Paul Theroux's 40th book is the novel writers usually produce early in their careers: a Portrait of the Artist as Unregenerate Egomaniac



Paul Theroux's 40th book is the novel writers usually produce early in their careers: a Portrait of the Artist as Unregenerate Egomaniac

BLINDING LIGHT
Houghton Mifflin
Publication Date: June 1, 2005
February 28, 2005
By Paul Theroux

Theroux's 40th book is the novel writers usually produce early in their careers: a Portrait of the Artist as Unregenerate Egomaniac.

He's Slade Steadman, the 50-year-old blocked author of a single spectacularly successful book, an account of his world travels accomplished without passport entitled—ominously enough—Trespassing. We first meet Slade accompanied by his girlfriend Ava, a doctor who takes lengthy leaves of absence to serve as his companion, muse and imaginative sexual partner. They're en route to the Ecuadorian jungle, where (along with two Babbitt-like American couples and sinister German freelancer-freebooter Manfred Steiger) they take a perilous "drug tour" and Slade discovers the visionary benefits of an indigenous hallucinogen, ayahuasca. Back home at his lavish Martha's Vineyard mansion, Slade treats himself to daily bouts of drug-induced blindness, reasoning that he "sees" more deeply and truly without conventional eyesight—and luxuriates in the admiration of wealthy neighbors and numerous visiting celebrities, notably President Bill Clinton. Despite Ava's warnings that his fabricated disability may backfire, Slade persists with his revelatory hallucinations, dividing his energies among Ava’s ministrations, the completion of "a sexual history in the form of a novel" (The Book of Revelation) and lubricious memoirs of his early sexual experiences. During a book tour, sans Ava, the Monica Lewinsky scandal erupts, Manfred Steiger reappears (threatening to expose Slade's dangerous experiments), and the consequences of all his blindnesses lead him to a climactic confrontation on a Vineyard beach, a return to Ecuador in search of a cure and an ambivalent ending that's either healing or final catastrophe. If Theroux's latest aims to portray its protagonist's solipsistic self-destruction, it's of some interest as a sardonic cautionary tale. If (as seems likelier) it's another preening semiautobiographical tome related to My Secret History (2000) and My Other Life (1996), it's another illustration of its author's increasingly bankrupt imagination.

Blinding Light fails to dazzle, or even illuminate.

When this story was posted in March 2005, this was on the front page of PCOL:

The Peace Corps Library Peace Corps Online is proud to announce that the Peace Corps Library is now available online. With over 30,000 index entries in over 500 categories, this is the largest collection of Peace Corps related reference material in the world. From Acting to Zucchini, you can use the Main Index to find hundreds of stories about RPCVs who have your same interests, who served in your Country of Service, or who serve in your state.

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March 1: National Day of Action Tuesday, March 1, is the NPCA's National Day of Action. Please call your Senators and ask them to support the President's proposed $27 Million budget increase for the Peace Corps for FY2006 and ask them to oppose the elimination of Perkins loans that benefit Peace Corps volunteers from low-income backgrounds. Follow this link for step-by-step information on how to make your calls. Then take our poll and leave feedback on how the calls went.

Coates Redmon, Peace Corps Chronicler Coates Redmon, a staffer in Sargent Shriver's Peace Corps, died February 22 in Washington, DC. Her book "Come as You Are" is considered to be one of the finest (and most entertaining) recountings of the birth of the Peace Corps and how it was literally thrown together in a matter of weeks. If you want to know what it felt like to be young and idealistic in the 1960's, get an out-of-print copy. We honor her memory.

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February 26, 2005: This Week's Top Stories Folk-Singer Steve Schuch releases "Trees of Life" 26 Feb Christopher Bartlett maintains Marine Protected Area 25 Feb Joseph Frey uses amputation experience to help others 25 Feb James McCann concerned by maize in Ethiopia 25 Feb Sen. Obama says PC can help improve diplomacy 24 Feb PCVs help remove batteries in Belize 24 Feb Jimmy Carter praises mother's PC service 24 Feb Craig D. Wandke's lunar passion began in Honduras 23 Feb Char Andrews discusses her experience with cancer 23 Feb Beverly Seckinger tells stories through film 23 Feb J. Tyler Dickovick: As Togo goes, so may go Africa 23 Feb Andres Hernandez searches for PCV for 40 years 23 Feb Bulgaria is now like second home to Aaron Wills 22 Feb Bernadette Roberts to serve as diplomat in Albania 22 Feb USA Freedom Corps downgraded at White House 22 Feb Tom Skeldon seeks to control pit bull trade 21 Feb Gabriela Lena Frank writes music on Dad's PCV service 21 Feb

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Make a call for the Peace Corps PCOL is a strong supporter of the NPCA's National Day of Action and encourages every RPCV to spend ten minutes on Tuesday, March 1 making a call to your Representatives and ask them to support President Bush's budget proposal of $345 Million to expand the Peace Corps. Take our Poll: Click here to take our poll. We'll send out a reminder and have more details early next week.

Peace Corps Calendar: Tempest in a Teapot? Bulgarian writer Ognyan Georgiev has written a story which has made the front page of the newspaper "Telegraf" criticizing the photo selection for his country in the 2005 "Peace Corps Calendar" published by RPCVs of Madison, Wisconsin. RPCV Betsy Sergeant Snow, who submitted the photograph for the calendar, has published her reply. Read the stories and leave your comments.

WWII participants became RPCVs Read about two RPCVs who participated in World War II in very different ways long before there was a Peace Corps. Retired Rear Adm. Francis J. Thomas (RPCV Fiji), a decorated hero of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, died Friday, Jan. 21, 2005 at 100. Mary Smeltzer (RPCV Botswana), 89, followed her Japanese students into WWII internment camps. We honor both RPCVs for their service.

Bush's FY06 Budget for the Peace Corps The White House is proposing $345 Million for the Peace Corps for FY06 - a $27.7 Million (8.7%) increase that would allow at least two new posts and maintain the existing number of volunteers at approximately 7,700. Bush's 2002 proposal to double the Peace Corps to 14,000 volunteers appears to have been forgotten. The proposed budget still needs to be approved by Congress.

RPCVs mobilize support for Countries of Service RPCV Groups mobilize to support their Countries of Service. Over 200 RPCVS have already applied to the Crisis Corps to provide Tsunami Recovery aid, RPCVs have written a letter urging President Bush and Congress to aid Democracy in Ukraine, and RPCVs are writing NBC about a recent episode of the "West Wing" and asking them to get their facts right about Turkey.

Read the stories and leave your comments.