My Other Life [Audio Cassette]

Paul Theroux (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1996

In this complex, candid confessional, Paul Theroux's newest protagonist is one of depth and great subtlety whose tragedy is unique--or is it? Life, to the hero of My Other Life, has no apparent plot and so it seems messier than fiction. With enormous insight and self-knowledge, Theroux, the author of The Mosquito Coast and My Secret History, divulges his beliefs in secrets. Simultaneous hardcover release from Houghton Mifflin. 4 cassettes.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Prolific and popular writer Paul Theroux turns himself on his ear in My Other Life, the "story of a life I could have lived had things been different," as told by another Paul Theroux. The book, arranged in sections that resemble stories more than chapters, traces a life that at times looks quite a bit like Theroux's real one; at other times not at all. He treads the familiar ground of his Peace Corps days in Africa that some readers will recall from My Secret History. The story then careens through Singapore, London, marriage, writing, family, and divorce. And it is not only Theroux who is a walking contradiction in this work; other characters explore the notion of two lives, giving the sections a unifying subject and a resounding theme. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Theroux has previously played with the identity of a novel's protagonist (in My Secret History), but this time his work is considerably more personal and entertaining, if less profound. It is in effect a fictionalized memoir in which the stages of his life are tellingly illuminated by what amount to a succession of brilliant short stories. Certain themes recur throughout: the narrator is constantly about to be seduced by determined but unsuitable women from whom he retreats at the last moment; he is always reminding himself of the fragile but oddly intimate relationship between writer and reader; and he bears an agonizing sense of exile from an everyday, quietly satisfying domestic existence he seems to cherish but can never attain (hence his compulsive travels). The line between fiction and reminiscence is deliberately and skillfully blurred, so that such choice episodes as a disastrous dinner party held to introduce Anthony Burgess to a lifelong fan, and another (for which Theroux crosses the Atlantic specially) that stars a very convincing Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, are at once triumphs of comic realism and of dark fantasy. Did he really meet an obscure German writer whose life and work seemed exactly to parallel his own? An Australian reporter he had once dismissed with a slighting line in a book, only to find she was a more seasoned and knowledgeable traveler than he? A seductive murderess in a remote Yorkshire coastal cottage? A louche London socialite who transformed Theroux's career before moving on, rapaciously, to another young writer victim? It doesn't matter. The book is so vividly compelling?and melancholy?as to remind a reader once more of how hugely talented?though, alas, sometimes uneven?a writer Theroux can be. First serial to the New Yorker and Granta; BOMC selection; author tour.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Audio Literature; Abridged edition (September 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0787111260
• ISBN-13: 978-0787111267
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,184,468 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #11 in Books > Books on Cassette > Authors, A-Z > ( T ) > Theroux, Paul

More About the Author

Paul Theroux's highly acclaimed novels include Blinding Light, Hotel Honolulu, My Other Life, Kowloon Tong, and The Mosquito Coast. His renowned 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.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Theroux's Finest Work--in ANY medium, January 21, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: My Other Life (Paperback)

*My Other Life* is a unique and brilliantly executed masterpiece that defies genre classification, and is, for me, Paul Theroux's best work and greatest book, superior to his earlier *My Secret History*. The writing is fluid and tight, the stories poignant, sad, and hilarious--and while people often criticize Theroux for being self-indulgent or even monomaniacal, the human insights found in the present volume are as powerful as they are because of the narrator's simultaneous involvement and detachment, which provide for wonderful character sketches and evocative descriptions, the likes of which the author himself has never executed better.

More than with any other book I've ever read, including those by Paul Theroux, this book absolutely defies classification: it is at once a novel (as it's billed), a work of creative nonfiction, a memoir/autobiography, a "travel" book, a collection of vignettes, of essays, of connected short stories, and a work of literary criticism. Theroux is very prolific and has written in all of these mediums, but *My Other Life* manages to be the best work he's done in any of them AT THE SAME TIME! Moreover, this is certainly one of the greatest books on the art of writing and publishing ever written--EVERY aspiring writer would do well to read it.

I quite simply LOVE this book, and rate it among the best I've ever read. More to the point, I can honestly say that this is one of the very, very few books that has actually changed my life, and for the better. And it's an easy, fun, quick read--genius in the guise of talent. I've taken from it new ways of seeing the world, new possibilities--and from my own narrow and limited focuses, new ways of seeing my life. There is not a word wasted here, nor is there a sentence too much--*My Other Life* shows the potentialities implicit in every moment, and the importance involved in the responsibilities of being human.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fact or fiction?, April 18, 2000

By 

saliero (NSW Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: My Other Life (Paperback)

I found myself totally immersed in the first section about the time in the leper village as a Peace Corp volunteer. I was, of course, utterly convinced that it was autobiographical, and remain convinced about the rest of this "novel". A travel writer reveals so much about himself in other works, why not this one?

If this is not his "secret life", but rather his "other life", then this is the stuff that is no secret!

Beautifully written, whatever the truth is, with a control of language that manages to evoke the dry dustiness of African savanna, or the dripping humidity of equatorial Asia, or the brittleness of London society matrons.

If you like Theroux's travel writing, you will like this.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A strange mixture of autobiography and fiction, October 6, 2004

By 

Richard Hawkins (Sydney Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: My Other Life (Paperback)

This book is a strange mixture of autobiography and fiction; an "imaginary memoir" as the author explains in the book's preface: "This is the story of a life I could have lived had things been different". Each chapter is a self-contained short story (or short memoir if you like), and it's often tantalizing to imagine what is real, what is an exaggerated version of the truth and what is pure fantasy. It is probable, for instance, that Theroux met the Queen, but less likely that he found himself briefly alone with her and experienced a burning and reckless desire to touch her, indeed to burst into tears and cry on her shoulder. These sorts of fantasies make My Other Life an often humourous read but there are flashes of whimsy, nostalgia and regret as well.
Some of the chapters are short and epigrammatic; the longer chapters are more satisfying, particularly "The Queen's Touch" (mentioned above), "Poetry Lessons" and "Lady Max". They all feature the typical Theroux trademarks: ironic detachment verging on superciliousness, fluid writing style with clever use of dialogue, and sly humour. He's a page-turner as well: the plots are subtle but compelling, you're drawn into the stories, wanting to know what is going to happen next, yet the tales are not plot-driven and so there is plenty of time for reflection.
In "Poetry Lessons", Theroux recounts a tale that combines poetry with a small intrigue involving a rich, untalented benefactor to whom the narrator is drawn to for his wealth and power yet repelled by his (and his wife's) uncritical vulgarity. The benefactor wants Theroux to teach him how to write better poetry, but it soon becomes obvious that not only does this benefactor lack talent, he also lacks any literary intelligence or worldliness (he asks "which war?" when Theroux mentions the War Poets). Theroux takes artful delight in pointing out to the reader this stooge's solecisms and paucity of literary knowledge.
"Lady Max", again, satirizes the rich and powerful: Theroux feels contempt for the eponymous and vaguely reptilian woman but is strangely drawn into her world, without, apparently, being corrupted by it.
"The Queen's Touch" is very funny, despite its overall tone of quiet desperation. Her Majesty comes across as a rather detached but thoughtful lady, with an aura of wise serenity, while her husband is ridiculed for his intense irascibility:
"This was a man who knew how to express boredom. In order to show me how utterly uninterested he was he worked his mouth, savouring, tasted something foul, pulled a face, then made an effort of swallowing... his relentless negativity and unhelpfulness baffled me."

There is much pleasure to be derived from Theroux's prose: he is a skilful writer: succinct, ironic, with a great gift for a turn of a phrase. My Other Life combines his skill at fiction and non-fiction, and the thought that some of the described events may have actually happened provides us with a frisson of delight.