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BIOGRAPHY Theroux was born in Medford , Massachusetts , the son of Catholic parents, a French-Canadian father and an Italian mother. His French last name originates from the region around Sarthe and Yonne in France. It is quite common in Francophone countries and is originally spelled Théroux. After he finished his university education at the University Of Massachusetts Amherst , he joined the Peace Corps and taught in Malawi from 1963 to 1965. While working there, he helped a political opponent of Hastings Banda escape to Uganda , for which he was expelled from Malawi and thrown out of the Peace Corps. He then moved to Uganda to teach at Makerere University . During his tenure at Makerere University, Theroux began his three-decade friendship with novelist V. S. Naipaul , then a visiting scholar at the university. During his time in Uganda, an angry mob at a demonstration threatened to overturn the car in which his pregnant wife was riding. The incident made Theroux decide to leave Africa. He moved again to Singapore . After two years of teaching at the University Of Singapore , he settled in England , first in Dorset , and then in south London with his wife and two young children. Theroux currently lives in Hawai‘i . He is currently married to Sheila Donnelly (since November 18 , 1995 ). He was married to Anne Castle from 1967 to 1993. He has two sons with his first wife – Marcel Theroux and Louis Theroux – both of whom are writers and television presenters. He said his (first) wife and he decided to give them both French first names intentionally. In his books Theroux frequently alludes to his ability to speak Italian and French . LITERARY WORK His first Novel , '' Waldo '', was published during his time in Uganda and was moderately successful. He published several more novels over the next few years, including ''Fong and the Indians'' and ''Jungle Lovers''. On his return to Malawi many years later, he found that this latter novel, which was set in that country, was still banned, a story told in his book ''Dark Star Safari''. He moved to London in 1972, before setting off on an epic journey by train from to Argentina ('' The Old Patagonian Express ''), walking around England (the poorly-received '' The Kingdom By The Sea '') visiting China ('' Riding The Iron Rooster ''), and traveling from Cairo to Cape Town ('' Dark Star Safari ''). As a traveler he is noted for his rich descriptions of people and places, laced with a heavy streak of irony often mistaken for Misanthropy . Other non-fiction by Theroux includes ''Sir Vidia's Shadow'', an account of his personal and professional friendship with Nobel laureate V. S. Naipaul that ended abruptly after thirty years. CONTROVERSY By including versions of himself, his family, and acquaintances in some of his fiction, Theroux has occasionally disconcerted his readers. ''A. Burgess, Slightly Foxed: Fact and Fiction'', a story originally published in '' The New Yorker '' magazine (August 7, 1995), describes a dinner at the narrator's home with author Anthony Burgess and a book-hoarding philistine lawyer who nags the narrator for an introduction to the great writer. “Burgess” arrives drunk and cruelly mocks the lawyer, who introduces himself as “a fan”. The narrator’s wife, like Theroux’s then-wife, is named Anne and she shrewishly refuses to help with the dinner. The magazine later published a letter from Anne Theroux denying that Burgess was ever a guest in her home and expressing admiration for him, having once interviewed the real Burgess for the BBC: “I was dismayed to read in your August 7th edition a story … by Paul Theroux, in which a very unpleasant character with my name said and did things that I have never said or done.” When the story was incorporated into Theroux’s novel, ''My Other Life'' (1996), the wife character is renamed Alison and reference to her work at the BBC is excised. Theroux's sometimes caustic portrait of Nobel Laureate V.S. Naipaul in his memoir ''Sir Vidia's Shadow'' (1998) is at considerable odds with his earlier, gushing portrait of the same author in ''V.S. Naipaul, an Introduction to His Work'' (1972). On December 15, 2005 the on February 19, 2006 calling them "cranks carping from the sidelines. A lot of them wouldn’t know what to do if they were on the field. They’re the party who will always be in opposition so they’ll never have to take responsibility for decisions because they know they’ll never be able to implement them." {Link without Title} FILM ADAPTATIONS '' Saint Jack '', Theroux's 1973 novel about an affable American panderer operating in Singapore during the Vietnam War, was filmed by director Peter Bogdanovich (1979). His novel '' Doctor Slaughter '' was made into a film, '' Half Moon Street '' (1986). His novel '' The Mosquito Coast '' was also made into a film of the same name (1986). ''Chinese Box'' (1997), a film about the British handover of Hong Kong to the People's Republic Of China , credits Theroux as a source for the story, based on themes he explores in his 1997 novel ''Kowloon Tong''. UPCOMING PROJECTS Theroux is working on two travel books: "The Cold World," about polar regions, and another book, in which he will revisit the settings of The Great Railway Bazaar . Also forthcoming is a novel, "Mother." According to the Theroux's recent New York Times op-ed piece, his next book will be "The Elephanta Suite". NOVELS NON-FICTION
OTHER WRITINGS
NOTES AND REFERENCES
EXTERNAL LINKS
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