Fresh Air Fiend

By: Paul Theroux

Narrated by: Norman Dietz

Length: 22 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's Summary

In Fresh Air Fiend, Theroux's pen serves him well with astute, lively pieces that stray far beyond simple "travel essays" and reveal his self-inflicted lifestyle of compulsive travel, writing, and alienation. In this collection--containing mostly previously published magazine pieces written over the past 15 years--there's a strong autobiographical streak, as well as historical perspectives and a sardonic view on aging. "One of the more bewildering aspects of growing older," he writes in "'Memory and Creation,'" "is that people constantly remind you of things that never happened."

©2007 Christine Feehan (P)2008 Recorded Books, LLC.

Inspirational

The banter of Theroux's love for the water and his courageous sense of adventure really grabbed me.I have often found riding kayaks relaxing and excellent exersize also.The writer and his quest to find extraordinary places that are unconventional and charecterize them with descriptive and personal information is sometimes even better than being there.His commentaries on politics are also welcoming,since his views are equally unconventional.As a man who has travel many parts of the known world he provides an intresting perspective on how the whole thing really works.The fact that he takes his time and uses ordinary transportation puts him in touch with the local peoples true lives and makes me realize that life isn't about racing head long in search of things,but stopping to savor the moments we have before us.

22 hours of delightful Paul Theroux essays

As a Paul Theroux fan I worried that I may have already read or listened to an audio performance of many of these pieces. But , alas, I fund out that I[d read/heard only 3-4 - the rest were new to me ... and the "repeats" I enjoyed listening to again. The narrator was IMHO perfectly suited to the topic and to the Theroux style. [What bothers me most about Audible narrators are those with the phony, upper-class British accents -- you know -- when the narrator trills his r's so egregiously that double RRs sound like "LLs' ... e.g., the word "worry" as "wally".] I listened to this book over a two week period while doing yard work -- cutting the grass, raking leaves, weeding in the garden, etc., and it was perfect for that purpose. The topics are wide ranging, the commentary intelligent, but also entertaining and educational. The only pieces that I did not enjoy were the two very short, 5-10 minute pieces of fiction that seemed tacked on at the very end of the book. They didn't seem to fit, but I'll try them again to figure out why he chose to include 2 short pieces of fiction in a massive book of essays. Bottom line: --- I'd recommend this to any Theroux fan. If, after 4-5 essays, you find that it is not to your taste and you'd rather not spend 22 hours of your life with Paul Theroux, you can always return it to Amazon Audible and they will automatically refund your investment.

EyeWander

Excellent book for the traveler or non-traveller alike. Highly recommended.. I enjoyed the audio version more than when I read it years ago.