy underbelly of Singapore that still exists in that now outwardly squeaky-clean, but sinister city-state.I read this book while living in S'pore and was surprised how many attitudes and actions of the eastern and western characters were reminded me of the Singapore of today.So I felt the book worked in two ways, as a great, entertaining read for anyone interested in just a plain good book, and also as a fine evocation of the eternal aspects of Singapore.Saint Jack was also filmed - the film version is interesting because it captured the old colonial look of S'pore before the current regime of Harry Lee Kuan Yew tore most of it down, replacing it with souless concrete tower blocks.Yet the sleazy atmosphere remains, and comes out at night especially.Theroux's Hong Kong novel, *Kowloon Tong,* captures perfectly that other Far Eastern city state at the time of the 1997 Handover (I was living in HK at the time) and is also recommended, both as a fine read and as a fine description of the place. For a good non-fiction account of Singapore, try Stan Sesser's *The Lands of Charm and Cruelty,* with a great essay on S'pore and "the fear that even the best educated Singaporeans feel towards their government."

Early Theroux That Holds Up Nicely
Below his somewhat crusty exterior, Jack Flowers cares - sometimes deeply - about the "flotsam and jetsam" he bumps up against - on the streets, in the bar, in his brothel. He really won't show it ... nor, perhaps, will he even admit it to himself ... but he does. And he has "all the time in the world" to do so, in his own backhanded way.

Paul Theroux cut some of his teeth on this early novel, and it holds up remarkably well on second reading. Somewhat acerbic, sometimes touching, "Saint Jack" is a true pleasure.

expat life
Sure, lots of authors have done their take on the expat lifestyle, but few have done it better than Mr. Theroux has in St. Jack.This is a smart, deceptively simple take on the 'allure' of life abroad. A great book, evenif you've traveled no farther than your mailbox; though, for those whohave, the desriptions of people living abroad not so much because they wantto---but because they're afraid to go home--- are right on the mark. ... Read more

Product Description
Since its discovery by Magellan in 1520, Patagonia was known as a country of black fogs and whirlwinds at the end of the inhabited world. It immediately lodged itself in the imagination as a metaphor for "the ultimate", the point beyond which one could not go. In this book, Chatwin and Theroux join forces to explores the instances in which the "final capes of exile" have affected the literary imagination, and to track down some of the extraordinary travellers, past and present, from W.H. Hudson, to Captain Joshua Slocum and Butch Cassidy. Paul Theroux has won the Whitbread Literary Award. This book had its origins in an entertainment the writers gave for The Royal Geographical Society, at a time when Theroux was following Chatwin's "In Patagonia" with "The Old Patagonian Express". ... Read more

Product Description
Haunting postcard images of the non-Western world from a century ago.

The antique postcards depicted here were acquired in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by Western tourists, business people, traders, and colonialists. The circumstances in which the cards were sent, and the details of those who sent them, are largely lost. Yet the audience for collecting them has enjoyed a spectacular growth in recent years and includes not only those with the collecting instinct or the desire to travel but also artists, photographic historians, fashion and jewelry specialists, and designers everywhere.

Once it was believed that by taking someone's portrait you stole that person's soul. Here, the human subjects have a powerful presence because they express a deep-seated connection with the land and customs that gave them their identities. Their stories are implicit in their eyes, their costumes, and their postures.

Reproduced with complete fidelity, these postcards take us on a magical journey across the world in five travelogues, depicting Asia, the Arab Lands, Africa, the Americas, and Oceania. The book is introduced by one of the greatest and most successful travel writers of our time. 200+ color illustrations. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Great Images - No Text
The postcard images are outstanding: full page, clear views,excellent examples of the genre and rare ones. However, the accompaning one line notes in back of the book are inadequate. These cards appear to be one person's collection and are mostly from French colonies. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Yangtze thru the eyes of millions
A funny account of one man's cruise down the Yangtze with a group of American millionaires... Insightful, biting humor.An accurate description of tour-isms. ... Read more

Product Description
It was 1982, the summer of the Falkland Islands War, and the birth of the royal heir, Prince William--and the ideal time, Theroux found, to surprise the British into talking about themselves. The result is a candid, funny, perceptive, and opinionated travelogue of his journey and his findings. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (27)

A favourite
I have read this book many times now and probably have a few good reads out of it yet. Theroux has always struck me as a bit of an odd duck but I generally find him entertaining and this book is one of his best. Many people have criticized Theroux for being snotty or offensive but what does that really amount to other than he expresses how a particular person or experience affected him. We have all related stories about people and places in unflattering terms. Theroux merely says publicly in print the sort of things most of us only say in private. If he were less honest, his books wouldn't be nearly so good. This one is especially amusing.

Amusing tour of the British coast during the Falkland War
The acclaimed travel writer and novelist Paul Theroux lived in England for a long time, and yet until the very end of his stay there he had not written a travel book about it. In "The Kingdom by the Sea", he rectifies this situation by taking a trip by train and foot along the entirety of the British coast. Starting out from London, he travels southeast, follows the coast to Cornwall, then goes up via Devon to Wales and Scotland, crosses to Northern Ireland, and finally returns to do the eastern half. Since the trip was undertaken in 1982, it is a Britain in a different state than the one of today, although not too different. The Falkland War, the policies of Lady Thatcher and the resulting mass unemployment, the sense of poverty and decline, these are all the decor for Theroux's undertaking. The book also gives a perspective of a Britain that is past in a more practical way: he travels often by branch lines that have since been abolished, and there is definitely a sense of impending doom about the formerly excellent British Rail system noticable in this work.

Not that one would necessarily notice much of it - most people Theroux talks to say very little of interest at all, and the main interpretation and narration has to be done by Theroux himself, which is a contrast with most of his works. As a result, how interesting a part of the book is depends mainly on what section of the route he is travelling. The first part, where he 'does' the southeast and south of England, is rather boring; but as soon as he gets into Wales, the book picks up pace and variety, and becomes as entertainingly readable as most of Theroux's works. His usual chagrin is rather mellow in this work, and he is not nearly as vicious towards the UK as one might expect. The sections on Northern Ireland are particularly vivid and give a good indication of the ridiculous aspects of the Troubles in their effect (or lack thereof) on daily life.

Overall, it is a good travel book and a light read, giving a curious stranger's insight into the Britain of the Thatcher years.

The best of Theroux's travel books
Perhaps because people are so used to seeing the British presented as charming, or ultra-polite or what have you, this blast of candor is perceived (by many) as being uniformily negative.Not at all!His mood shifts between surly, admiring, deeply curious and blissful throughout the book, and the further he is from home (Scotland, Yorkshire) the happier he seems.

I lived in England at about the same time this was written, and I found it refreshing in the extreme to read something that seemed recognizable to me.I find a lot of praise in this book, but it seems to be overlooked by the realistic assessment of all that is good -- and bad -- about the UK in the 1990s.

A journey into the heart of darkness -- Great Britain
Paul Theroux was destined to be an anglophile. His exploration of the British Isles left him flummoxed by a culture of opposites and contrariness. His spartan nature could not resist the British love of discomfort, and his individualism could not have been more challenged by the perverse collectivity of class-conscious Brits. It was desitiny that he buy a home there and become virtually a dual citizen. To his credit, he has pierced one of the most opaque cultures of all -- a mystery to itself, not to mention the rest of us. And as always, he provides us with a great read.

A tremendously dim outlook
Being an avid reader of travel books, I have to say that this is one of the most depressing books I've ever read. Paul Theroux does an amazing job of describing a Great Britain on the verge of depression, desolation, and decay. By his viewpoints, we should expect the country to come to a screeching halt in the very near future by virtue of its unemployment, incompetance, disrepair, and violence. I found this book so difficult to read that I did not finish it, and gave it away. ... Read more

Product Description
Lost in a New England snowstorm, a family is sheltered by a mysterious old man who disappears the next morning, leaving behind a magical "Christmas card." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

My introduction to Paul Theroux
Many years ago on a trip to England I found the Penguin / Puffin version of A Christmas Card in a bookstore and bought it for my children, who were living in Denmark and visiting their grandparents in Maine every other summer. They don't seem to remember the story, but I read it to classes every year at Christmas as a high school English teacher in Denmark and my students loved it as much as I did after they got over the fact that Teacher was reading to them, just like in grade school.

It was my introduction to the wonderful world of Paul Theroux. I've since read many (but not all) of his books. I didn't enjoy the more recent novels, but I particularly loved A Kingdom By The Sea, as I, too, have enjoyed walking in England.

This is a magical story - about magic and imagination and light and life, which is what Theroux always writes about. Get a copy for your children or grandchildren, but be sure to read it out loud to them, one chapter a day, to spread out the suspense!

VALUE THE GIFT
A few days before Christmas nine-year-old Marcel and his family aredriving to their new house--an old farm deep in the snowy woods, then getlost. Luckily they find an old hotel which at first seemed to be closed. Marcel is fascinated by their quaint but kindly host, Pappy, who promisesto provide them with directions to theirdestination the next day.

Butthe man mysteriously disappears, leaving them only an unsigned, unaddressedChristmas card, which has no words--just a curious sketch of the woods.Marcel gradually realizes that this card is a kind of map to their newhome, yet it is much more than that. It is a Magic card, which changes toreflect conditions of the real world outside--of time, light and location.

Still Marcel experiences alternating fear and peace in the dayspreceding the Christian holiday, as a result of the card's shifting hints. The family of four is confused by the mysterious fire glowing in the oldcabin; did they just stumble upon a meeting and inadvertantly drive thepeople away? Secular and sacred connotations combine to make a fascinating,enjoy-in-one-sitting read. Will Marcel ever see his beloved Pappyagain--just who and what is he anyway? A literary chiaroscuro where theLight combats the Darkness and a young boy tries to choose the right pathand make the best "trade." ... Read more

Product Description
Already a best-selling addition to the series, this year"s Best American Travel Writing is a far-flung collection chosen by travel writer extraordinaire Paul Theroux, who has selected pieces about "the spell in the wilderness, the letter home from foreign parts, the dangerous adventure, the sentimental journey, the exposé, the shocking revelation, the eyewitness report, the ordeal, the quest . . . Travel is an attitude, a state of mind." Theroux"s most recent novel is Hotel Honolulu. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Not a review
Simply wish to say item arrived in acceptable amount of time and was in good condition.I'm very happy to have access to the purchase of difficult-to-find items.

gonzo travel writing
I enjoyed the volumes before and after this one immensely, and only bought this one with reluctance.I was correct in my misgivings.

While many of the pieces are quite good, I did find a monotonous repetition in the style of the pieces.Hearty adventurer finds some remote location, undertakes a manly man's activity (even when a woman) and reports on it with an affected sarcasm or wryness or ennui style. Ho-hum.Doesn't Theroux write entire books like this?Maybe I've just read too much of his works to like the derivatives.

Thankfully, I skipped those pieces to read the good ones (even good ones that fit the above mode -- like Philip Capute's piece about looking for lions while on safari).Those jewels made me glad to buy this volume, even though I skipped the bulk of the pieces.

Of course, if you LIKE gonzo-style travel writing, then this is the volume for you.Buy it and enjoy.

Some great ones.
What is there to add here? It's the best from last year. Some of the essays were about things I didn't care about, like a tedious thing on wine, but I just skipped those. The ones I was into, I was really into.

If you like Paul Theroux's books, you'll like this book
I like travel literature, and I've enjoyed Paul Theroux's books, so I thought I'd try this book. I read the 2000 version of Best American Travel literature, which really reflects Bill Bryson's writing style. And true to my expectations, this version reflects Paul Theroux's style. The articles are more political, more edgy, more depressing, just like Theroux. It's superb writing though, while not always light, so you should expect to take on some of the more 'heady' travel topics in this volume. Theroux really has stuck to his own style in choosing the stories that make up this book. A really good set of stories though.

Not romantic, but rivetting
Anyone who's read Paul Theroux's travel books - "The Old Patagonian Express," "The Happy Isles of Oceania" - knows he's not in it for the fun. His selections for the best travel pieces of 2000 (for this 2001 edition), reflect his seriousness of purpose, his sense of place and his eye for quality writing. "It is not about vacations," he states in his introduction, and explains, "travel writing at its best relates a journey of discovery that is frequently risky and sometimes grim and often pure horror, with a happy ending: to hell and back."

This book is not about places you want to go to. It's about the world, much of it remote, in its workaday, sometimes hostile, raiment. Taken from a wide variety of magazines and newspapers, presented in alphabetical order (with contributor notes in the back), these essays consider the reflective traveler's relation to unfamiliar places, people, and events.

There are contemplative journeys: Russell Banks' strange encounter at the top of the Andes; Scott Anderson's brotherly competition for dangerous destinations; Lawrence Millman's lighthearted sojourn on the Mediterranean island of Pantelleria; Janet Malcolm's search for Chekhov in the places he wrote about; Edward Said's grim "Paradise Lost," recalling his idyllic childhood in the Lebanese hills, now buried in rubble.

There are anthropological adventures like Gretel Ehrlich's long dog-sled hunt with the Inuit in Greenland and there are adventures touched with politics and history, like Philip Caputo's travels among the man-eating lions of Kenya, Tim Cahill's trip to Ecuador's erupting volcanoes (and their villages) and David Quammen's winter search for the wolves in post-communist Romania.

Journalistic pieces tell us the things we don't know, the things we should know. Michael Finkel's "Desperate Passage" places him among a leaky boatload of desperate Haitians hoping for America, and Susan Minot relates a tangled, ugly history as she introduces us to children kidnapped by rebels in Uganda. Andrew Cockburn visits the "new" Iran, Patrick Symmes searches out the guerrillas in Columbia. There are portraits of places, politics and loneliness like Peter Hessler's story of the inept burglar on the China/Korea border and Susan Orlean's portrait of Khao San Road in Bangkok.

In a category all its own is Salman Rushdie's eloquent, emotionally nuanced "A Dream of Glorious Return," the story of his first trip back to India since the publication of "The Satanic Verses" twelve years before. His 20-year-old son, Zafar (who has never read his father's books) accompanies him and Rushdie, ebullient with homecoming rapture, attempts to see the country through Zafar's fresh (often appalled) perspective as well as his own. It's a piece full of joy and sadness and political tension, beautifully told.

There is humor in many of these pieces but hilarity is not Theroux's first interest. These essays will appeal to those looking for an armchair view of the world's niches, many of them ugly. Without exception the writing is clear and vivid, and the writer's eye intelligent and unpretentious. ... Read more

Product Description
The story of Barbara Greene's travels with her cousin Graham Greene. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

It had been Graham Greene's idea to explore tropical West Africa
From the Back of the Book.

The map of Liberia was virtually blank, the interior marked 'cannibals'. It was a far cry from the literary London of 1935, and the marvellous result of the exploration was Journey without Maps. But the gifted young author was not travelling alone. His twentythree year old cousin Barbara had rashly agreed to go with him, also busy taking notes in the jungle.

Too Late to Turn Back contains the humourous, foot-sore and richly evocative African adventure of a young woman who set out from the world of Saki and the Savoy Grill and returned quite profoundly changed. ... Read more

Product Description
In America explores the US from the inside out and the outside in. Author Paul Theroux frames the subject with an essay: "Mind Blindness and the Decline of Hitchhiking." In "Of Turbans and Neckties," fabled New York Times correspondent John Kifner shows how Americans ignore history to their peril. Muzamil Jaleel, a wry and wise Kashmiri reporter, tours the country as a Sufi Muslim with questions to ask. Samantha Powers offers thoughts on American exemptionism. Antonin Kratochvil takes his critical eye from coast to coast, "In God's Country." And Gerald Scarfe, noted London Sunday Times political cartoonist for 40 years, contributes this issue's cartoon. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Dispatches in America 2008 D1
The book is small (5.75"x7.75") and the type is small but the photos are all full page and double truck. The photos remind me of work I saw at UNM in the photo department, mostly poorly exposed and uninteresting junk. DiA 2008D1 features work shot by accomplished photographers, work hailed as "art" and acclaimed for qualities which completely elude me. Unfortunately I wasted money on it based on a review online from a source I still respect, can't win 'em all. Perhaps I am just not sophisticated enough to appreciate this work, I can live with that. ... Read more

Product Description
One of the earlier novels from the author of "The Mosquito Coast" and "Doctor Slaughter", this is a comic-moral tale about an innocent Chinese store-keeper in East Africa. Although cheated and manipulated by those around him, Fong maintains his sorely-tried faith that "man is good". ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Charming African Tale
"Fong and the Indians" is Paul Theroux's second novel and was written after spending several years of teaching at the University of Kampala in Uganda.

The novel relates the story of the hapless Chinese immigrant Sam Fong and his family to an unnamed African country. Having immigrated before the cultural revolution in China, the Catholic Fong is blissfully unaware of Communism and Chairman Mao's new China. After the de-colonization of his new home-country, Fong, a carpenter by trade, is demoted and in disgust quits his job and opens a grocery store.

Having never run a grocery store and unable to speak any English, Fong is "helped" by a wily Indian named Fakhru. The grocery store does not do well due to civil unrest in the country, but Fong has by necessity become an assiduous shopkeeper and manages to keep himself and his family alive by living extremely frugally.

Upon realizing that Fong is actually managing to save some of his meager profits, Fakhru artfully convinces Fong to buy a huge shipment of canned milk. Fakhru persuades the wretched Fong by telling him that if the milk train from Mombasa were ever to derail, Fong would be a rich man. Foreseeing untold riches, Fong invests his life savings in several crates of canned milk.

With a store filled to the rafters with canned milk, Fong sells not a single can as he waits for the milk train to derail. To add to Fong's woes, civil war erupts and Fong and his family are forced to close the shop. Just as things are at their bleakest, two Americans enter the scene.

The Americans, Bert G. Newt, Jr. and Mel Francey, convinced that Fong is a Communist, try to sell him on the idea of capitalism and free enterprise. Nearly as out of their element in Africa as Fong, they compensate for their lack of diplomatic acumen with patriotic fervor, and wage a splendidly miscalculated campaign to put an end to Fong's nonexistent Communist sympathies. Unfortunately Fong speaks no English, and all communications are relayed to Fong via Fakhru, who has only his own enrichment in mind.

Fong and the Indians is truly a charming tale and depicts Africa, it's cities and inhabitants to a tee. Fong is a lovable non-hero and the novel is a window into a typical African city in the early to late sixties. ... Read more

Product Description
This collection of Theroux's short novels span his fictional world: from a pair of post-adolescent malcontents hiding from their future to a vulnerable ageing stripper and single mother who finds God. Theroux's characters struggle with indeterminate, and often cruel, destinies. ... Read more

Product Description
Fired by a fascination with trains that stemmed from childhood, Paul Theroux set out one day with the intention of boarding every train that chugged into view from Victoria Station in London to Tokyo Central, and to come back again via the Trans-Siberian Express. This is his story. ... Read more

Product Description
Part Two Of Two Parts

Imagine kayaking the Pacific, exploring surfy coasts and blue lagoons, beaching your canoe in paradise. Paul Theroux did just that. . .New Zealand and Australia, New Guinea, the Solomons, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Tahiti, the Marquesas, Easter Island and Hawaii.

Theroux enters a Gauguin painting, sails in the wake of Captain Cook and recalls the tales of Jack London and Robert Louis Stevenson. Alone in his kayak, approaching deserted shores, he glides through time, discovering a world of islands and their remarkable people.

"Full of disarming observations, high adventure and memorable characters rendered with keen irony." (Publishers Weekly) ... Read more