Review

[clay]

Here's a not very flattering review of Blinding Light from the Seattle Times:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/artsentertainment/2002319423_theroux07.html

[Jon D. Evers]

not that bad of a review for theroux.

[Diana L Boeckmann]

the reviewer missed how hilariously funny this book is. i didn't find it at all tiresome; bought it sunday, finished it tuesday. laughed almost all the way through. if you're looking for something other than entertainment, you'll probably be disappointed. if you want a rollicking good time, read on.

funniest thing is the main character's lack of insight. he becomes totally unreliable for me somewhere around page 220, when he describes gout as afflicting "the podagra of the big toe." i'm still chuckling over this one. at first, i thought it was theroux being imprecise, then realized that it is probably the main character, steadman, being a crashing, pretentious bore as usual--and who is more fun to laugh at??

unless it's pretentious bores on drugs!!

[M. Alan Kahn]

I was completely rapt while reading Blinding Light, but am DESPERATE for someone else's opinion on what their take is on the last 6 pages of this book. Please share any thoughts you have with me, or I shall spend a lifetime of sleepness nights!!!! mkahn@cherenson.com

[Mickyfruit]

To me, it seems like a "happy" ending.
Steadman takes the drug, and regains his sight,although I guess, Manfred will be his master.

[jimsing2]

Dont you Think?

[jimsing2]

Cusack would make a good Steadman and maybe Uma Thurman for Ava?
do these two have chemistry together? they would only need it for the datura scenes right?

[rosiepink]

Spoilers ahead. Don't read if you haven't read the novel.

************************************************************

Here's what I've gotten out of reading this book.

When I think of a blind writer, I think of Homer, Borges, and Milton. Borges writes about being blind in his poems and short fiction.

There are other references Borges, especially, the image of the spider and its web. Also Borges's poems and short stories makes use of the motif of the mirror. Theroux makes the connection to Borges explicit when he writes about Steadman's book:
"The narrative hovered between being a mystery and a fable. He wanted it to be both more concrete and allusive, more of Borges in it, some sparkle, some magic" (Theroux 415).

The cup that Steadman drinks from could be linked to the Holy Grail and to the cups suite in Tarot cards. The tarot cards imagery might be my imagination, but if you've read Borges's short story "The Aleph," Borges makes a reference to both a tarot card "in a shopwindow in Mirzapur" and the image of "a man pointing to the sky and the earth, to indicate that the lower world is the map and mirror of the higher" (Borges 283, 285). Borges was greatly interested in the mysticism of the Kabbalah. The Kabbalah influenced several Tarot deck designers. If you look at Tarot decks, examine the Magician, which depicts a man pointing up and down. The Magician's slogan is "As above, so below." This, of course, all relates back to the symbolism of the mirror.

Steadman's name derives from Dutch "Stad" and "Stede", which means a town, a station, or a place enclosed.

Manfred derives from German "magin", which means strength, and "frid," which means peace. I think Theroux is being sarcastic.

Of course, most of you caught that Manfred is Steadman's alter ego/Other. Their names have the word "man" in reverse positions. I assume at the end that Steadmand and Manfred have integrated their personalities, somewhat like someone with a multiple personality disorder.

Nestor is mentioned in Homer's Iliad. His name means "homecoming" or "traveler."

There's an obvious reference to Kafka's "The Metamorphosis" when Steadman has "an insect's head" (437-438). Steadman "did not know whether he had woken from a dream" (438).

Borges has an essay, "Kafka and His Precursors," where he writes:
"The mental affinity of both writers [Kafka & Kierkegaard] is known to everyone; what has not yet been emphasized, as far as I know, is that Kierkegaard, like Kafka, abounded in religious parables on contemporary and bourgeois themes" (Borges 364).

This perfectly also describes Steadman's book, and Theroux's book of Steadman. So there's your mirror and the magician Theroux saying "As above, so below."

As to Steadman wanting to be Borges, what contemporary writer wouldn't want to be Borges? I'm sure some of them would make a deal with the devil like Faust does in Goethe's Faust.

List of books to elucidate Blinding Light:

Theroux's meeting with Borges: The Old Patagoinian Express
Theroux's retelling of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: Half Moon Street
Borges: Selected Non-Fictions, Collected Fictions, Selected Poetry, Selected Poems, This Craft of Verse
Kafka: The Metamorphosis
Robert Louis Stevenson: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

[shannonhills]

On the surface this book reads like an egotistical, self-absorbed, name-dropping exercise in denial. In a vacuum, this novel is a train wreck. But taken in the context of Theroux' previous works, it is pure brilliance. It is as much a satire as it is a statement as it is an exploration.

I see this book as a natural extension/progression in Theroux’ literary exploration of what it means to be a “man.” For me, this exploration started with “The Mosquito Coast,” which I read in 1981, and which has haunted me ever since. From the beginning of “Blinding Light” I saw similarities between Steadman and Allie, the father in “The Mosquito Coast.” They are both so sure of themselves, so full of themselves, yet so isolated from the rest of humanity. Each believes he is the only living person who has the Answer to the Human Condition, and they want nothing whatsoever to do with anyone “less fortunate” than them. In “Mosquito Coast,” Allie (“Father”) is a tree-hugger inventor/farmer. I believe his children are home-schooled. His idea of freedom, which he preaches to his wife and kids with every breath he takes, lies in returning to the “natural” state of things. He constantly declares to his wife and children, “If it can’t be grown here, I have no use for it!” Except, evidently, for the hydrogen and nitrogen and other chemicals he arranges to have shipped to South America when he moves his family there in order to build a giant freezer in the middle of the equatorial rain forest! How different is Steadman’s journey?

Like Allie, Steadman is an introvert-snob; he knows he’s smarter than 99.9% of the people on the planet. He also knows he’s a fraud. His incredibly successful travel book was a complete fluke, an experience nobody, including Steadman, could ever consciously reproduce. To his credit, he definitely tries; he spends 10 years trying to come up with a “great, new” idea, but to no avail. One day he hears of a mind-altering drug that can only be experienced in the jungles of South America, and he’s convinced that it is the only thing that will produce a breakthrough, the subject of which will inevitably become his next book.

It turns out that Steadman is right. The mind-altering drug he finds in the jungle DOES actually transport him to “see” things as he has never seen them before. And it DOES produce fodder for his next book. But, as we all know, there are no free lunches. The insight and vision Steadman receives comes at a price.

In allegorical terms, this book can be seen as the tale of the Garden of Eden: given the gift of the fruit of KNOWLEDGE, how will you use it? Steadman uses it to hob-knob with presidents and celebrities and act like a complete arrogant, idiotic SCHMUCK! Just like Allie Fox. In Allie’s case, the fruit of Knowledge was his own brain, but he used it in the same arrogant, idiotic, BLIND way.

If I am ever fortunate enough to be featured on the back page of Bon Appetit magazine, where the featured person is always asked which three people from history they would most like to dine with if given the chance, I would just pick Paul Theroux. In other words, I would give just about anything to be able to hang with that man, have a few glasses of wine, and talk about what’s in his head. Oh, wait. I’d probably also want Dave Barry there. Because he also has an uncanny insight into “mankind.”

By the way, anyone who thinks this book is an attempt at erotica is completely missing the point. It’s ANTI-erotica! It’s satirical. It’s making fun of Steadman’s belief that it’s erotic!

[elamont]

Yet another closed minded review...UGH. Unfortunately this isn't a surprise. I will say however that it wasn't as bad as some of the others.
Erin
love spells
tarot readings

[alex]

The sex and drugs are great, the social satire a bit heavy handed, the Clinton passage is mesmerizing, the travel gear and clothes should have been shed.

They are an irrelevant distraction that cheapen the experience, annoying speed bumps while getting up to fantasy cruising speed.

Strikes me as venting of a pet peeve by the author. Perhaps it resonates with his established readership.