Paul Theroux
Paul Edward Theroux (born April 10, 1941) is an American novelist and travel writer who has written numerous books, including the travelogue, "The Great Railway Bazaar" (1975). Some of his works of fiction have been adapted as feature films. He was awarded the 1981 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his novel "The Mosquito Coast," which was adapted for the 1986 movie of the same name and the 2021 television series of the same name. He is the father of British authors and documentary filmmakers Marcel and Louis Theroux, the brother of authors Alexander Theroux and Peter Theroux , and uncle of the American actor and screenwriter Justin Theroux. Early life. Paul Theroux was born in Medford, Massachusetts, the third of seven children, and son of Catholic parents; his mother, Anne (née Dittami), was Italian American, and his father, Albert Eugene Theroux, was of French-Canadian descent. His mother was a former grammar school teacher and painter, and his father was a shoe factory leather salesman for the American Leather Oak company. Theroux was a Boy Scout and ultimately achieved the rank of Eagle Scout. His brothers are Eugene, Alexander, Joseph and Peter. His sisters are Ann Marie and  Mary. Theroux was educated at Medford High School, followed by the University of Maine, in Orono (1959–60), and the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he obtained a B.A. in English in 1963. Career. After he finished his university education, Theroux joined the Peace Corps in 1963 as a teacher in Malawi. A new program, the Peace Corps had sent its first volunteers overseas in 1961. Theroux helped a political opponent of Prime Minister Hastings Banda escape to Uganda. For this, Theroux was expelled from Malawi and thrown out of the Peace Corps. He was declared "persona non grata" by Banda  in Malawi for sympathizing with Yatuta Chisiza. As a consequence, his later novel "Jungle Lovers", which concerns an attempted coup in the country, was banned in Malawi for many years. He moved to Uganda in 1965 to teach English at Makerere University, where he also wrote for the magazine "Transition". While at Makerere, Theroux began his friendship with Rajat Neogy, founder of "Transition Magazine", and novelist V.S. Naipaul, then a visiting scholar at the university. During his time in Uganda, an angry mob at a demonstration threatened to overturn the car in which his pregnant wife was riding, and Theroux  decided to leave Africa. The couple moved with their son Marcel to Singapore, where a second son, Louis, was born. After two years of teaching at the National University of Singapore, Theroux and his family settled in the United Kingdom in November 1971. They lived first in Dorset, and then in south London. When his marriage ended, early in 1990, Theroux returned to the United States, where he has since settled. Literary work. Theroux published his first novel, "Waldo" (1967), during his time in Uganda; it was moderately successful. He published several more novels over the next few years, including  Fong and the Indians, "Jungle Lovers", and "The Mosquito Coast". On his return to Malawi many years later, he found that "Jungle Lovers", which was set in that country, was still banned. He recounted that in his book "Dark Star Safari" (2002). After moving to London in 1972, Theroux set off on an epic journey by train from Great Britain to Japan and back. His account of this journey was published as "The Great Railway Bazaar", his first major success as a travel writer and now a classic in the genre. He has since written a number of travel books , including traveling by train from Boston to Argentina ("The Old Patagonian Express"), walking around the United Kingdom ("The Kingdom by the Sea"), kayaking in the South Pacific ("The Happy Isles of Oceania"), visiting China ("Riding the Iron Rooster"), and traveling from Cairo to Cape Town across Africa ("Dark Star Safari"). In 2015, he published ""Deep South"" detailing four road trips through the southern states of the United States. He is noted for his rich descriptions of people and places, laced with a heavy streak of irony, or even misanthropy. Nonfiction by Theroux includes "Sir Vidia's Shadow", an account of  his personal and professional friendship with Nobel laureate V. S. Naipaul, which ended abruptly after 30 years. Personal life. His 2017 semi-autobiographical novel "Mother Land" (and an earlier related short story published in "The New Yorker" magazine and set in Puerto Rico) refer to an older son born from a college relationship; he and his unmarried partner are said to have given the boy up for adoption, though this individual apparently came back into his life at some point. When Theroux was in Uganda, his friends found him a teaching position at Makerere University in Kampala. There he met  Anne Castle, a British graduate student teaching at an upcountry girls' secondary school in Kenya, via Voluntary Service Overseas. They married in 1967. After leaving Asia and Dorset, they moved to South London, England in 1971, because it was cheaper than the United States. They had two sons: Marcel and Louis, both of whom are writers and documentarians. Theroux and Castle divorced in 1993. Theroux married a second time to Sheila Donnelly, on November 18, 1995. His wife runs a luxury travel/hotel PR agency. They reside in Hawaii and Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Controversy. Theroux's sometimes caustic portrait of  Nobel Laureate V. S. Naipaul in his memoir "Sir Vidia's Shadow" (1998) contrasts sharply with his earlier, admiring portrait of the same author in "" (1972). They had a long friendship, but Theroux said that events during the 26 years between the two books colored his perspective in the later book. The two authors attempted a reconciliation in 2011. His novel "Jungle Lovers" (1971) was banned by the government in Malawi for many years. His novel "Saint Jack" (1973) was banned by the government of Singapore for 30 years. Both were banned because they were considered too critical of the  government's leader(s), or cast the country in an unfavorable light. Theroux has criticized entertainer Bono, and actors Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie as "mythomaniacs, people who wish to convince the world of their worth." He has said that "the impression that Africa is fatally troubled and can be saved only by outside help—not to mention celebrities and charity concerts—is a destructive and misleading conceit". A review of "Dark Star Safari" (2003) in "Foreign Affairs" Nov/Dec 2003, described Theroux's portrait of Africa: Before Theroux became a popular author of novels and travelogues, he was a Peace  Corps volunteer in Malawi and an instructor at Makerere University in Uganda. As his 60th birthday approached in 2001, he set out to traverse Africa north to south by road and rail, revisiting old haunts and taking the pulse of the continent. By the time he reached Malawi, he had been "abused, terrified, stranded, harassed, cheated, bitten, flooded, insulted, exhausted, robbed, lied to, brow-beaten, poisoned, stunk up, and starved," but found that he still loved Africa and Africans – or some of them, anyway. Tourists and foreign aid workers are another story; the latter get a drubbing for propping up  corrupt regimes and putting Africans off the idea of solving their own problems ... [Dark Star Safari] is an intelligent, funny, and frankly sentimental account by a young-at-heart idealist who is trying to make sense of the painful disparity between what Africa is and what he once hoped it might become. Theroux remains optimistic about Africa: I'm not pessimistic about Africa. The cities just seem big and hopeless. But there's still a great green heart where there's possibility. There's hope in the wilderness ... What Africa needs is a little organization and better government. Theroux has  said that when he was in his early 20s, and joined the Peace Corps and went to Africa, he was an "angry and agitated young man". He felt he had to escape the confines of Massachusetts and a hostile U.S. foreign policy. He says he now has "the disposition of a hobbit," and remains optimistic about most of his subject matter. "I need happiness in order to write well ... being depressed merely produces depressing literature in my case," he explains. In an op-ed in "The New York Times" on October 22, 2016, Theroux recommended that President Obama pardon John  Walker Lindh. In the article, he compared his own Peace Corps volunteer outing in Malawi to the convicted American citizen who fought with the Taliban in Afghanistan. Select awards and honors. Theroux has received numerous awards and honors.