#fowles_john

US novelist and non-fiction writer (born 1941)

Some of Theroux's most enjoyable books are about travelling: The Great Railway Bazaar, The Old Patagonian Express, The Kingdom by the Sea, Riding the Iron Rooster, The Happy Isles of Oceania, The Pillars of Hercules and Dark Star Safari. In all of them the narrator, the writer himself, feels detached, an observer of events rather than a participant - and the same is true of the people in Theroux's novels. They live abroad, often in the tropics; like the heroes of Graham Greene (the author Theroux most resembles) they feel uneasy both about the society they are in and about themselves; they fail to cope. The hero of Saint Jack (1973), a US pimp in Singapore, hopes to make a fortune providing rest and relaxation for his servicemen compatriots, but the pliability of his character makes him the prey for every con-man and shark in town. In The Mosquito Coast (1981) an ordinary US citizen, depressed by life, uproots his family and tries to make a new start in the Honduran jungle, with tragic, farcical results. Picture Palace (1978) is the life-story of a famous photographer who has hidden all her life behind her camera, reduced existence to images on film, and now, in withered old age, agonisingly contrasts her memories of youth, warmth and affection with the dusty prints which are all she has to show for them.Honolulu Hotel (2001) is an episodic novel set in a rundown hotel in Hawaii. The manager is an unsuccessful writer, battling with the personal demons that beset so many of Theroux’s charac- ters, who acts as witness to the tragi-comedies and mini-dramas that unfold in the seedy rooms of the hotel.

MY SECRET HISTORY  (1989) André Parent is an American writer, born at the time of the second world war, randy for women and hot for every experience the world can offer. He teaches in Africa, writes novels and stories, makes a fortune from a travel book. He fulfils his adolescent ambition, to fuck the world', only to find that he has lost moral identity. The book is wry, funny, and no comfort to Americans, intellectuals, writers, the middle-aged, or indeed anyone else at all.

Theroux’s other novels include Waldo, The Family Arsenal, Doctor Slaughter, Chicago Loop, Millroy the Magician, an acid science fiction fantasy O-Zone, My Other Life (a kind of companion to My Secret History), Kowloon Tong, The Stranger at the Palazzo d’Oro and Blinding Light. Sinning With Annie, The Consul’s File and The London Embassy are collections of short stories. Fresh Air Fiends is a collection of travel essays; Sir Vidia’s Shadow is a memoir of Theroux’s 30-year friendship (now ended) with V.S. Naipaul, horribly compelling in its revelations of the insecurities and jealousies of the literary life.

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To My Secret History : John Fowles, Daniel Martin Graham Greene, The Honorary Consul

To Theroux's novels in general : William Boyd, Stars and Bars Timothy Mo, Sour-Sweet P.H. Newby, Leaning in the Wind

To the travel books : Jonathan Raban, Coasting Colin Thubron, Behind the Wall V.S. Naipaul, Among the Believers

To O-Zone : Robie Macauley, A Secret History of Time to Come

To the short stories : Lawrence Durrell, Antrobus Complete

British novelist (1925-2017)

For over 40 years Aldiss has been a major propagandist for British sf, editing anthologies, speaking at conventions and writing several non-fiction books including Billion Year Spree (revised version: Trillion Year Spree), a critical history of the genre. His own sf covers the whole range from space opera (e.g. Non-stop) to future catastrophe (e.g. Hothouse, about human life after a global catastrophe shrinks our race to two feet high), from philosophical fantasy (e.g. Frankenstein Unbound and Moreau's Other Island, extensions of themes from earlier sf masterpieces) to stories of alternative worlds (e.g. the Helliconia trilogy: see below). He is also known for non-sf novels. These range from a comic trilogy about the oversexed 1950s adolescent Horatio Stubbs (A Hand-reared Boy; A Soldier Erect; A Rude Awakening) to Life in the West, a Bellow-like book about the plight of a man who has made his reputation preaching science and technology as the salvation of humanity, and is now forced, by the disintegration of his own emotional life, to give his views more intimate analysis.

THE HELLICONIA TRILOGY  (1982-85) Helliconia is one of four planets which revolve round Batalix, itself a satellite of the giant star Freyr. Helliconia seasons last not for months but for hundreds of Earth years, and the planet is inhabited by two separate and incompatible races, one adapted to winter life, the other to summer. The three novels (Helliconia Spring, Helliconia Summer, Helliconia Winter) explore the effects of Helliconia's enormous seasons, each long enough for whole civilisations to rise, flourish and die. Colonial wars, racism, ecology, the clash between religion, science and the arts, are underlying themes -- and all the time, Helliconia is observed: watching it provides entertainment, a blend of travel-documentary and soap-opera, for the bored inhabitants of Earth.

Aldiss' other sf books include Earthworks, The Saliva Tree, Barefoot in the Head, Enemies of the System, The Malacia Tapestry, Dracula Unbound, and a dozen story-collections including Starswarm, Cosmic Inferno and New Arrivals, Old Encounters. His non-sf novels include The Brightfount Diaries, The Primal Urge, The Male Response and Forgotten Life.

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The Dark Light Yeats

To the Helliconia books : Ursula Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness

To Aldiss' SF in general : Isaac Asimov, The Foundation Saga Ray Bradbury, The Golden Apples of the Sun

To the Horatio Stubbs books : Leslie Thomas, The Virgin Soldiers

To Life in the West : John Fowles, Daniel Martin John Updike, Roger's Version