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Feb 14, 2016FVReader rated this title 4.5 out of 5 stars
This is my first, but not my last, book by Paul Theroux. He could be a modern Hardy: the story is well told and bleak, bleak, bleak. Throughout there's a theme of entrapment; everyone is trapped in this story. Ellis Hock is trapped in a lifetime of duties, his only free & happy time being the 4 years he spent in the village of Malago in Malawi during his early 20s. At 62, he decides to go back to relive these happy years. In the 40 years since his last visit, the country has gone from hopeful to despair, AIDS is taking its toll on the people, there's destitution everywhere. The people are trapped. Ellis' experiences in the village of Malago are as trapped and destitute as his life and the life of the people of Malawi. There are many themes throughout this book, all wonderfully interwoven. It's difficult to mention them all: fear, superstition, hate, Foreign Aid, mistrust, lies, destitution, arrogance, etc. The people of Malawi are not deeply portrayed or explored. The story is told from the point of view of Ellis, so this could be explained by Ellis' ignorance of the people. A well-told story.