The Lower River

It should have ended right in the middle. The halfway point had a more compelling ending and the second half of the book dragged.

I began to loath the protagonist. The story needed an unhappy ending.

It compares very well. He is a great storyteller.

The premise was interesting. The first half was compelling.

I had high expectations before reading the book. It might have been better with lower expectations.

The hero ,after a long married life, and a successful business career as a tailor; decides to return to Malawi, where he was once a teacher.He is disappointed in the deterioration of the former promising place.He attempts some renovations in an attempt to help the people.Instead he is tricked by the locals and is basically trapped by them.Their plan is to bleed him of all of his money and self worth..His extensive knowledge of snakes enables him to keep a safe distance from them. Several escape attempts are thwarted and his contact with some unfriendly aide workers makes his situation seem hopeless,since they don't do anything to rescue him from his captors talons.I don''t want to spoil the ending,so I won't reveal any more.As an avid Theroux fan and a fellow teacher abroad I endorse this particular book as one of his better fictional works.I still think his best stuff has been the railway journeys,but this was entertaining and even though it is fiction some of it is of course loosely based on the authors illustrious life as a teacher in Malawi.

I'm a huge fan of Paul Theroux and I've read all his fiction and non-fiction, I loved Dark Star, but this book was almost unreadable because his star character is such a weak, pathetic sniveling sob. If it was non fiction it would be good, but why write fiction with such a despicable character? I guess a writer gets to pick his characters and develop them anyway he wants in the name of art, but does the reader have to suffer as a result.