Product Description

"DAZZLING."
--Time
"[THEROUX'S] WORK IS DISTINGUISHED BY A SPLENDID EYE FOR DETAIL AND THE TELLING GESTURE; a storyteller's sense of pacing and gift for granting closure to the most subtle progression of events; and the graceful use of language. . . . We are delighted, along with Theroux, by the politeness of the Turks, amazed by the mountainous highlands in Syria, touched by the gesture of an Albanian waitress who will not let him pay for his modest meal. . . . The Pillars of Hercules [is] engrossing and enlightening from start (a damning account of tourists annoying the apes of Gibraltar) to finish (an utterly captivating visit with Paul Bowles in Tangier, worth the price of the book all by itself)."
--Chicago Tribune
"ENTERTAINING READING . . . WHEN YOU READ THEROUX, YOU'RE TRULY ON A TRIP."
--The Boston Sunday Globe
"HIS PICARESQUE NARRATIVE IS STUDDED WITH SCENES THAT STICK IN THE MIND. He looks at strangers with a novelist's eye, and his portraits are pleasantly tinged with malice."
--The Washington Post Book World
"THEROUX AT HIS BEST . . . An armchair trip with Theroux is sometimes dark, but always a delight."
--Playboy
"AS SATISFYING AS A GLASS OF COOL WINE ON A DUSTY CALABRIAN AFTERNOON . . . With his effortless writing style, observant eye, and take-no-prisoners approach, Theroux is in top form chronicling this 18-month circuit of the Mediterranean."
--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #273988 in Books
• Published on: 1996-10-29
• Released on: 1996-10-29
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 528 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780449910856
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Amazon.com Review
Paul Theroux has developed one of travel writing's most identifiable styles: always the foreigner, always a bit apart, slightly irascible, but perfectly observant. At last he has ventured to one of the most traveled places on earth, and returned with his most exhilarating, revealing, and eloquent travel book. In this modern version of the Grand Tour, Theroux sets off from Gibraltar, one of the fabled Pillars of Hercules, on a glorious journey around the shores of the Mediterranean.

From Publishers Weekly
The difference between a tourist and a traveler, says Theroux, is that the tourist knows where he's going. Theroux (The Great Railway Bazaar), a traveler, as half a dozen of his popular books have attested, had no design for this adventure, no advance ticketing nor any commitment to stay or go anywhere. His only aim was to explore the Mediterranean coast without resort to airplanes. As a result, he found himself in unfamiliar villages on untraveled roads, acquired unexpected companions and slept in an assortment of inns, from fleabags to Hilton hotels, in Gibraltar Spain, the Riviera, Croatia, Sardinia, Greece, Albania, Morocco, the Levant and Israel. His pictures, like those of a wanderer with a sharp eye and an informed intelligence, though a large measure of condescension as well, are fresh even when he lands in well-reported places. Although most of his informants are casually met, now and then he interviews the famous, among them Paul Bowles in Morocco, Naguib Mahfouz in Egypt. This is a Mediterranean coast few know, as exotic and tumultuous now as throughout history.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
The pillars of Theroux's (The Happy Isles of Oceania, LJ 5/15/92) latest travel title are at the mouth of the Mediterranean, and he proposes to travel from one to the other the long way, by following the shoreline from Spain to Morocco using rail, ferry, bus, or car. One of the pleasures of his book is the unhurried nature of the trip. If it takes Theroux two years to appreciate the flavor of the Mediterranean, then that's how long it takes. As with his other books, Theroux disdains the tourist destinations (he refers to the Greek islands as theme parks) as well as many other sites that don't strike his persnickety fancy, but the Mediterranean is full of resorts and cultural sites so he often endures these to get to the places he finds worthwhile, like Aliano, Italy, Albania, and war-torn Croatia. Every public library should have a copy of this book; there will be a big demand for it.
Mary Ann Parker, California Dept. of Water Resources Law Lib., Sacramento
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

One man's journey...
THE PILLARS OF HERCULES by Paul Theroux is a record of one man's journey around the Mediterranean. The journey took several months and included two separate phases. Theroux tells of days of hiking, traveling by train, sailing a night steamer in a storm-tossed sea, and crusing through the sunny Greek islands on a fancy yacht. He travels light with a change or two of clothes in a backpack. He washes his clothes out by hand in the B&B's and cheap hotels he frequents. He grabs meals here and there.

Along the way he notes the writers who have passed before him, Robert Groves who lived at Deya with his WHITE GODDESS, Lawrence Durrell who knew Gaul well, the ancients including Herodotus. He stops to talk with living writers and reflect on the conditions of the areas he visits.

Theroux has written about his travels in many parts of the world, and though I've read some of his other works, I enjoyed PILLARS the most--probably because I am familiar with some of the places he describes along the coast of the "sea in the midst of the land" and I maintain a connection to the area.

Beginning in Cadiz Spain, founded by the Phoenicians 4,000 years ago on the Atlantic--where the real Pillars of Hercules probably existed--Theroux follows the coast from Spain to Italy to the Dalmatian Coast onto Greece the Levant, Egypt and then across North Africa. He relates his pleasure with one of the modern pillars of Hercules--Gibralter--the huge limestone rock jutting from the coast of Spain into the Straights of Trafalgar. Hundreds of British sailors and marines from the Napoleonic Wars are buried on this little spit of land England bought with blood and Spain wishes to reclaim.

Theroux takes the train up the Spanish coast, catches a ferry past the islands of Mallorca and Corsica and onto the Italian coast. He continues by train along the Italian coast which he notes becomes progressively more sordid as one travels southward toward Naples. On the Dalmatian Coast, he travels by car (taxi) for a while and notes the thriving stolen automobile business. He passes by the pillboxes built for war and abanoned that now serve as housing for the poor Albanians. He comments on Hoxha's ruthless abuse of the Albanian people.

He passes through Thessalonika, an ancient Greek city where hundreds of Jews lived for centuries before the rise of facism in Italy and the creation of the death camps. He leaves the Mediterranean for a while at this point, and when he resumes his journey he is on a yacht to Istanbul--the fabulous port once known to the Romans as Constantinople.

Finally, he is on land again, in the Levant, traveling by bus through god-dominated and god-forsaken areas fought over since the dawn of time. On his long trek through Turkey, Lebanon, and other war-torn terrain he notes a huge Crusader fortress that still stands almost a millenium after it's constuction, Palestinian refugees, Israeli roads paved with U.S. taxpayer money, and the grinding poverty on all sides in spite of oil wealth. His journey through the Muslim dominated countries of Western Asia and Northern Africa are difficult and at times dangerous. He skirts Libya and moves onto Tunisia.

Theroux's writing is reflective, even sardonic at times. He a critical observer, but not untruthful. Most travel books are designed to advertise the countries, places, cities they describe--and therefore by nature dishonest. Theroux is not selling the places he visits. No, this is not a travel book in the strictest sense, but it is a book for the armchair traveler who wants to know the world a little bit better. Given the ancient history of this area and the relevance of this part of the world this is not a book to be missed.

Excellent travel narrative
This is the first of a few Theroux books I have read. I absolutely loved it. The book provides an excellent portrayal of people in the context of their history and culture. He travels to cities and regions along the Mediterranean that many of us wouldn't otherwise give a thought. One really gets a feel for what life is like in each town. This book, like his others, highlight the difference between a traveler and being a tourist.

I've given the book only 4 stars because your ability to enjoy the book will depend on how you feel about Theroux's voice. As other reviewers have indicated, he is a critical individual with a huge ego. If you find this tone off-putting, you may not enjoy the book. He does seem more annoyed in this book than in others, probably because there are more tourists around. Personally, I was so wrapped up in Theroux's excellent prose that I hardly noticed.

I am not sure why reviewers complain about this not being a good guide - it isn't meant to be a guidebook. Look to Fodor's, Frommer's, Rick Steves, or Lonely Planet for European guidebooks.

A Misanthrope's Holiday
Do NOT read this book if you are looking for a travel guide (unless you are looking for places NOT to go, like the entire Mediterranean region). This is essentially a book by an extremely well-read and erudite misanthrope who pours (not undeserved in many cases) scorn upon most everyone he meets and every place he visits, preferring to reflect on the dead authors and men of genius admired by him who visited or inhabited these places. (One exception: ALMOST dead in the case of Paul Bowles.) His basic approach can be summed up in a statement in Chapter 7 he makes regarding the Sardinians: "Excessive friendliness is perhaps a philistine trait; in a place where no one reads, no one values or understands contemplative solitude, and so they need each other to be friendly and talkative." It doesn't seem to occur to him that a man might be complex enough to be both extremely friendly and extremely contemplative; perhaps because Theroux himself is not, or perhaps because to recognize the possibility would staunch the outpour of his vile, which is really what this book is all about. The book does have its moments. Snide remarks have their place, and his dismissive, irreverent comments on Syrian president Assad and his contempt for the Israeli dependence on American largesse hit the mark like no other writer can. But anyone familiar with Theroux's work can not help but be reminded of his alter ego and the protagonist of his earlier novel, The Mosquito Coast, who ends up destroying himself and his family because of his disdain for non-geniuses....Well, at least Theroux knows what he's about. I can't really think of whom to recommend this book to besides intellectual snobs who are not MERE snobs but truly well-read and who get a rush out of hearing about where famous authors worked and lived, and, of course, what Theroux thinks of it all. Theroux probably gives it all away when he (supposedly) visits the ailing Paul Bowles, and the first thing he records Bowles as saying as our author enters the room is: "Yes, I know your books.".............All is vanity, saith the preacher.