World's End And Other Stories [Hardcover]

Paul Theroux (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 22, 1980

World's End And Other Stories by Theroux, Paul

Editorial Reviews

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.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 211 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin; 1st edition (August 22, 1980)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395294533
• ISBN-13: 978-0395294536
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,776,577 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars "I came, I saw, I was disappointed", November 25, 2000

By 

Robert S. Newman "Bob Newman" (Marblehead, Massachusetts USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: World's End And Other Stories (Hardcover)

Paul Theroux is a very talented writer. He writes excellent stories, he's written some good novels, and he used to write good travel books too. I've enjoyed plenty of them over the years. Who am I ? I am just a reader out there in small town Massachusetts who's had a few experiences in life and who likes to read books about faraway places, or maybe about the human comedy. I'm not a hot-shot critic. I can't expound on the literary qualities of this or that writer with the expertise gleaned from English departments, because I didn't attend any courses in those English departments. But life is in the eye of the beholder. As Mr. Theroux has grown older, his view of life has become more and more pessimistic. Nothing gives him pleasure, everything leads to disappointment, failure, and frustration. He sees many people trying to make up for the nature of his world through lies, delusions, and retreat. He has become a man who sees only the garbage on the beach of life. All relationships must end badly in this world---they are disappointing right from the start usually. The maggot of indecision and betrayal always appears, it can be squeezed and ejected from under the skin as in the story "White Lies", but never avoided. Your closest friends and heroes will fall short of your expectations, your loves will fade, and nothing can replace them. Life---in these stories---is indeed a rotten, desperate situation. But at least, Theroux can write about it, tear it apart, and send it out in sad, unpleasant little pieces. Even if it's your old friend and mentor, you can turn on him and publish a whole book telling us what a rat he always was. Maybe he was. If I ever met Mr. Theroux, I'd make like "Roadrunner" and disappear in a flash, rather than risk winding up a crabbed, contemptible suburbanite in some story.

OK, these are my remarks. If you've read this far, then I can tell you that taking into account these feelings of mine, there are some excellent stories in this collection, though some are not up to his usual high standard. "The Odd-Job Man", about an American academic in England, "The Greenest Island", a long story about an inexperienced American youth in Puerto Rico, and "Clapham Junction", a short but powerful story about the depths of human foibles stand out. Personally, I think you'd do better with "The Consul's File" or with some of the earlier novels. If you already know Theroux and like his style, you'll probably find this collection excellent. I find his view of the world too jaundiced, too cynical, too negative. The brightest day, the happiest moment, the most beautiful scene always carries a vague menace and the seed of major failure. I agree that it is possible, but always ???