Point Books During The Pillars of Hercules
| Original Title: | The Pillars of Hercules: A Grand Tour of the Mediterranean |
| ISBN: | 0449910857 (ISBN13: 9780449910856) |
| Edition Language: | English |
Paul Theroux
Paperback | Pages: 509 pages Rating: 3.93 | 4277 Users | 192 Reviews
Narrative Concering Books The Pillars of Hercules
"DAZZLING."--Time
"[THEROUX'S] WORK IS DISTINGUISHED BY A SPLENDID EYE FOR DETAIL AND THE TELLING GESTURE; a storyteller's sense of pacing and gift for granting closure to the most subtle progression of events; and the graceful use of language. . . . We are delighted, along with Theroux, by the politeness of the Turks, amazed by the mountainous highlands in Syria, touched by the gesture of an Albanian waitress who will not let him pay for his modest meal. . . . The Pillars of Hercules [is] engrossing and enlightening from start (a damning account of tourists annoying the apes of Gibraltar) to finish (an utterly captivating visit with Paul Bowles in Tangier, worth the price of the book all by itself)."
--Chicago Tribune
"ENTERTAINING READING . . . WHEN YOU READ THEROUX, YOU'RE TRULY ON A TRIP."
--The Boston Sunday Globe
"HIS PICARESQUE NARRATIVE IS STUDDED WITH SCENES THAT STICK IN THE MIND. He looks at strangers with a novelist's eye, and his portraits are pleasantly tinged with malice."
--The Washington Post Book World
"THEROUX AT HIS BEST . . . An armchair trip with Theroux is sometimes dark, but always a delight."
--Playboy
"AS SATISFYING AS A GLASS OF COOL WINE ON A DUSTY CALABRIAN AFTERNOON . . . With his effortless writing style, observant eye, and take-no-prisoners approach, Theroux is in top form chronicling this 18-month circuit of the Mediterranean."
--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Specify Out Of Books The Pillars of Hercules
| Title | : | The Pillars of Hercules |
| Author | : | Paul Theroux |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Special Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 509 pages |
| Published | : | October 29th 1996 by Ballantine Books (first published 1995) |
| Categories | : | Travel. Nonfiction. Cultural. Greece |
Rating Out Of Books The Pillars of Hercules
Ratings: 3.93 From 4277 Users | 192 ReviewsPiece Out Of Books The Pillars of Hercules
Sigh. I LIKE Paul Theroux, I love travelling with him and vicariously sampling part of the world I can not get too, but this left me cold. Surprisingly, as he was travelling the Med. Maybe the fact that it was in winter, low season. may be the fact that the initial part of the journey is through the commercialised edge of the Spanish med. I found that totally depressing and grey. There was no character, no amusing anecdotes, no ....nothing. It was like a place that had sold its soul to theFour and a half stars. Mr. Theroux always uncovers a wealth of insights while traveling, and it's fun to trollop around with him. Here's a nice sentence:There was undoubtedly a more hallucinogenic experience available in poppy-growing Turkey than a long bus ride through Central Anatolia, though it was hard for me to imagine what this might be after a twenty-three-hour trip in the sulfurous interior of a bus of chain-smoking Turks, as day became twilight, turned to night, the moon passing from
It has been more years than I can remember since I last read an analog book an actual physical book that I held in my hands, turning pages and highlighting pithy passages in yellow. My husband recently came across a dog-eared copy of The Pillars of Hercules: A Grand Tour of the Mediterranean that his mother had passed down to him. I never met my mother-in-law, but heard much of her love of reading and great writers. So I made an exception to my digital-only rule and decided to take on this
I'll confess from the start that a travel memoir is just not my kind of thing and so I probably started reading this book rather resentfully. I just so desperately wanted to be proved wrong. Sadly I was not. This book delved into the dull minutiae of his trip to the extent that I was simply bored by it. The book contained sweeping generalisations about the countries, cultures and people he encountered on his travels and there were no great insights that I could glean. I suppose now is the time
Why do you bother to read travelogues, Jeff?1. Between working in the adult film industry and a stint for the Royal Canadian Mounties, I traveled extensively as part of my job in international industrial espionage and its always fun to read about places that I only saw at night while wearing a ski mask. Travel tip: A wool ski mask is especially difficult in tropical weather.2. Its always nice to get a unique perspective on a time and place. Theroux traveled around the Mediterranean in the mid-90
I like Theroux. I like his grouchy old man act and I like the books (not a fan of the novels, though). This one is entertaining and informative and well-written. Its also another example of a book written not so long ago at all but which, thanks to the Internet gap, seems to be from another world - the author making phone calls to Honolulu in bars and being amazed at this, for example.
No comments
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.