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UK Holidays - The Kingdom by the Sea: A Journey Around the Coast of Great Britain
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List Price: $15.00
Our Price: $10.20
Your Save: $ 4.80 ( 32% )
Availability: In stock soon. Order now to get in line. First come, first served.
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
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Average Customer Rating:   
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 914
EAN: 9780140071818
ISBN: 0140071814
Label: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 368
Publication Date: 1995-10-01
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Studio: Penguin (Non-Classics)
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Editorial Reviews:
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It was 1982, the summer of the Falkland Islands War, and the birth of the royal heir, Prince William--and the ideal time, Theroux found, to surprise the British into talking about themselves. The result is a candid, funny, perceptive, and opinionated travelogue of his journey and his findings.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: The best of Theroux's travel books
Comment: Perhaps because people are so used to seeing the British presented as charming, or ultra-polite or what have you, this blast of candor is perceived (by many) as being uniformily negative. Not at all! His mood shifts between surly, admiring, deeply curious and blissful throughout the book, and the further he is from home (Scotland, Yorkshire) the happier he seems.
I lived in England at about the same time this was written, and I found it refreshing in the extreme to read something that seemed recognizable to me. I find a lot of praise in this book, but it seems to be overlooked by the realistic assessment of all that is good -- and bad -- about the UK in the 1990s.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A journey into the heart of darkness -- Great Britain
Comment: Paul Theroux was destined to be an anglophile. His exploration of the British Isles left him flummoxed by a culture of opposites and contrariness. His spartan nature could not resist the British love of discomfort, and his individualism could not have been more challenged by the perverse collectivity of class-conscious Brits. It was desitiny that he buy a home there and become virtually a dual citizen. To his credit, he has pierced one of the most opaque cultures of all -- a mystery to itself, not to mention the rest of us. And as always, he provides us with a great read.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A tremendously dim outlook
Comment: Being an avid reader of travel books, I have to say that this is one of the most depressing books I've ever read. Paul Theroux does an amazing job of describing a Great Britain on the verge of depression, desolation, and decay. By his viewpoints, we should expect the country to come to a screeching halt in the very near future by virtue of its unemployment, incompetance, disrepair, and violence. I found this book so difficult to read that I did not finish it, and gave it away.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Do I really need a title
Comment: People who read Theroux and then complain about how he's cranky are sort of like people who read Faulkner and then complain he's longwinded and a little confusing. Theroux is a dyspepetic grumbler who intentionally makes himself as miserable as possible while traveling, not only because he's probably clinically depressed but also because books about things going wrong are incredibly more interesting than books about things going right. Theroux was also traveling through Britain during a period in which the country was indeed a rather dingy place.
I found this book enjoyable but ultimately more evanescent than Theroux's other works. Although he occasionally trudges through one of the more remote (and by default more engaging) parts of Britain which pique the reader's interest, most of the book is taken up by a repetitive series of trailer parks, artillery ranges and commentary on the Falklands War. All in all, though, I'd rather read Theroux's travel guide than Lonely Planet's.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Curmudgeon's Diary of Walking the Coast of Great Britain
Comment: Engrossing and amusing travelogue by world's crankiest traveler.
Some people really hate Theroux, accusing him of snobbery, self importance, and bigotry. I can certainly see why some readers wouldn't be able to deal with his style and opinions, but I must say that this volume might be a pretty good litmus test of readers' tolerance for the author's travel works. (If you can enjoy this one, you'll probably enjoy his other non-fiction works).
I, for one, totally enjoyed hearing about grunge-y has-been towns, obnoxious holiday camps, and seedy hotels. To me, the book was a real page-turner, and he writes so vividly of scenery. I felt he wrote about the worst bits of his trip with true humor, reminding us travelers that it's helpful to keep a sense of humor during the rough times.
I felt the book was a pretty decent scouting report for the island's shoreline, and I now know what to avoid there. I can definitely thank Theroux and his fussy standards!
If you like Theroux, it's a good bet you'll love this one.
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