Synopses & Reviews
Any journey with Alexander Theroux is an education. Possessed of a razor-sharp and hyperliterate mind, he stands beside Thomas Pynchon as one of the sharpest cultural commentators of our time. So when he decided to accompany his wife -- the artist Sarah Son-Theroux -- on her Fulbright Scholarship to Estonia, it occasioned this penetrating examination of a country that, for many, seems alien and distanced from the modern world. For Theroux, the country and its people become a puzzle. His fascination with their language, manners, and legacy of occupation and subordination lead him to a revelatory examination of Estonia's peculiar place in European history. All the while, his trademark acrobatic allusions, quotations, and digressions -- which take us from through Jean Cocteau to -- render his travels as much internal and psychical as they are external and physical. Through these obsessive references to Western culture, we come to appreciate how insular the country has become, yet also marvel at its fierce individuality and preternatural beauty -- such is the skill of Theroux's gaze. This travelogue of his nine months abroad also brims with anecdotes of Theroux's encounters with Estonian people and -- in some of its most bitterly comedic episodes -- his fellow Americans whom he at times feels more alienated from than the frosty, humorless Europeans. is as biting and satirical as it is witty and urbane; as curious and lyrical as it is brash and irreverent. It marks a new highlight in an already stellar career and a book that continues Fantagraphics' exceptional line of prose works.
Review
"Catch the wit and the venom, the depth and the breadth, of this honest account of 'a strange, unlooked-for place at the back of beyond' where 'the fascination of its strangeness' renders it a fitting subject for a curious report by a memorably talented, ever off-kilter, chronicler of oddity. [Rating] 8/10" The Washington Times
Review
"...Mr. Theroux largely uses Estonia as a space for his own purposes, transforming this admirable country into a grotesque but clever caricature perfect for use as... a stage for Mr. Theroux's verbal pyrotechnics and some fine jokes... I laughed a lot, but guiltily." John L. Murphy PopMatters
Review
"... bristles with fascinating detail." Andrew Stuttaford The Wall Street Journal
Review
"Some of the most interesting travel books happen by accident. .... Despite all [his] genuine delight in the quaint, not merely linguistic but extending also to Estonian architecture, what Mr. Theroux mostly shows us about the country and its people is exasperation, irritation, furious rage. . . He takes endless potshots at their food . . .but by the time you . . . find a section titled 'What did I hate about Estonia,' it's no surprise." Martin Rubin
Review
"The best travel writing is uncomfortable and, perversely, obviates the need to see the place yourself. I've begun reading Alexander Theroux on Estonia from Fantagraphics and it is the god d@mned best." Ian Thompson The Times Literary Supplement
Review
"... bristles with fascinating detail." Ian Thompson
Synopsis
For Theroux, the country and its people become a puzzle. His fascination with their language, manners, and legacy of occupation and subordination lead him to a revelatory examination of Estonia s peculiar place in European history. All the while, his trademark acrobatic allusions, quotations, and digressions which take us fromHamlet through Jean Cocteau to Married with Children render his travels as much internal and psychical as they are external and physical. Through these obsessive references to Western culture, we come to appreciate how insular the country has become, yet also marvel at its fierce individuality and preternatural beauty such is the skill of Theroux s gaze. This travelogue of his nine months abroad also brims with anecdotes of Theroux s encounters with Estonian people and in some of its most bitterly comedic episodes his fellow Americans whom he at times feels more alienated from than the frosty, humorless Europeans Estonia: A Ramble Through the Periphery is as biting and satirical as it is witty and urbane; as curious and lyrical as it is brash and irreverent. It marks a new highlight in an already stellar career and a book that continues Fantagraphics exceptional line of prose works. "
Synopsis
- Alexander Theroux accompanied his wife to Estonia, occasioning this penetrating examination of a country. Share Theroux's fascination with Estonians' language, manners, and legacy of occupation and subordination as it leads him to a revelatory examination of Estonia's peculiar place in European history. All the while, his trademark acrobatic allusions, quotations, and digressions -- which take us from Hamlet through Jean Cocteau to Married... with Children -- render his travels as much internal and psychical as they are external and physical. This travelogue of his nine months abroad also brims with anecdotes of Theroux's encounters with Estonian people and -- in some of its most bitterly comedic episodes -- his fellow Americans whom he at times feels more alienated from than the frosty, humorless Europeans. Estonia: A Ramble Through the Periphery is as biting and satirical as it is witty and urbane: as curious and lyrical as it is brash and irreverent.
Synopsis
"Seeing Estonia -- disrobing her -- was my focus."
Synopsis
“Seeing Estonia — disrobing her — was my focus.”
About the Author
Alexander Theroux is an award-winning novelist, poet and teacher whose prose works include Laura Warholic or, The Sexual Intellectual, Estonia, and the two artist monographs The Strange Case of Edward Gorey and The Enigma of Al Capp. His novel Darconville's Cat was chosen by Anthony Burgess as one of the 99 greatest post-war novels. He lives in Massachusetts with his wife Sarah-Son Theroux.