Synopses & Reviews
Review
'\"A compact, provocative gem of a novel.\"'
Review
'\"Both unputdownable and utterly engaging.\"'
Review
"A compact, provocative gem of a novel." Boston Globe
"Vigorous and evocative . . . the kind of story you force yourself to savor slowly though you're dying to find out what happens next." The Washington Post
"Both unputdownable and utterly engaging."
Times Literary Supplement
Synopsis
This heartfelt and revealing account of Paul Theroux's thirty-year friendship with the legendary V. S. Naipaul is an intimate record of a literary mentorship that traces the growth of both writers' careers and explores the unique effect each had on the other. Built around exotic landscapes, anecdotes that are revealing, humorous, and melancholy, and three decades of mutual history, this is a personal account of how one develops as a writer and how a friendship waxes and wanes between two men who have set themselves on the perilous journey of a writing life.
About the Author
PAUL THEROUX's highly acclaimed novels include Blinding Light, Hotel Honolulu, My Other Life, Kowloon Tong, and The Mosquito Coast. His travel books include Ghost Train to the Eastern Star, Dark Star Safari, Riding the Iron Rooster, The Great Railway Bazaar, The Old Patagonian Express, and The Happy Isles of Oceania. He lives in Hawaii and on Cape Cod.
Table of Contents
Part One AFRICA
1. Famous in Kampala 3 2. "I'm Not Everyone" 17 3. The Kaptagat Arms 44 4. On Safari in Rwanda 72
Part Two THE WRITER'S WRITER
5. Christmas Pudding 103 6. Excursion to Oxford 130 7. Air Letters: A Correspondence Course 144 8. The 9:50 to Waterloo 165 9. "I Must Keep Some Secrets" 185 10. Lunch Party 203
Part Three SIR VIDIA'S SHADOW
11. The Householder 219 12. My Friend's Friend 236 13. Death Is the Motif 250 14. Tainted Vegetables 264 15. "It's Major" 280
Part Four REVERSALS
16. Poetry of Departures 297 17. A Wedding Is a Happy Funeral 307 18. Literature Is for the Wounded and the Damaged 321 19. Exchanges 337 20. Sir Vidia's Shadow 352