Actually, this edition has two novellas - "Dr. Slaughter" neing the basis for the film of the same name. After seeing the dissappointing film, I was unexpectedly shocked to discover how I could be absorbed by amoral heroine and her challenges. Mostly, this is thanks to Paul Theroux's crisp and inviting prose. While today's authors repeatedly assure us of their expert credentials in writing technothrillers, political thrillers, historical fiction, legal thrillers and so on, only Paul Theroux triumphs on an endless and rariefied reservoir of dissassociation, being an alien and an outsider. Dr. Slaughter, a brilliant and beautiful specialist in petro-economics, is already well versed in using sexual favors to supplement a meager income when she becomes "an escort". Using her dissassociation as a shield against the monumental dreariness of her existence (her miserable flat in London seems perpetually frozen), she prospers, never realizing her proximity to the true love that eludes her or the danger she places others into. The revelation at the end seems no surprise, yet packs an emotional wallop.

Please take out the duplicate review which says 0 out of 1 found this helpful, when there was no place to make such a comment. It looks bad on my promotion page and doesn't help your sales!

There is some monkey business going on with the Pretty Woman review page, which shows that 0 out of 1 people found this review helpful, and Half Moon Street page shows 1 out of 1 found it helpful! Find these guys!

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.

This is the unlikely story of a young female Ph. D. who, upon finding that she isn't makeing enough money to live the life she would like to, becomes a high price call girl at night. She takes this step rather matter of factly and there seems to be little or no squeamishness expressed at such a career move. After all, her clients are men of quality - business and government officials who are polite and can afford to pay. Her only complaint has to do with the kind of intercourse many of her clients want (I will leave the specifics to other readers to discover). The complication in the story occurs when a high government official becomes one of her regular clients and they develop a real fondness for one another. Further complications come from a regular Arab customer who intends to use Dr. Slaughter's relationship with the government official as a way of setting up his assassination.

For those who have seen the movie 'Half Moon Street' on which this book is based, the two are quite different. The book is better; the characters are more real and the overall emotional impact of the book is move satisfying.

Blah. I still don't know what to think of this book. I haven't read anything else by Theroux, and after this read I have no desire to. While the prose is well written and the form of the story well crafted, I found myself getting bored with this novel. It started off well enough, with young Andre and the priests, and I thought I would really like it. But then Andre becomes such an idiot, and an unsympathetic one at that. By the time he's in London, this character is getting on my nerves, in a vague, boring sort of way. Like an annoying acquaintance whose always hanging around and never knows when to shut up already and leave well enough alone. Characters like Andre (and therefore Theroux himself?) taste common and done; they find motivation only in the illusion of the sheer force of their macho-ness, while pretending to observe the world from a distant and ironic perspective. Not that this isn't a legitimate tact, but others authors tackle it with far more humour and fun. John Irving comes to mind, as does Margaret Atwood, who writes from the distant, ironic, feminine perspective. I realize this a personal opinion, however, and I can see the talent behind Theroux's writing. I just don't care about his writting, that's all

As a former Peace Corps volunteer in Africa (and a Catholic) I found myself identifying with this author. He writes vividly and at times so richly describes landscapes I have encountered I felt I was visiting them again. His male Peace Corps Volunteer was dead-on (not much has changed from the 60's to the 90's in that respect) - many American men I knew in Africa behaved similarly, but with Theroux I was disappointed in his character. I kept wondering - how much of this is real and how much fiction.

I was angry with his dismissive attitude of women - "anything I want" - and later, his too soon forgiving wife. Women seemed ornaments to him - as were many characters and even locations in this novel - richly described, but only in terms of their utility to him. When no longer needed, the strongest of women looked weak - particulary Eve. In the end, I felt sorry for Andre, but I wanted to read more. Theroux is a gifted writer, despite Andre's (or was it Paul's) treatment of women. I found this book very hard to put down.

The prequal to his acclaimed *My Other Life*, *My Secret History* is also a masterful work of narrative and characterization, imbued with grace, humor, and humanity. It demonstrates a young man's coming-of-age stuggles more astutely than any book I've read, and while it's easier to read than the later book, it's just as poignant: we often rather smugly hide behind our baggage and consider younger people frivolous because of inexperience, or somehow incapable of love. Theroux shows that they *do* feel love, of romance, friendship, respect--and these emotions form the measuring sticks by which all our subsequent experiences will be measured. Moreover, the book itself is an act of love--of writing and of living. It has made me value my own life more fully, through pages that made me relate, reflect, laugh, and read until dawn, and then, the better for it, get up and start writing, myself.

And living.

Just read the tender, blunt and beautiful first section, and I seriously doubt you'll stop.

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.

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.

This was a quite enjoyable audiobook,
especially the Salman Rushdie bit.

I think the 2000 edition was slightly better,
but then again, I love BILL BRYSON.

This edition was more cerebral, less comedic.
Nevertheless, it was good, really good.

I'm givin' it 5 stars, to even up the odds.
a one-star slam this book deserves not.

As a reporter, Paul Theroux is a great novelist. He treats his subjects as though he's reviewing their lives as performances. I've never read such a distant account by someone who spent so much time in a place. There are lots of stories of train meals. Where are the stories of family life, of children, of education, and health care? This is China from the dining car window, which wouldn't be so bad if it didn't go on for 400+ pages.

Maybe he doesn't write those stories because he seems contemptuous of everyone he meets, whether Chinese or not, from his fellow travelers to dinner companions. Perhaps interacting with such persons distracts him from all the magnificent books he's reading on the train (we get to find out about them all, it seems). Hey, Paul, if you wanna read in peace, stay off Chinese trains.

This is also a period piece, which is odd, considering the book is only 11 years old. I grew weary of the post-Cultural Revolution discussions, for example, and the constant references to Mao's thoughts (Hey, I read some of the book--lookit!). With the luddite's love for steam engines (the Chinese stopped building them the year his book was published) and quill pens, Theroux seems unable to imagine a modern China flexing its military muscles and engaged in the World Trade Organization. For all his accounting of Chinese history, he seems only able to grapple with the past two decades with much authority.

This is a highly descriptive and most unhappy account of a long and arduous journey. I can't imagine Theroux enjoyed the work. I can't say I much did, either.

I find Paul Thoreaux to be an excellent writer, even though he seems a little pessimistic sometimes. He has way of looking beyond the glittering surface of things and telling it how he sees it. There is nothing fake about his work. He captures the concept and the depression of the poverty of Warsaw and Moscow wonderfully, and depicts China's issues and complaints wonderfully. He is perfect at seeing through culture and gender to the pain that lives underneath. He is a wonderful, honest writer, and so far I am loving his book. I could almost believe that I had been to some of the places he traveled.

I do not travel much (unfortunately), except in my lazy chair, with P. Theroux. I love the way he describes the people he meets, the way he critisizes local authorities etc. He's not an xenophobic, but neverthless, stays American. He travels by train, and describes the scenery, the other travellers, the landscape, the buislings etc.

In the literary world it is perhaps blasphemy to say a bad word against Daniel Defoe's most acclaimed novel. So here goes. The fact that the book was originally titled The Life And Strange Surprising Adventures Of Robinson Crusoe illustrates the major flaw in Defoe's literary form. Put simply, this would be a far more interesting and gripping story were it not so superfluously lengthy. The author makes a habit of repeating himself, especially when it comes to the act of dispatching kittens, which seems to be more of an obsession here than octogenarian ladies are to MatronsApron. It is difficult, you may think, to keep the subject matter fresh when describing the daily tribulations of a fellow stranded on an island for thirty years, without occasionally repeating yourself. True, but perhaps a straightforward solution to this diminutive quandary would be to simply truncate the duration of the story. There are some wonderfully intriguing and suspenseful moments, and some juicy action to boot, but sadly these are gratuitously diluted by lengthy descriptions of the unremarkable everyday goings on in Crusoe's life, and rather than serving to build up the suspense, they merely obstruct the reader's relationship with the more exciting parts of the story.
However, those with more patience than my ignorant self will find in Robinson Crusoe a delightful tale, which as well as being a fictional documentary of the most unusual thirty years of Mr. Crusoe's life, also has time to ponder upon philosophical and theological ideas, in a style that makes the reader feel as if they are involved in the conflicts between the functionalist and cynical thoughts going on in Crusoe's mind. It may not be a gripping white-knuckle adventure, being rather more leisurely and acquiescent, but it is still rather easy to see why Robinson Crusoe is regarded by some as one of the greatest novels of all time.

Robinson Crusoe is the perfect treat for the wilderness lover. The novel takes the reader on a journey through many hardships that the main character encounters in order to display just how trying nature can be. Almost every new day, Crusoe must find and develop a new survival tactic in order to stay alive. There are several reasons why one should engulf in reading this book.
Robinson Crusoe displays strength and incredible will to survive. This can be very inspiring to someone who does not have a lot of confidence in themselves. Crusoe has faith in himself and God, believing that he will be guided in the right direction. God plays a large role in his everyday life. Crusoe never was a religious man before he was stranded on the island, but he believed God had allowed him to be the sole survivor of the shipwreck for a reason and he owed it to God to be the best man that he could be.
Another reason to read this book is that it shows that one can do whatever they put their mind to. Crusoe worked long and hard to create things that will facilitate his survival and make things more convenient for himself. He creates a protective shelter, makes his own tools, baskets, and pots, and even grows and raises his own food.
This book will also get many people to realize just how good their lives actually are. Many, not all, of us have lives that are not threatened by wondering how we will get our next meal or if someone or something is out to hunt us down, but Crusoe must face these dilemmas and find ways to secure himself. The wonderful thing about this novel is that it shows how difficult these tasks can be, yet Crusoe does not give up and he pursues his goals until they are accomplished.
This novel can instigate someone to try something new that perhaps thay were uneasy about doing before. Robinson is faced with so many new surroundings at once, yet deals with them so well. If he would have panicked, he eventually would have starved to death. Instead, Crusoe thinks logically and pursues what is needed to survive.
Robinson Crusoe is an amazing adventure novel that explores the life of a very strong-willed man. The main character tells his own story and it is as if he is speaking directly to the reader, which makes it seem even more like reality. Daniel Defoe has written a great novel.

This is not a novel for those who like quick action and a lot of dialogue. Robinson Crusoe is superbly written, and tends to draw out the events, with a great deal of imagery provided in order to describe everything with minute details. Seeing as to how this is one of my favorite novels, I have read Robinson Crusoe probably about six times, in more than one language. My favorite aspect of this novel is the language in which it is written. Defoe's ability to make every word worth reading is enough to captivate and ignite the imagination. I do not think that if you like fast-paced novels that you would enjoy this masterpiece, but it is a matter of personal preference. If you enjoy well-developed character, then Robinson Crusoe's charater is one worth devoting your time to. Defoe creates a human being, with faults and flaws, as well as dignified qualities. Robinson Crusoe is truly worthy of emulation, and is one of the greatest-developed characters in a work of literature. I recommend this novel to anyone who is willing to take the time to read every sentence and who is not so impatient as to expect action to appear on every page of the novel.

Hotel Honolulu contains some of the best writing I have ever read -- Theroux masterfully depicts the humorous events that occur within (and around) a past-its-prime Waikiki hotel, as observed by the book's narrarator. The novel is sort of a series of vignettes about the vacationers who briefly inhabit the world of this second-tier hotel, as well as the locals associated with the hotel (gardners, housekeepers, etc.).

The problem, for me, is that the narrarator tends to be extremely condescending when describing many of the characters in the book, particularly the Hawaiian natives. The narrarator depicts most of the natives, including his wife, as ignorant and simple people. I found the "vignettes" focusing on this ignorance to be insulting, at best.

That being said, I am glad I read the book. If you can get past the author's condescension, this is a wonderful book full of rich characters.

This book gives you an insight in people, the fact that it is in Waikiki just puts the atmosphere in the right direction.
Theroux is an ecellent writer and describer of people. I enjoyed the reading very much.

There's a great premise for this novel by Paul Theroux. The narrator is an unnamed middle-aged writer who takes a job as a manager of a small seedy hotel in Honolulu. What follows is a book full of overlapping stories about the constant parade of guests and locals and a fresh look at what Hawaii is like by the New England-born author who now makes Hawaii his part-time home.

There's a wide variety of characters and a loose non-conventional plot. Most memorable of all is the larger-than-life figure of millionaire and hotel owner Buddy Hamstra, a big man who over-indulges his appetites in life. There's the writer's wife and daughter as well as permanent and temporary hotel guests and employees. It's a collection of vignettes interwoven with reoccurring themes and finely developed people. It's big and sprawling and full of pathos and humor, small portraits of human nature focusing on the themes of love and death.

I found myself drawn into it, enjoying the author's sharp observations and finding myself wanting to laugh out loud. How each character views this world is fascinating and the writer dares to ridicule it all. There's a power in the book that kept me reading in spite of the meandering pace. It's sad and funny and very human all at the same time as it willingly explores such topics such as ethnic tensions and physical disabilities. It might not always be a flattering picture of a place we sometimes think of as paradise, but it sure does seem real, as the characters grope and blunder along in their lives below a constantly shining Hawaiian sun. I just loved the experience of reading this book. Definitely recommended.

Theroux is a great travel writer--I don't hesitate to say it. When I read his books, I feel as though I'm there with him, and I want to go myself to experience the places he visits more fully. In this book he travels all over the Pacific, including some incredibly out-of-the-way places, and has some remarkable experiences. The problem with his books is that I'm there WITH HIM. Theroux is snobbish, argumentative, sometimes racist or close to it, sometimes downright mean-spirited. I want to comment especially on his four-page diatribe against poor Thor Heyerdahl, which dropped my opinion of Theroux several notches. Who really cares if many of Heyerdahl's theories have been proven wrong? The Kon-Tiki Expedition is still one of the greatest travel books ever, at least as great as anything by Theroux, and obviously written by a person who is much easier to get along with. I had the strong feeling that Theroux was jealous of Heyerdahl because he's never done anything as courageous as sailing halfway across the Pacific on a balsa-wood raft.

As tourists, especially on package or special interest tours, people are likely to see the "best foot forward" or "tourist brochure view" of the country they visit. The dearer the travel package, the less we see- a stay at the isolated and mod-cons Sheraton - Denerau in Fiji will virtually guarantee total ingorance of the real Fiji, presenting the traveler with a Disneylandesque version of this lovely, friendly and very conflicted island nation. Government tourist bureaus and travel agencies do little to dispell this view, carefully avoiding mention of the problems, conflicts, diseases and other challenges that are always there- whether in our home country or those we travel to. - Paul Theroux visits Oceania from a "backpacker" perspective, meeting people and customs at their sea level perspective. His humor is dark, his experiences are only too real (I can relate to many from my travels) and he "calls them as he sees them"- not endearing, cute or a hackneyed travelogue to sell a destination. - My perspective may occasionally be different form his, but he presents a valid and incisive perspective of Oceania and some of her people based on his encounters and observations. (For example, Fiji has some of the friendliest people, but those same people can be ethnically conflicted, can burn down a neighbor's home and try to politick for a "my culture first" constitution. And Fijian soldiers are still among the fiercest.) - Read this book for the off-the-tourist-path and behind-the-scenes looks at Oceania, and for some unique encounters with memorable people and customs that are really there... I still reread chapters when I want to recall more than the tourist-brochure memories of my visits in Oceania. The vivid word prictures and incisive expositions make it easy to remember, and laugh.

If you've ever been stuck on a train, bus or ferry in some interesting part of the world, with nothing to read but the (aargh!)Lonely Planet (or Rough Guide, etc) guide book of that region, and have consequently nearly died of agony over the shiny-happy over-enthusiasm for a location that is clearly awful; or if you've fallen asleep over the poor excuses for historical or cultural sections these guides provide, then Paul Theroux's book is the companion for you the next time you visit Australia-New Zealand and the Pacific.

This is a wonderful, well-written read that's often very funny, and I found it matched my own observations of the parts I visited. Theroux's description of Australia and New Zealand struggling with their national identity as nations is very well observed - I saw the same thing and am glad I had his book along. His depiction of the wild Australian heavy drinkers ("ferals") is simply accurate, however painful it may be for some Australians to admit. Some of the Pacific islands Theroux described in all their boredom reminded me of places I was living (Hong Kong, Singapore) at the time I first read this, so they certainly weren't unbelievable.

It should be pointed out that Theroux actually liked many of these places he visited - he has simply done a good job of observation while being beholden to no one - the essence of good travel writing. People who say only nice things about about a place write tourist bureau pamphlets or guidebooks.

Great read. The detached reader (and traveller) will love it.

Kowloon Tong By Paul Theroux Published by Hamish Hamilton Ltd. $29.95 Despite the fact that this book was pushed by Whitcoulls as the book to buy for Father's Day along with the Jonah Lomu autobiography, I'll try to reflect that I did actually quite enjoy this novel. Theroux's central character is Englishman Neville Bunt, part-heir of a successful stitching factory in Hong Kong in the final two years before the island reverts back to Chinese rule. As characters go, Bunt is a particularly dislikable one. Although he has lived in the colony his entire life, he has remained uninterested in making any attempt to get to grips with the local culture in that despicable way that only wealthy ex-pats seem to be capable of. His half-dozen or so words of Cantonese all revolve around prostitution; he lives with his mother, and has the social skills of a mute graduate of the Timaru School of Tedious Conversation. After the death of his Chinese business partner, Mr. Cheung, Bunt's tediously predictable life begins to go astray. Enter Mt Hung, representative of the Chinese army and tactless yet efficient business negotiator. Hung makes his case to Bunt quite clear: if he does not sell his business immediately then it shall be acquired through other less friendly means following the handover. Seeing he has few options, and to alleviate his mother's desire for the offered 'million quid', Bunt begins to go along with Hung's offer. Despite this, other things begin to go astray; Hung at first invades Bunt's private life. Then things turn nastier... On the other side of things, the book did have its bad points. All the characters are extremely stereotypically. Bunt is boring, predictable and is nothing outside of the worst ex-pat; his mother is a domineering archetype who flutters away on the horses and ignores the handover completely. Mr. Hung meanwhile, is a one-dimensional character. Theroux portrays him as a ruthless toll of the PLA, determined to eliminate anyone or thing that stands in the way of 'the great Chinese Takeaway'. Although these points are a downfall, they also somehow add to the book - it does point out that Hong Kong has been about one thing and one thing only: money. The Chinese are simply replacing the British, who always looked down at the people of Hong Kong who were the workers who made the island the economic power it is today. Kowloon Tong is a reasonable read, some of you may enjoy, and others may not. Theroux has often been labeled a racist and, although it is not obvious in this novel, he has defiantly not gone out to remove the suspicion. Some reviews I have read loathed this book and many of their criticisms are well based. Hmm..what can I say but check it out.

I very much enjoyed "Kowloon Tong" but then I am a big fan of Paul Theroux's writing. This one of his better novels I think.

The characters in this novel are typical of Theroux, they are strong and evoke a strong reaction. The novel has been criticized for how it depicts the Chinese. Having visited Hong Kong a number of times and studied Mandarin in Bei Jing I found one side of the Chinese character well described and represented. I would say though that another side of the Chinese personality is perhaps not so well represented. Many of the Chinese people whom I know are also very warm and delightful people.

The British I don't now so well but they do seem to lend themselves to being made fun of. If you enjoyed this part of "Kowloon Tong" try Theroux's "Emerald Kingdom"!

The story in "Kowloon Tong" is exciting and difficult to put down. This is a novel well worth reading.

I first read Kowloon Tong while living in Stanley, Hong Kong, just a few months before the Hand-over. I have found its rendering of attitudes of expatriates and chinese by far the most accurate account of the Hong Kong I experienced on a day to day basis. Theroux is equally fair (and equally blunt) about British, Chinese and American residents in Hong Kong - I encountered the boorish behaviour described here everyday - that was Hong Kong, a place where people went to make money, or to escape from China (or both). Not everyone, of course, was like Bunt and Hung, but these are recognizable types.
The plot is that of Graham Greene thriller, with the sarcasm of Evelyn Waugh and Gore Vidal thrown in. I should add that I find many of the comments on this page highly evocative of the Hong Kong I knew, too - the novel was banned in China and was a painful read for some Hong Kong British, Chines and Americans I knew (especially the types well-described here -chiefly long-term residents). The detached reader should enjoy a good read that's also highly accurate in its description.
The Hong Kong I knew was about the most un-literary place on the planet. "Criticism" of Hong Kong was thought of as a pamphlet from the Tourist Bureau, an announcement from the Government Publicity Office, or the Website of a company wanting to do business in China. But that is not what novelists do.