My Other Life

by Paul Theroux

Book Overview

In the Washington Post Book World, Sven Birkerts called this exuberant novel "a complex and gripping work of invention and confession . . . I understood again how the prose of a true writer can bring us to a world beyond." The book spans almost thirty years in the life of a fictional "Paul Theroux," who moves through young bachelorhood in Africa, in and out of marriage, affairs, and employment, and between continents. It's a wry, worldly, erotic,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0395877520
• ISBN13: 9780395877524
• Release Date: September 1997
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 464 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

For Theroux, A Turning Point

Over the past 30 years, I have had the pleasure of reading (and in some cases, re-reading with relish) eleven of Paul Theroux's works. "My Other Life" represents his crowning achievement. Although the preface to "My Other Life" states that "the man is fiction, but the mask is real," Mr. Theroux has experienced enough vicissitudes in life (some painful, as we all do) not to have some real life lessons drip onto the page, even if attributed to a fictional "Paul" or another character entirely. This "novel", if it can be called that, takes the form of a chronological mirror image of the author's real travels and family life, but with the second half decidedly more introspective (mask or no mask), so much so that the reader begins to view the real Paul Theroux with a sense of newfound respect for having come to terms with the rougher side of his life, having eventually made sense of it, and having moved on. Put another way, there is less cantankerousness and more humanity in "My Other Life" than in earlier works. Yet "My Other Life" never bogs down in navel-gazing; it is simply too entertaining for that. The reader is served up a triple mix of the author's always-exquisite writing style, trademark drollness and some bittersweet vignettes with occasional (self-) analysis to ponder. Aside from the question of "Who is Paul?", "My Other Life" offers some delicious tales to be savored in their own right: a mysterious woman living a life of seclusion on the English coastline (with a terrific twist ending); the now-famous (in Britain, infamous) episode of a very commanding and somewhat supercilious Queen and suffering Prince Philip at a dinner party; and the author's return to his hometown of Medford, only to end up hanging out with an academically-challenged clique of low-lifers years removed from Theroux who have no idea who he is and who fracture the King's English in a vernacular the author conjures beautifully. "My Other Life" demonstrates more than any other of Theroux's works why he is one of America's most gifted writers of the last century. 5+ - Highly Recommended.

Theroux's Finest Work--in ANY medium

*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.

My Other Life

I believe this is Paul Theroux's best "fiction" effort to date. "My Other Life" is a quasi-memoir, built around short stories -- the big and illuminating moments around which people eventually construct their personal histories. Theroux claims it is a book of fiction, and perhaps it is. But the main character's name is Paul Theroux, and his experiences and titled output very much resemble the author's. From Cape Cod, where Theroux recounts a boyhood relationship with a secretly extraordinary uncle, to East Africa, where he teaches English to lepers, to Singapore and poetry lessons for a talentless war merchant, to London, where his career and ambition begin to soar, and then back again to Massachusetts, where his doldrums bring him into the orbit of both strangers and old friends. How closely does this narrative follow Theroux's actually life events? Who knows? Maybe VS Naipaul does.

Fact or fiction?

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.

A must read for Paul Theroux fans

Having lived in several of the countries Mr. Theroux has written about, including Malaysia, Singapore and U.K. and also being a great fan of his favorite authors like V.S. Naipaul and Graham Greene,I highly recommend "My Other Life" to anyone who is interested in the inner life of a writer. This book is certainly one of his best and mirrors his own growth in both his personal and professional lives. I was afraid that this book would bore me, having already read "My Secret History", but I have to say that this book only increased my appreciation for Mr. Theroux as a writer. His abilities in self analysis and in being able to weave a complex story in a thoroughly readable manner makes him one of the most interesting authors around. Whether Mr. Theroux is trying to coyly deceive us into believing that "My Other Life" is only fiction or whether he is only tantalizing us with semi truths is unimportant. This book will keep you wondering at his ever increasing skills as a writer and have you only begging for more.