Historical September 1986 report or notice. Original dates, prices and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
The Mosquito Coast by Paul Theroux, Houghton Mifflin, 1981, has been compared to Robinson Crusoe, Swiss Family Robinson, Lord of the Flies, and Moby Dick.
In some ways it reminded me of Heart of Darkness.
It is a brilliant book in its virtuosity. Allie Fox is an inventor, tinker and allaround handy-man who sees modern American culture as debauched.
He rants and raves to his wife and four children about such things as television, Diet Pepsi, aerosol cans, Rice-a-Roni, Twinkies and Kool-Aid.
His fourteen-year-old son, Charlie, is narrator of the story and Allie is referred to as “Father.” Allie is so fed up with modern life that he takes his family on a banana boat to a wilderness in Honduras, and with the help of some Indians he clears a patch of land and builds a comfortable house.
He then invents a giant icemaker which he calls “fat-boy” Charlie describes their life as follows: “We had defeated the mosquitoes, tamed the river, drained the swamp and irrigated the gardens.
We had seen the worst of Honduras weather — the June floods, the September heat — and we had overcome both.
We were organized, Father said.
Our drinking water was purified in a distiller that ran from fat-boy’s firebox.
We had the only ice-making plant in Mosquitia, the only one of its kind in the world, and the capacity, Father said, of making an iceberg.” But Allie was never satisfied and because of this and a long train of events, “fat-boy” blew up and the whole area disintegrated.
They had to move downstream and tried to reestablish themselves but the place chosen was so incompatible with stinking mud, rains, darkened skies, and a lack of food that it was impossible. “Mother” (she was called nothing else in the story) and the children began to promote the idea of going back to the United States but “Father” told them that it had been destroyed in a war.
He became an Ahab-type figure ranting all the time and the eleven-year-old Jerry began saying he was crazy and that he hated him. Vultures are perched everywhere and the horror rises to a crescendo. I only wish my book reviewing abilities could bring home to you the breadth of this book.
In addition to Mosquito Coast, the Kiosk has three other books by Theroux. I just finished Half Moon Street which consisted of two short novels. Both are works of great suspense and satire in Theroux’s beautiful, low key prose.
Another book is a travel book on China called Sailing Through China which is very witty and satirical. Kingdom by the Sea is like the American Express Card; I never leave home without it and whip it out of my purse whenever I stop for a coffee break and, for a short while, I am walking the coast of England with Paul Theroux.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, September 1986.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1986_09.pdf, printed page(s) 6; PDF page(s) 6.
