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Title: The Lower River
Author: Paul Theroux
Narrator: Jefferson Mays
Format: Unabridged
Length: 12 hrs and 19 mins
Language: English
Release date: 08-23-12
Publisher: Whole Story Audiobooks
Genres: Fiction, Contemporary
Publisher's Summary:
Ellis Hock runs a menswear store in Massachusetts but still dreams of the four years he spent in Malawi. When his wife leaves him, he realises that there is only one place for him to go: back to Malawi, where he can be happy again. Arriving at the dusty village he finds it transformed, but the locals remember him and welcome him back. Is his new life an escape or a trap?
Critic Reviews:
"A terrific teller of tales and conjuror of exotic locales." (Sunday Times)
"Therouxs prose leaps to life like a mosaic splashed with water." (The Spectator)
Members Reviews:
The Lower River - a dark intense read.
Another fantastic book by one of my favorite authors. Set in Africa, this is a dark sinister story about a man who thought that if he went back there after having left many years before, that everything would be the same and that he would live out his life with money and friends and a good life. He was sadly mistaken and taken prisoner in so many ways, as soon as he arrived. There are quietly menacing characters who in the end, take his money, his soul as well as his mind captive, and one feels the panic and terror and hopelessness of this man trying to get out of a very bad situation. The author also managers to skewer some wealthy celebrities who feel that because they dump huge amounts of money into these deprived areas, that they are making the world a better place, only for the reader to see for themselves, that this is not the case and that there is a dark undercurrent to this so-called generosity. There is hope however from the most unlikely source and one reads and hopes things work out.
I would have preferred a lengthier ending, but all in all, another wonderful novel from a writer who knows the world and the people in it..good and bad.
Never go back
Never go back, a review of "The Lower River":
Before reading "The Lower River", it's useful to have read Paul Theroux's "Dark Star Safari", a travel book describing a trip taken from the north to the south of Africa, in 2004. Mr Theroux's view of Africa and of aid agencies in particular, is negative, highly critical and cynical. In some ways one could argue that "The Lower River", his latest novel, is an inevitable consequence of that African trip.
The American protagonist, Mr. Ellis Hock, has just separated from a wife of many years and is estranged from his only daughter. He has managed to cash in his chips from his failing clothing store and, loveless, friendless, (well almost), unemployed, but with some financial security, is at the ultimate loose end. He embarks on a trip to a small village in Southern Malawi, a very poor area where, as a young Peace Corp volunteer in the 1960s, he had worked as a teacher. At that time he had helped build a school and church and had become very involved in the community. He developed an interest and expertise in snakes - a talent which was to come in useful in his new adventure. He also experienced his first and only love. He sadly realizes that it was the happiest time of his life.
He returns to see his school and church in ruins. The population, ravaged by AIDs, poverty, famine and warfare, can barely subsist. They are supported by "aid", which is portrayed as a cold, distant, big brother-ish organization, which sporadically dumps food and medications then withdraws into a fortress.
