Subject Of Elephanta Suite

[Millroy]

According to Amazon, it consists of a collection of stories revolving around people seeking some sort of enlightment/redemption in the streets and country of India. Sounds very Theroux and in keeping with his philosophy of world travel.

Anybody seen anything else on this yet? Any possible book tours coming up? Thanks.

[the webmaster]

I just finished reading it, as I was lucky enough to have the publisher (Houghton Mifflin) send me advanced reading copies to raffle off on the website. 4 winners out there will be getting them in the next few days, and I hope they will be posting their thoughts as they read the book, also. It is divided into 3 short stories, all very interesting in their own way. I absolutely loved the last one, about a young woman who goes to India and falls in love with an elephant, as strange as that may sound. It is a very moving story.

Another interesting point is that although all three stories are about different people and different subjects, they overlap each other, with characters from one story intersecting with those in another. In fact the title "The Elephanta Suite" is the name for a hotel room that all the characters in the three stories stay in at different times. It makes for a very different book, yet very Theroux-esque at the same time. His points of view on the world and people always seem to hit home for me. And, although I liked Hotel Honolulu a lot, mainly because I learned so much about the Hawaiian culture that I would have never known otherwise, I think this book is much more well-written. If any of his fiction was deserving of a literary prize I think this is a top contender. You can really tell that he had a message for the audience and that he thought these stories out, much more than he did for Hotel.

Because I am the webmaster, of course I am biased towards Theroux's writing, but this is definitely some of his finest. I get a lot of people that write to me saying that they read his travel works and want to know where to start with his fiction or they read The Mosquito Coast and want to know where to move on from there for another great read- I think from now on "The Elephanta Suite" will be in my top recommendations for his best fiction.
-e

[Andrew]

Just finished it myself, and I highly recommend it as well. I've generally been a bit underwhelmed by Theroux's fiction of late, but these stories are very tightly executed and absolutely razor sharp in their observations. I recall reading a review somewhere that used the phrase 'compulsively readable', and I can only agree.

Probably most importantly to me, Theroux writes believable American characters for the first time- truly recognizable in their motivations and language and a stark contrast to the frankly bizarre renditions found in Hotel Honolulu and Blinding Light. Good thing, too- it would have been impossible to care about how these character's experiences changed them (the erosion of belief and fallability of perception are central themes) if we couldn't 'buy in' to who the were at the beginning of each story and how their expected reactions bring about unexpected results.

A few disconnected observations:

-While the stories are interconnected, it is only by the thinnest of threads. This contrivance comes off as only superficially clever, and doesn't seem to add much to the experience. Fortunately, it doesn't detract much either.

-From the Consul's Files to Kowloon Tong, one of Theroux's most interesting recurring themes is 'eastern justice', or how problems (particularly related to foreigners) in Asia are resolved through unexpectedly clever and usually extralegal means. This theme is present throughout these stories in abundance, and one of the most unexpected pleasures of this book is watching as the most likeable of the American characters learns to use it to seek what may be the most justified case of revenge I've ever read.

-I have never been more horrified by the idea of travel in India!