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Fresh Air Fiend; Paul Theroux; Signed by Author; First Edition; Adventure
US $38.85
ApproximatelyS$ 50.18
Condition:
“SIGNED BY AUTHOR. Fine first edition first printing in price ($27.00) unclipped fine dust jacket. ”... Read moreabout condition
Very Good
A book that has been read but is in excellent condition. No obvious damage to the cover, with the dust jacket included for hard covers. No missing or damaged pages, no creases or tears, and no underlining/highlighting of text or writing in the margins. May be very minimal identifying marks on the inside cover. Very minimal wear and tear.
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US $5.97 (approx S$ 7.71) USPS Media MailTM.
Located in: Elk Grove Village, Illinois, United States
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Estimated between Thu, 2 Oct and Mon, 6 Oct to 94104
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eBay item number:115774509272
Item specifics
- Condition
- Very Good
- Seller Notes
- Special Attributes
- Signed
- ISBN
- 9780618034062
About this product
Product Identifiers
Publisher
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company
ISBN-10
0618034064
ISBN-13
9780618034062
eBay Product ID (ePID)
1666232
Product Key Features
Book Title
Fresh Air Fiend : Travel Writings
Number of Pages
480 Pages
Language
English
Topic
Essays & Travelogues
Publication Year
2000
Genre
Travel
Format
Hardcover
Dimensions
Item Height
0.6 in
Item Weight
27.6 Oz
Item Length
9 in
Item Width
6 in
Additional Product Features
Intended Audience
Trade
LCCN
99-058521
Reviews
The prolific Theroux (Sir Vidias Shadow, 1998, etc.) gives full vent to his wanderlust in this virtuoso collection of travel essays, all but one of which were written after his prior aggregation, Sunrise With Seamonsters (1984). Like Thoreau, who is something of a kindred spirit,Theroux combines a flinty individualism verging on crankiness, a curiosity about all manner of things, an almost pantheistic delight in nature, and a real grace of expression. Writing, he notes, is like digging a deep hole and not quite knowing what you are going to find, like groping in a dark well-furnished roomsurprises everywhere, and not just remarkable chairs but people murmuring in the weirdest postures. This description is just as apt, however, for explaining how he approaches the travel genre. As well as anyone writing in this deceptively narrow vein, Theroux understands how to filter the sights and sounds of such places as an African bush, the Yangtze River, or Christmas Island through the prism of his own personality. Essays are grouped thematically in sections dealing with his reminiscences, experiences as a kayaker and bicyclist, China, the Pacific, books of travel (by himself and others), profiles and appreciations of other writers, fugues about bizarre practices of other cultures, and other places in Europe, Asia, and the US. Theroux can assume all sorts of guises: reporter (sharp dissections of preTiananmen Square China and pre-takeover Hong Kong), Boswell to other writers similarly compelled to write about the world (Bruce Chatwin, Graham Greene), critic (a review of William Least Heat-Moons PrairyErth), and lover of solitude (too numerous to mention). He can be scathingly funny on his Peace Corps experiences, discerning on the rigors of polar exploration, clinical on illnesses he's contracted on five different continents, and lyrical on exotic lands threatened by commercialization. A feast for both Theroux aficionados and those lucky enough to experience his distinctive world-view and evocative prose for the first time. (Author tour) -- Copyright ©2000, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved., Theroux the traveler is serious in his energy and in his boundless determination to see what he wants to see . . . He is an indefatigable voyager., What makes Paul Theroux so good is what always separates the fine writers from the pack: his ability to look at the familiar in a fresh, original way - and make us richer for it., The prolific Theroux (Sir Vidias Shadow, 1998, etc.) gives full vent to his wanderlust in this virtuoso collection of travel essays, all but one of which were written after his prior aggregation, Sunrise With Seamonsters (1984). Like Thoreau, who is something of a kindred spirit, Theroux combines a flinty individualism verging on crankiness, a curiosity about all manner of things, an almost pantheistic delight in nature, and a real grace of expression. Writing, he notes, is like digging a deep hole and not quite knowing what you are going to find, like groping in a dark well-furnished roomsurprises everywhere, and not just remarkable chairs but people murmuring in the weirdest postures. This description is just as apt, however, for explaining how he approaches the travel genre. As well as anyone writing in this deceptively narrow vein, Theroux understands how to filter the sights and sounds of such places as an African bush, the Yangtze River, or Christmas Island through the prism of his own personality. Essays are grouped thematically in sections dealing with his reminiscences, experiences as a kayaker and bicyclist, China, the Pacific, books of travel (by himself and others), profiles and appreciations of other writers, fugues about bizarre practices of other cultures, and other places in Europe, Asia, and the US. Theroux can assume all sorts of guises: reporter (sharp dissections of preTiananmen Square China and pre-takeover Hong Kong), Boswell to other writers similarly compelled to write about the world (Bruce Chatwin, Graham Greene), critic (a review of William Least Heat-Moons PrairyErth), and lover of solitude (too numerous to mention). He can be scathingly funny on his Peace Corps experiences, discerning on the rigors of polar exploration, clinical on illnesses he's contracted on five different continents, and lyrical on exotic lands threatened by commercialization. A feast for both Theroux aficionados and those lucky enough to experience his distinctive world-view and evocative prose for the first time. (Author tour) -- Copyright ©2000, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. Kirkus Reviews "Theroux has established himself in the tradition of Conrad, or perhaps Somerset Maugham." The New York Times "Theroux the traveler is serious in his energy and in his boundless determination to see what he wants to see . . . He is an indefatigable voyager." The Washington Post "An irresistible storyteller, able to hook you with his first few lines. He dazzles not just with the number of places he writes about but the number he can evoke as if they were home." The Chicago Tribune "What makes Paul Theroux so good is what always separates the fine writers from the pack: his ability to look at the familiar in a fresh, original way - and make us richer for it." The Philadelphia Inquirer "[Theroux's] books have enriched the travel literature of the century." USA Today, An irresistible storyteller, able to hook you with his first few lines. He dazzles not just with the number of places he writes about but the number he can evoke as if they were home.
Table Of Content
Contents Introduction: Being a Stranger 1 one / time travel Memory and Creation: The View from Fifty 17 The Object of Desire 35 At the Sharp End: Being in the Peace Corps 40 Five Travel Epiphanies 46 Travel Writing: The Point of It 49 two / fresh air fiend Fresh Air Fiend 57 The Awkward Question 62 The Moving Target 65 Dead Reckoning to Nantucket 70 Paddling to Plymouth 79 Fever Chart: Parasites I Have Known 85 three / a sense of place Diaries of Two Cities: Amsterdam and London 93 Farewell to Britain: Look Thy Last on All Things Lovely 102 Gravy Train: A Private Railway Car 106 The Maine Woods: Camping in the Snow 113 Trespassing in Florida 120 Down the Zambezi 126 The True Size of Cape Cod 148 German Humor 151 four / china Down the Yangtze 157 Chinese Miracles 189 Ghost Stories: A Letter from Hong Kong on the Eve of the Hand-over 236 five / the pacific Hawaii 271 The Other Oahu 271 On Molokai 277 Connected in Palau 283 Tasting the Pacific 293 Palawan: Up and Down the Creek 298 Christmas Island: Bombs and Birds 312 six / books of travel My Own 323 The Edge of the Great Rift: Three African Novels 323 The Black House 328 The Great Railway Bazaar 330 The Old Patagonian Express 336 The Making of The Mosquito Coast 341 Kowloon Tong 347 Other People's 349 Robinson Crusoe 349 Thoreau's Cape Cod 355 The Secret Agent: A Dangerous Londoner 363 The Worst Journey in the World 372 Racers to the Pole 378 PrairyErth 384 Looking for a Ship 388 seven / escapees and exiles Chatwin Revisited 395 Greeneland 408 V. S. Pritchett: The Foreigner as Traveler 419 William Simpson: Artist and Traveler 423 Rajat Neogy: An Indian in Uganda 432 The Exile Moritz Thomsen 435 eight / fugues Unspeakable Rituals and Outlandish Beliefs 443 Gilstrap, the Homesick Explorer 454 The Return of Bingo Humpage 459 Bibliography 463
Synopsis
In this remarkable collection of essays and articles written over the last fifteen years, Paul Theroux demonstrates how the traveling life and the writing life are intimately connected. Not simply an escape from the mundane, travel has always been a creative act for Theroux. His journeys in remote hinterlands and crowded foreign capitals provide the necessary perspective to "become a stranger" in order to discover the self. Wonderfully broad in scope, thought, and feeling, Fresh Air Fiend touches down on all five continents and floats through most of the seas in between. From the crisp quiet of a solitary week spent in the snow-bound Maine woods, to the expectant chaos of Hong Kong on the eve of the Hand-over, to a small Pacific island where atomic bombs were detonated, Theroux is the perfect guide -- casually informative, keenly observant, wry, and entertaining. As Time has written, Theroux "serves as both the camera and the eye, and both the details and the illusions are developed with brilliance." He also reaches back into his past to tell of his earliest ventures into Africa as a Peace Corps volunteer, treats us to insightful readings of his favorite travel books, and reveals the fascinating stories behind some of his own. Fresh Air Fiend is a companion volume to Theroux's earlier, much beloved Sunrise with Seamonsters, but this is his first collection devoted completely to travel writing, for which the author of such classics as The Great Railway Bazaar and Riding the Iron Rooster is justly famous. Traveling with Theroux is a literary adventure of the first order, never a languid luxury cruise, always an insightful journey to the heart and soul of a place and its people. Fresh Air Fiend is the ultimate good read for anyone fascinated by travel in the wider world or curious about the life of one of our most passionate travelers.
LC Classification Number
PS3570.H4F74 2000
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