We all love our ghost stories, our monster yarns. These things are fun, and they keep the inner child alive inside us. I, for one, will never stop reading horror and science fiction. Yet there are a lot of amazing works out there that deserve a wider audiences. Works that are not considered to be horror, but would be enjoyed by fans of the genre.
Horror writers could learn a trick or two about mounting dread from Paul Theroux. His books tend to be excruciatingly grim. His latest, The Lower River, is no exception.
Theroux joined the Peace Corps in the 1960's, and spent time in South Africa. He also set some of his early fiction there. Paul Theroux became a renowned novelist, but he also wrote many travel books in his career. He would visit foreign places, and go to areas many would fear to tread. He detailed the events of his journeys in his nonfiction works. He would then incorporate his experiences into his novels.
I've always said that the best way a writer can effectively describe foreign places is to travel. The second best is to read Paul Theroux. He is uncannily observant in both the places he goes as well as the people he sees there. He can be an icy cynic, but it is usually hard to argue with his reasoning.
I discovered the work of Paul Theroux when I saw the movie, The Mosquito Coast. I consider this to easily be the best performance of Harrison Ford, and the movie is riveting. I knew that the novel it was adapted from had to be great. I was right. Since then I have read every novel from Theroux, and much of his nonfiction. For my money there is not a finer writer in the world.
Decades after Theroux left Africa, he returned and found the beloved place from his past a shambles. Poverty, disease, violence. Few seemed interested in education or agriculture, but instead were dependent upon foreign aid. He used the experience as inspiration for The Lower River.
The novel's lead character is Ellis Hock, a tailor whose business is faltering in today's throwaway society. No ones wants finely made clothes anymore, but instead are content with cheap imported goods. He is closing his store and selling the property at a tidy profit, but is unsure of what to do with the rest of his life. Meanwhile, his wife surprises him with the gift of a smart phone. She goes to set it up for him, and all of his past emails are unearthed from prior deletion. Hock's wife discovers dozens of innocent yet flirtatious emails Hock has sent his female customers. This brings about the end of their long marriage.
Hock remembers the only time and place in his life he was truly happy. It was on The Lower River, in South Africa, in the little town of Malawi. In his Peace Corp days of the 1960's, Ellis Hock taught, worked, helped, and fell in love there. Now he decides to go retrace his steps and return to Malawi.
Just as author Paul Theroux found a very different environment, so did his fictional creation. The old schoolhouse he helped built is abandoned and infested with snakes. The clinic is filthy. The villagers live like savages.
Hock is welcomed and hailed as the villagers' chief; their holy man. But he finds himself trapped by the elder of the town, and the fellowship begins to seem sarcastic. Even bullying.
When Ellis reunites with his old love, she urges him to leave the area immediately. "They will eat your money. Then they will eat you", she warns.
His attempts to leave fail, and only weaken and anger the inhabitants of Malawi. His health deteriorates. His money dwindles. Ellis Hock is trapped in the heart of darkness he once cherished.
The Lower River is a dark novel. Hock's plight becomes more increasingly horrifying as his hope vanishes. Africa is depicted as a brutal, disease ridden, dangerous place where the people have adopted the greed and selfish attributes of the western world they equally despise and desire.
Paul Theroux's contempt for U2 singer, Bono, is more than apparent in The Lower River. Theroux has been openly critical of the aid given to Africa, claiming that the efforts are destructive and misguided. Bono even makes a sneaky but uncredited appearance in The Lower River.
I read The Lower River when it was published in 2012, and I just finished listening to it in audio form. I consider it to be one of Theroux's very best novels. I also found it to be more disturbing than the vast majority of horror novels I have read in recent memory.
Horror writers could learn a trick or two about mounting dread from Paul Theroux. His books tend to be excruciatingly grim. His latest, The Lower River, is no exception.
Theroux joined the Peace Corps in the 1960's, and spent time in South Africa. He also set some of his early fiction there. Paul Theroux became a renowned novelist, but he also wrote many travel books in his career. He would visit foreign places, and go to areas many would fear to tread. He detailed the events of his journeys in his nonfiction works. He would then incorporate his experiences into his novels.
I've always said that the best way a writer can effectively describe foreign places is to travel. The second best is to read Paul Theroux. He is uncannily observant in both the places he goes as well as the people he sees there. He can be an icy cynic, but it is usually hard to argue with his reasoning.
I discovered the work of Paul Theroux when I saw the movie, The Mosquito Coast. I consider this to easily be the best performance of Harrison Ford, and the movie is riveting. I knew that the novel it was adapted from had to be great. I was right. Since then I have read every novel from Theroux, and much of his nonfiction. For my money there is not a finer writer in the world.
Decades after Theroux left Africa, he returned and found the beloved place from his past a shambles. Poverty, disease, violence. Few seemed interested in education or agriculture, but instead were dependent upon foreign aid. He used the experience as inspiration for The Lower River.
The novel's lead character is Ellis Hock, a tailor whose business is faltering in today's throwaway society. No ones wants finely made clothes anymore, but instead are content with cheap imported goods. He is closing his store and selling the property at a tidy profit, but is unsure of what to do with the rest of his life. Meanwhile, his wife surprises him with the gift of a smart phone. She goes to set it up for him, and all of his past emails are unearthed from prior deletion. Hock's wife discovers dozens of innocent yet flirtatious emails Hock has sent his female customers. This brings about the end of their long marriage.Hock remembers the only time and place in his life he was truly happy. It was on The Lower River, in South Africa, in the little town of Malawi. In his Peace Corp days of the 1960's, Ellis Hock taught, worked, helped, and fell in love there. Now he decides to go retrace his steps and return to Malawi.
Just as author Paul Theroux found a very different environment, so did his fictional creation. The old schoolhouse he helped built is abandoned and infested with snakes. The clinic is filthy. The villagers live like savages.
Hock is welcomed and hailed as the villagers' chief; their holy man. But he finds himself trapped by the elder of the town, and the fellowship begins to seem sarcastic. Even bullying.
When Ellis reunites with his old love, she urges him to leave the area immediately. "They will eat your money. Then they will eat you", she warns.
His attempts to leave fail, and only weaken and anger the inhabitants of Malawi. His health deteriorates. His money dwindles. Ellis Hock is trapped in the heart of darkness he once cherished.
The Lower River is a dark novel. Hock's plight becomes more increasingly horrifying as his hope vanishes. Africa is depicted as a brutal, disease ridden, dangerous place where the people have adopted the greed and selfish attributes of the western world they equally despise and desire.
Paul Theroux's contempt for U2 singer, Bono, is more than apparent in The Lower River. Theroux has been openly critical of the aid given to Africa, claiming that the efforts are destructive and misguided. Bono even makes a sneaky but uncredited appearance in The Lower River.
I read The Lower River when it was published in 2012, and I just finished listening to it in audio form. I consider it to be one of Theroux's very best novels. I also found it to be more disturbing than the vast majority of horror novels I have read in recent memory.
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