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The Mosquito Coast Reprint Edition, Kindle Edition
AN APPLE ORIGINAL SERIES FROM APPLE TV+ STARRING JUSTIN THEROUX, SEASON 2 STREAMING NOW
“An Impressive and disturbing vision of the American psyche.”—Washington Post Book World
From legendary writer Paul Theroux, an international bestseller that is a spellbinding adventure story of an American family that rejects its homeland and tries to find a happier life in the jungles of Central America.
The paranoid and brilliant inventor Allie Fox uproots his family from their New England farm to live in the Honduran jungle, determined to build a civilization better than the one they've left. An individualist, Allie sees modern America as wasteful, immoral, and messy. Fleeing from materialism and conformity, he hopes to rediscover a purer life.
Told by fourteen-year-old Charlie Fox, who observes his father with a mixture of love, astonishment, and ultimately horror, The Mosquito Coast is a twisted Swiss Family Robinson or an ironic take on Robinson Crusoe. For as Allie becomes ever more lost to reality, this utopian experiment takes a dark turn as his obsessions lead the family toward unimaginable danger.
- ISBN-13978-0618658961
- EditionReprint
- PublisherMariner Books Classics
- Publication dateJune 1, 2006
- LanguageEnglish
- File size8215 KB
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Editorial Reviews
Review
“A work of fiendish energy and ingenuity.”—Newsweek “An impressive and disturbing vision of the American psyche.”—Washington Post —
About the Author
PAUL THEROUX is the author of many highly acclaimed books. His novels include The Bad Angel Brothers, The Lower River, Jungle Lovers, and The Mosquito Coast, and his renowned travel books include Ghost Train to the Eastern Star and Dark Star Safari. He lives in Hawaii and on Cape Cod.
Product details
- ASIN : B005G05F86
- Publisher : Mariner Books Classics; Reprint edition (June 1, 2006)
- Publication date : June 1, 2006
- Language : English
- File size : 8215 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 386 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #348,340 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #364 in Action & Adventure Literary Fiction
- #1,586 in Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Literary Fiction
- #2,019 in Women's Adventure Fiction (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Paul Theroux was born and educated in the United States. After graduating from university in 1963, he travelled first to Italy and then to Africa, where he worked as a Peace Corps teacher at a bush school in Malawi, and as a lecturer at Makerere University in Uganda. In 1968 he joined the University of Singapore and taught in the Department of English for three years. Throughout this time he was publishing short stories and journalism, and wrote a number of novels. Among these were Fong and the Indians, Girls at Play and Jungle Lovers, all of which appear in one volume, On the Edge of the Great Rift (Penguin, 1996).
In the early 1970s Paul Theroux moved with his wife and two children to Dorset, where he wrote Saint Jack, and then on to London. He was a resident in Britain for a total of seventeen years. In this time he wrote a dozen volumes of highly praised fiction and a number of successful travel books, from which a selection of writings were taken to compile his book Travelling the World (Penguin, 1992). Paul Theroux has now returned to the United States, but he continues to travel widely.
Paul Theroux's many books include Picture Palace, which won the 1978 Whitbread Literary Award; The Mosquito Coast, which was the 1981 Yorkshire Post Novel of the Year and joint winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, and was also made into a feature film; Riding the Iron Rooster, which won the 1988 Thomas Cook Travel Book Award; The Pillars of Hercules, shortlisted for the 1996 Thomas Cook Travel Book Award; My Other Life: A Novel, Kowloon Tong, Sir Vidia's Shadow, Fresh-air Fiend and Hotel Honolulu. Blindness is his latest novel. Most of his books are published by Penguin.
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find the book an enjoyable adventure story with a clever plot. They describe it as a lovely read with wonderful writing and excellent narration. The book explores themes of dogma, madness, and toxic masculinity in a thought-provoking way. Readers appreciate the well-developed characters and humor in the dialogue between children.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers enjoy the adventure story. They find the plot clever and believable, with twists and turns that build suspense until the end. The book provides more detail than the movie, but the TV series is great.
"...man and his innovations and inventions throughout the book are truly believable and amazing. Theroux has a true knack for imagery...." Read more
"...This is a terrific novel adventure and captivating look at the iconoclast Allie Fox and his family as they struggle to survive in a utopian world..." Read more
"Not a feel good book, but an entertaining story" Read more
"...It leaves you feeling depressed,but is a good story.Excellent narration." Read more
Customers find the book engaging and well-written. They describe it as a great read that holds their attention. Readers say the story is gripping and superior to the movie.
"...and inventions throughout the book are truly believable and amazing. Theroux has a true knack for imagery...." Read more
"Beautiful imagery and particularly well written...." Read more
"...This is a terrific novel adventure and captivating look at the iconoclast Allie Fox and his family as they struggle to survive in a utopian world..." Read more
"...All and all a good book but just wanted to warn those Kindle users who might become a bit irritated by it and would prefer to buy the hard print." Read more
Customers praise the writing quality of the book. They appreciate the beautiful metaphors, incredible similes, and a tragic yet funny and depressing story. The narration is excellent and the book is written in first person by a 14-year-old. The author is described as a master craftsman who writes marvelous books. The descriptiveness, imagery, and character building make it very plausible, and unlike many lazy writers, he knows how to create a plausible story.
"...The dialogues Theroux gives to the natives in the book are very realistic and the situations and emotions are so vivid that you will not be able to..." Read more
"...Nonetheless the descriptiveness, imagery and character building of Allie Fox mean this is not a novel you will easily forget." Read more
"Paul Theroux is a popular American Novelist and travel writer and controversial author whose publications span an epic era from 1967 ("Waldo") to..." Read more
"...It leaves you feeling depressed,but is a good story.Excellent narration." Read more
Customers find the book thought-provoking and engaging. They appreciate the interesting plot, intriguing exploration of dogma, madness, and toxic masculinity, and good insights into a place they never expect to go. The premise is intriguing and the author's wide knowledge makes it plausible. It's described as a psychological and physical adventure with clever metaphors.
"...The father is undoubtedly a very smart man and his innovations and inventions throughout the book are truly believable and amazing...." Read more
"Creepy and captivating exploration of dogma, madness, and toxic masculinity...." Read more
"...It's not the greatest book ever, but there is plenty to make you think and thought-provoking that this independent family ends up receiving a lot..." Read more
"...I found this to be a real page-turner, gripping and interesting. I’d consider it a must-read." Read more
Customers find the characters well-developed and interesting. The father is seen as a fascinating hero/antihero. They appreciate the colorful family of characters and the portrayal of an imperfect man aspiring for better.
"...Nonetheless the descriptiveness, imagery and character building of Allie Fox mean this is not a novel you will easily forget." Read more
"...Indeed, it was a good turnaround for the characters, but it left all of them wounded...." Read more
"...in some ways, reminds me of a John Irving story, with a colorful family of characters. The dad is either a genius, a nutcase, or a bit of both...." Read more
"...Here, the inventor is egotistical, acting only for his own convenience and disregarding the best interests of his family because of his own..." Read more
Customers enjoy the humor in the book. They find the dialogue between the children amusing.
"...This book is something of a nail biter, though it has its funny moments. Some of the dialogue between the children is really quite humorous...." Read more
"...It is a wonderful, poetic, dark, funny, depressing book, written by a master craftsman...." Read more
"...The dad is either a genius, a nutcase, or a bit of both. It’s very funny in spots, but also dark in others...." Read more
"Exciting, Funny, Frightening, Moving, Thought-Provoking. A truly gripping read...." Read more
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on January 3, 2005I took this book with me on my honeymoon to the Dominican and read it every spare moment I got. Theroux is an amazing writer and his voice comes out in the novel as a young teen boy who is caught up in his father's madness.
Charlie, the narrator, tells the story progressively from the time "Father" uproots this American family only to set them down in the virgin jungles of Honduras. The father is a genius of sorts as well as a Harvard dropout who believes America has become "Hell" in many ways with its capitalism and poison. The father is undoubtedly a very smart man and his innovations and inventions throughout the book are truly believable and amazing. Theroux has a true knack for imagery.
Of course, "Mother" and the other children look up to their father and believe everything he says. AS the novel progresses, the father spirals further and further into his own self-made paranoid madness while dragging his family along for the ride.
This book is something of a nail biter, though it has its funny moments. Some of the dialogue between the children is really quite humorous. They call each other names like "spackoid," "crummo," and "thicko," which is of course a telltale sign that it was written in the eighties. Nevertheless, as the book nears the end, some severely twisted events occur, events that you will likely hope for and be repulsed by at the same time.
It is slightly reminiscent of "Lord of the Flies" in that it shows what isolation from the familiar can do to people. Honduras becomes a most Godless place for the family known as "The Foxes."
As far as I'm concerned, the story reads more like a crazy truth than fiction. The dialogues Theroux gives to the natives in the book are very realistic and the situations and emotions are so vivid that you will not be able to put the book down. At least this was the case for me.
After having read "The Mosquito Coast," I will definitely read other novels by this author. He is an ingenious writer.
The end will surely have you screaming for more, but, if you are one of those light at heart readers who get sore when the ending isn't happy (i.e. unrealistic) I suggest something else. This one may give you nightmares and a certain doubt in humanity.
To sum it all up, it is dark in more ways than one and it involves what happens to the impressionable mind of young Charlie when he is made to live day to day in squalor and to follow the laws of a father who is slowly going insane. Don't miss this one!
- Reviewed in the United States on November 26, 2017Beautiful imagery and particularly well written. The character of Allie Fox is everyone's crazy uncle - the one who has all the potential in the world but also a terrible hubris - in Allie's case it's his stubbornness and refusal to listen. I loved the first half of the book, but unfortunately the second half was a bit of a let down. It's as though Paul Theroux planned the novel for everything leading up to the making of ice in the jungles of the Caribbean, and then everything after was a "oh no, how do I finish this?". Essentially it is a story of tragedy, but I feel the tragedy could have been more poignant and less drawn out. The events of the second location on the shores of a lagoon (which were omitted from the movie) were ultimately unnecessary and I believe should have been edited out. Nonetheless the descriptiveness, imagery and character building of Allie Fox mean this is not a novel you will easily forget.
- Reviewed in the United States on July 13, 2012Paul Theroux is a popular American Novelist and travel writer and controversial author whose publications span an epic era from 1967 ("Waldo") to 2012 ("The Lower River'). He was born Paul Edward Theroux in 1941 at Medford Massachusetts. Some of the fictional works of Theroux have been made into feature films; in 1986 the "Mosquito Coast" stared Harrison Ford in the part of Allie Fox.
Theroux has described himself as an "angry and agitated young man" in his early 20s when he felt he had to escape the confines of Massachusetts and a hostile U.S. foreign policy, when he joined the Peace Corps and went to Africa. (Interview with Eleanor Wachtel, CBC Radio, 30th International Festival of Authors, Toronto, October 25, 2009). It is arguably notable that Theroux's angry disposition contributed to the themes of his fictional works like `Mosquito Coast" featuring an angry Allie Fox who sees mankind's advancements in science as mostly garbage; innately defective, confirmed to failure. This future apparition leads to Allie's decision to pack up his family and leave an America that he saw as doomed to failure and ultimate destruction for the remote jungle of Honduras.
The adventure of Allie Fox together with his wife and four children is narrated by Allie's oldest child, Charlie, a teenager. The story is contrasted by Charlie's innocence, naive understanding and primal fears with those of Allie's brilliance, overstated confidence and fearless disregard. It is not too long into the tale that the reader harbors a feeling that Allie suffers from some psychosis- deceptions of reality. As the story progresses, the reader finds a distinct dichotomy developing between the science that Allie swears he is leaving behind with that which he brings to the remote region of the Honduras jungle utopia that he founds in the settlement of Jeronimo. In addition to devising a settlement with many of the creature comforts that he left behind, Allie's most profound accomplishment is the construction of a giant absorption ice machine named Fat Boy - a prophetic name derived from the atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The machine becomes the epitome of a delusional mind that somehow can justify ice in the jungle as necessary and important but cannot conjure the likes of a rope swing for the children to play on. Like Melville's Ahab, Allie cannot see his destructive obsession even in the midst of failure, which he stubbornly insists was his plan all along; until Allie's fate drags him under like Ahab on the white whale.
This is a terrific novel adventure and captivating look at the iconoclast Allie Fox and his family as they struggle to survive in a utopian world devised by a deranged but brilliant mind.
I highly recommend this novel be added to your reading list and would rate it memorable.
Top reviews from other countries
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Cliente AmazonReviewed in Spain on April 3, 2024
5.0 out of 5 stars Bom
Bons acabamentos
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kenneth curtis smithReviewed in France on August 20, 2020
5.0 out of 5 stars presque neuf
cest bonne examplaire de l'autore ecriture nouvelle
- Troy ParfittReviewed in the United Kingdom on November 26, 2014
5.0 out of 5 stars A Survivalist's Guide to Insanity
It took me a while, but I finally finished Mosquito Coast. Some say it’s Theroux’s best novel. It might be. I’m not sure. It’s certainly very different from Saint Jack and My Secret History. However, there are similarities with The Lower River, although I would say the Mosquito Coast is much more elaborate than the Lower River. It’s probably the best of the five or so Theroux novels I’ve read. Theroux’s writing is uncluttered and fluid, and often excellent, but it’s his storytelling that really shines. What an imagination. The main character, Allie Fox, as seen through the eyes of his son, Charlie, is an unforgettable literary figure. Without going on and on, this is great read. For about 10 years now, or since I read The Great Railway Bizarre, Paul Theroux has been one of my favourite authors. Five stars.
Troy Parfitt is the author of Why China Will Never Rule the World
One person found this helpfulReport -
天転Reviewed in Japan on August 9, 2014
5.0 out of 5 stars 映画も良かったけど
映画も良かったけど小説はもっといい。学校では教わらなかったことがここには確かにある。それが読むものを惹きつけてやみません。
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Vrind vanReviewed in Japan on December 30, 2020
3.0 out of 5 stars 書籍の外観もきれいに出来ると思う。
書籍の中は大変良いです。そう言う意味では良い会社だと思います。でも残念ですが、外観が良くない。以前ブックマーケティングで「歓喜の街カルカッタ」単行本を購入しました。その書籍よりも外観の状態が良くない。その時には、後日販売に値しないと対応がありました。ブックオフでもこのような外観では、販売しないと思うし見たことが無い。これが無ければ星4つ以上でした。これは改善出来ることなので。