I found this novel less compelling than Theroux's travel writing. ( )

It had been a while since I read a book by Theroux. I love his travel books. He has been called a cynic by many, though I guess that could be seen as a recommendation as well. To me it isn´t necessarily a negative point. Theroux writes big books, which makes them ideal to take on a holiday, at least to me, as I read a lot and can´t take piles of books.

The Mosquito coast is a novel, yet it is also a travel book. An American family decides to leave the States, the country is not making progress according to Father. They end up in Honduras where they manage to create a little community where they live happily, all doing their daily chores. Father even manages to build an ice machine, use fire to make ice, even in the heat of central America. Yet father goes berserk and things do not look as brightly as they did before.

Great story, difficult to put down. It does help that I have been in Honduras and have some images in my head when I read this. Apart from that I saw a great movie with Robin Williams as the brilliant, yet crazy father. Greatly recommended.

(I was wrong, it has been turned into a movie, yet RW wasn't involved) ( )

A book that mirrors its journey into the jungle as it slowly falls apart like the main cast. The premise is wonderful; the most American American, the epitome of self reliance and independence, has to retreat from America to return to a more true way of life, away from the corrupt remnants of a once great nation. What that way of life is and how it's to be lived is what falls apart during the course of the book, in obvious allusions to those who dream those ideals back home. There's a separate man vs religion theme throughout the book as well, but less clear in purpose.
Unfortunately it can't quite pull the threads together and they instead fall apart into a near parody of itself as the father's insanity and purity spiral continues, becoming more a Kurtz in the jungle. The more elevated threads seem lost in the end to pure antipathy for domineering father figures as the story limps home and you're left wondering if it was really just intended as a character portrait of insanity through the eyes of the son, any more clever threads left rotting on the jungle floor.
( )

Every parent is Allie Fox. Every child is Charlie. Mosquito Coast is metaphor in the extreme. Brilliant.

My mom and I just went on a long road trip to visit her family and this was one of the audiobooks we listened to. We were HOOKED. The father is an eccentric version of my father, so the ranting was perfectly worded, colorful versions of conversations with my dad. I like that this family went against the grain of society and took all the changes of living among a new landscape and culture in stride.

We speculated the story to take place in the 60s, based on the TV show references, the mother's essentially passive behavior, and the ease of immigrating to a central American country (pre-civil war).

I can understand how the content would be irritating to many people, but make others want to high-five the father after each of his rants. My mom and I are in the latter. We like the extreme cynicism mixed with profound insight. It makes much of the book hilarious, meanwhile you get to learn a little bit of Honduras and have an outdoor adventure. ( )