On October 25th, Eleanor Wachtel interviewed Paul Theroux onstage during the International Festival of Authors in Toronto. The hour-long interview was broadcast yesterday on the CBC radio program Writers & Co. If you missed it, it's still available as a podcast.Theroux turns out to be chatty and pleasant, not at all like the image of himself portrayed in his books, which is that of a rather caustic observer, well matched by the scowling face we see on the covers of his books.
That image, he says, is a persona, one that he's manufactured in both his fiction and his non-fiction. The protagonist in his newest novel, A Dead Hand, meets Theroux and describes him in unflattering terms.
His latest travel book is Ghost Train to the Eastern Star, in which he recreates the epic journey of The Great Railway Bazaar. This one is high on my shopping list.
