What impression do you form of the writer Paul Theroux
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it is no wonder that Paul Theroux is such a successful travel writer. From the passage I have just read, it is clear that his style is both intriguing and unusual, and the content of the piece was most interesting.
The purpose of his piece is to record his impressions on revisiting sites he had previously travelled to as a young man. This struck me as a very different approach to travel writing. I was particularly interested to see how he would feel at the end of the journey. He promises he will avoid “the twittering of the nostalgia bore”, and in the extract he seems well able to avoid nostalgia when talking about the London of his youth. By setting up his objective of “seeing who I was, where I went and what subsequently happened to the places I had seen”, he has captured my full attention and made me eager to read the full text.
I found Theroux’s style to be particularly effective. I would not generally read travel writing as I find it tends to be a bit ‘over-excited’. However, in this extract, Theroux achieves a remarkable degree of restraint in his writing. A key aspect of his style is the extended metaphor that he introduces in the opening paragraph and returns to towards the end of the extract. He compares himself to a ghost, “a creepy spectre from the underworld, unobserved and watchful among real people.” My previous image of a travel writer was of a person who engaged actively with both the people and scenery around them. By establishing himself as a passive observer, almost otherworldly, Theroux has piqued my curiosity. This is a very effectively deployed stylistic feature.
Theroux’s mastery of style becomes very evident when he indulges in descriptive passages. His ability to construct an image that is both highly unusual and surprisingly memorable is a key aspect of the attractiveness of his writing. At the end of the seventh paragraph, Theroux describes a typical London scene. He sketches the Londoners, “their brisk way of walking, their fixed expressions, no one wearing a hat”, then paints a very affecting picture of “a gaunt young woman swaddled in dirty quilts, sitting on the wet floor … begging.” All of the Londoners, Theroux included, go “striding past” her. All of this description happens in just one sentence. I was amazed to read such a vivid, realistic account of a London Tube station, condensed into such a short space.
Finally, Theroux’s use of alternative voices in the fifth paragraph highlights his superiority of style. He assures the reader that he will avoid “tedious reminiscences of better days”, suggesting that this is what usually happens when writers attempt projects like his. By alerting the reader to this common pitfall, he subtly reminds us that his writing is of a higher standard. This nuanced self-promotion is a very clever aspect of Theroux’s style, and it highlighted for me the quality of his prose, making me appreciate it more fully.
The purpose of his piece is to record his impressions on revisiting sites he had previously travelled to as a young man. This struck me as a very different approach to travel writing. I was particularly interested to see how he would feel at the end of the journey. He promises he will avoid “the twittering of the nostalgia bore”, and in the extract he seems well able to avoid nostalgia when talking about the London of his youth. By setting up his objective of “seeing who I was, where I went and what subsequently happened to the places I had seen”, he has captured my full attention and made me eager to read the full text.
I found Theroux’s style to be particularly effective. I would not generally read travel writing as I find it tends to be a bit ‘over-excited’. However, in this extract, Theroux achieves a remarkable degree of restraint in his writing. A key aspect of his style is the extended metaphor that he introduces in the opening paragraph and returns to towards the end of the extract. He compares himself to a ghost, “a creepy spectre from the underworld, unobserved and watchful among real people.” My previous image of a travel writer was of a person who engaged actively with both the people and scenery around them. By establishing himself as a passive observer, almost otherworldly, Theroux has piqued my curiosity. This is a very effectively deployed stylistic feature.
Theroux’s mastery of style becomes very evident when he indulges in descriptive passages. His ability to construct an image that is both highly unusual and surprisingly memorable is a key aspect of the attractiveness of his writing. At the end of the seventh paragraph, Theroux describes a typical London scene. He sketches the Londoners, “their brisk way of walking, their fixed expressions, no one wearing a hat”, then paints a very affecting picture of “a gaunt young woman swaddled in dirty quilts, sitting on the wet floor … begging.” All of the Londoners, Theroux included, go “striding past” her. All of this description happens in just one sentence. I was amazed to read such a vivid, realistic account of a London Tube station, condensed into such a short space.
Finally, Theroux’s use of alternative voices in the fifth paragraph highlights his superiority of style. He assures the reader that he will avoid “tedious reminiscences of better days”, suggesting that this is what usually happens when writers attempt projects like his. By alerting the reader to this common pitfall, he subtly reminds us that his writing is of a higher standard. This nuanced self-promotion is a very clever aspect of Theroux’s style, and it highlighted for me the quality of his prose, making me appreciate it more fully.
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