The Happy Isles of Oceania - Paul Theroux

If reading Bill Bryson is like taking a long, warm bath, Paul Theroux is a cold shower. Until Bryson came along, Theroux was probably the best known contemporary travel writer. He's a prolific author, mainly of novels and short stories, but he's been writing travel books like this one since the early 1970s. In contrast to Bryson's amiable bumbling and his sometimes whimsical approach, Paul Theroux is an opinionated, even spiky character. Compared to Bryson's flowing, seamless prose, Theroux's writing can seem episodic and disjointed, making this book a bracing read. His prose might jump from place to place but it's only mirroring ...