The Mosquito Coast by Paul Theroux
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Book Reviews of The Mosquito Coast
Book Review: Dark, disturbing and utterly enthralling
Summary: 5 Stars
Who hasn't dreamed of leaving the world behind and venturing into the unknown to recreate the world without imperfections?
Seeking to escape globalisation, commercialism, and a multitude of abominations and maladies, inventor and genius Allie Fox abandons civilisation and heads for the Honduran rain forest, taking his family.
Whereas the missionaries he so despises use the pretence of bringing religion to the forest in order to colonise it - as did the conquistadors in the 16th century - Allie brings ice: the symbol of his god-like ingenuity - and sets about creating a new world free of the poisons of the West. However, Allie maybe a genius in one sense, but his socialist ideals and visions of utopia are far from infallible.
Although The Mosquito Coast sounds like a contemporary version of Henry David Thoreau's Walden (which, like this story, is also an allegorical fable) it's an infinitely darker exploration of flawed genius - made all the more disturbing by being presented through the eyes of Allie's twelve year old son, a child on the brink of manhood.
For me, the biggest attraction to this story aside from the travel aspect is the fact that it can be read on so many levels. At once it's a book children will understand and enjoy, but as an allegory a lot of people will see the deeper meanings and lessons - the implications of our own actions and how they can affect others - and possibly learn from them.
Overall, a fantastic book which can be re-read and studied many times.
Book Review: An Important Character Study
Summary: 5 Stars
Allie Fox not only thinks he is right, he thinks everyone else is wrong. In fact, every person and thing is so wrong, he can see nothing good in New England, and everything right about the life he creates for his family on the "Mosquito Coast". His psyche is so defended against being wrong, he cannot see what he is doing to his wife and small children as they become fully jeopardized by the privations he has exposed them to.
Theroux succeeds because he touches familiar chords. Allie Fox's attitudes, opinions and self-righteousness resonate because most readers are familiar with them through family members, neighbors or workplace aquaintances. Most people, themselves, share a degree of Allie's self centeredness and we all have made mistakes that have hurt others. As good literature should, seeing these traits bundled together in the extreme and performing under pressure jolts the reader and forces thinking beyond Mosquito Coast to the nature of human behavior.
Book Review: a plan for a personal Utopia goes wrong
Summary: 5 Stars
Usually I read a book and then watch the movie. The Mosquito Coast is an exception. I saw the movie more than twenty years ago and just got around to reading the book. It's one of the best stories I've ever read. The main character, Alli Fox, is a brainy inventor who takes his family to the Hunduran jungle to get away from the materialistic American way of life. He believes that he can usher in a new civilization using technology. He is gradually taken over by paranoid obsessions. The story is told from the viewpoint of his oldest son who describes his father's decline from respected hero to the demented creature that not only stands in the way of the family's return to America, but exposes his wife and children to unspeakable dangers.Book Review: Dark, beautiful, disturbing...
Summary: 5 Stars
The best novel I've read in a long time is Paul Theroux's "The Mosquito Coast". (While Theroux - father of my favorite documentary filmmaker, Louis Theroux - is best known for his travel writing, he's also produced a ton of fiction). Allie Fox, a deluded technical genius, hyper-individualist and Rousseauian romantic, decides to leave the United States and take his family to the jungles of Honduras to live a simpler and `genuine' life. As the story progresses, Fox becomes progressively more deluded and erratic, leading his family from one disaster to the next.
The characters are brilliantly drawn, the prose is superb and Theroux manages to paint a sympathetic picture of a peculiar, darker, side of human nature. Read it.
Book Review: An English Teacher's Wet Dream
Summary: 5 Stars
Im 28 and I just finished reading the Mosquito Coast last week. I LOVED the story and the writing but another thought crossed my mind; I would have hated to read this book in high school. Im POSITIVE that somewhere in the good ol' USA, some english department is dishing this word puppy out to the kiddies for a nice brain bender of exam questions. The Mosquito Coast marries Social Commentary and symbolism together like Peanut Butter and Jelly. This novel may well join the ranks of
The Scarlet Letter, Of Mice and Men, and The Cather and the Rye in "Classic Classroom Literature"; if not ...well the story has the muscle to do so. Enjoy this book (I did)...and if you have to read this book for an exam...kick some butt.