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| My Other Life: A Novel | 
 enlarge | Author: Paul Theroux
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Category: Book
List Price: £6.99
Buy Used: £0.01
You Save: £6.98 (100%)
New (1) from £121.41
Avg. Customer Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 332122
Media: Paperback
Edition: New Ed
Pages: 448
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.1 x 1.1
ISBN: 0140245324
EAN: 9780140245325
ASIN: 0140245324
Publication Date: January 5, 1997
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: Dispatched from the US -- Expect delivery in 2-3 weeks. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. 100% Money Back Guarantee. Shipped to over one million happy customers! Your purchase benefits world literacy!
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| Customer Reviews:
 A strange mixture of autobiography and fiction February 6, 2002
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This book is a strange mixture of autobiography and fiction; an "imaginary memoir" as the author explains in the book's preface: "This is the story of a life I could have lived had things been different". Each chapter is a self-contained short story (or short memoir if you like), and it's often tantalizing to imagine what is real, what is an exaggerated version of the truth and what is pure fantasy. It is probable, for instance, that Theroux met the Queen, but less likely that he found himself momentarily alone with her and experienced a burning and reckless desire to touch her, indeed to burst into tears and cry on her shoulder. These sorts of fantasies make "My Other Life" an often humourous read but there are flashes of whimsy, nostalgia and regret as well.
Some of the chapters are short and epigrammatic; the longer chapters are more satisfying, particularly "The Queen's Touch", mentioned above, "Poetry Lessons" and "Lady Max". They all feature the typical Theroux flourishes: ironic detachment verging on superciliousness, fluid writing style with clever use of dialogue and sly humour. He's a page-turner as well: the plots are subtle but compelling - you're drawn into the stories, wanting to know what is going to happen next, yet the tales are not plot-driven - there is plenty of reflection.
In "Poetry Lessons" Theroux recounts a tale that combines poetry with a small intrigue involving a rich, untalented benefactor who the narrator is drawn to for his wealth and power yet repelled by he and his wife's uncritical vulgarity. The benefactor wants to get poetry lessons from Theroux, but it soon becomes obvious that not only does he lack talent, he also lacks any literary intelligence or worldliness (he asks "Which war" when Theroux mentions the War Poets) and Theroux delights in pointing out to the reader this stooge's solecisms and lack of literary knowledge.
"Lady Max" again satirizes the rich and powerful: Theroux feels contempt for this vaguely reptilian woman but is strangely drawn into her world, without, apparently, being corrupted by it. "The Queens' Touch" is very funny, despite its tone of quiet despair. Her Majesty comes across as a rather detached but thoughtful lady, with a wise serenity, while her husband is ridiculed for his intense irascibility:
"This was a man who knew how to express boredom. In order to show me how utterly uninterested he was he worked his mouth, savouring, tasted something foul, pulled a face, then made an effort of swallowing... his relentless negativity and unhelpfulness baffled me."
There is much pleasure to be derived from Theroux's prose: he is a skilful writer - succinct, ironic, with a great gift for a turn of a phrase. My Other Life combines his skill at fiction and non-fiction, and the thought that some of the described events may have actually happened is deliciously tantalising.
 my other Secret History? October 26, 2000
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
After reading this title I kept on wondering whether Theroux regretted writing My Secret History and decided to start it all over. It could be regarded as powerful and interesting as Secret History, this ficticious Theroux presented here exposes and mixes the real Theroux with the one he wishes he would have been, with the one he's never been through new events. A curious disclosure of a presumed trip through the author's mind. His style remains a wonder as in other publications by him. A must read
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