Reading Theroux

Free books are the best, especially when you wouldn't have been exposed to them otherwise. I was in a cheese shop in Callicoon and saw a bunch of books I thought were for sale but were free. I'd read Paul Theroux's The Mosquito Coast and The Old Patagonian Express (I might be confusing it with Bruce Chatwin's In Patagonia). The free book I picked up is My Other Life. Told in the first person, it reads like a memoir, covering the writer's life through his years in Africa, Singapore, London and Cape Cod. He writes about visiting a leper colony, marriage and children, writing his books, the end of his marriage and move back to the U.S., where he can no longer write. He sees a shrink, hangs out with young people in a housing project, and gets together with his old friend George from high school, friends despite the fact that he's white and George is black. Medford, Massachusetts, where he lived until he 18, has changed, of course, it being more than 30 years later.

At the library this week, I saw a new book by Theroux, The Lower River. Written in the third person, it tells the story of Ellis Hoch who's lived his entire life in Medford where he's managed a men's clothing store inherited from his dad. He sells the store, just as his marriage is ending. He decides to return to Africa and visit the area where he spent his Peace Corps days. Before he leaves, he gets together with his high school friend Roy, who seems like George, not just because he's black.

I'm up to chapter 5 in The Lower River. I'm sure there will be many more events that echo My Other Life. I'll let you know.
 .