Paul Theroux, The Lower River *** 1/2

I read a number of Paul Theroux's novels and travel books back in the 1990s, but lost track of him by the turn of the century. The Lower River, from 2012, is just the second of his recent books I've read (along with Blinding Light, which I didn't care for).

Like much of Theroux's best work, The Lower River takes place in a remote part of the world and has autobiographical overtones. The protagonist, Ellis Hock, send his critical formative years in the Peace Corp in Malawi. When his marriage falls apart at age 62, he decides to return to the village where he was stationed, since he remembers it as the happiest time in his life. Life there is just as he remembers it, except that it is not really. The locals have become a lot more cynical in the forty years he has been gone, and they start exploiting him right away.

The themes and narrative structure are quite good, and Theroux writes natural description well. I had two issues, though. First, Hock's character is a bit too nice and monochromatic: one of the things I used to love about Theroux was that his characters -- including himself in the travel books -- were inevitably prickly. Second, the back half of the book is repetitive as Hock's attempts to leave are repeatedly thwarted.