First Chapter: Deep South by Paul Theroux

Bibliophile By the Sea hosts First Chapter, First Paragraph every Tuesday. Share the first paragraph(s) of your current read or book interest, with information for readers

Deep South: Four Seasons on Back Roads by Paul Theroux, published September 3, 2015 by Penguin
Genre: nonfiction, travel
Source: library

First chapter, first paragraphs:

In Tuskaloosa, Alabama, on a hot Sunday morning in early October, I sat in my car in the parking lot of a motel studying a map, trying to locate a certain church. I was not looking for more religion or to be voyeuristically stimulated by travel. I was hoping for music and uplift, sacred steel and celebration, and maybe a friend.

I slapped the map with the back of my hand. I must have looked befuddled.

"You lost, baby?"

Travelling through North and South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama and Arkansas, travel writer Paul Theroux writes of the stunning landscapes he discovers - the deserts, the mountains, the Mississippi - and above all, the lives of the people he meets. (publisher)

Based on the opening sentences,  would you continue reading?

Book Review: A Dead Hand by Paul Theroux

A Dead Hand: A Crime in Calcutta by Paul Theroux
(Hardcover - Feb. 11, 2010)

Summary: Jerry Delfont is a failed writer, a writer with a "dead hand" that can no longer write as he has no ideas left. He goes to a city he obviously dislikes, Calcutta, to find inspiration or material for his writing, and stays after meeting an intriguing expatriate, Mrs. Unger, who inflames his imagination and his passion, with her beautiful silk saris and tantric massages, her philantrophy, and her worship of the goddess Kali.

When Mrs. Unger asks Jerry to help a friend escape a possible murder charge, Jerry plays detective and sets out to do Mrs. Unger's bidding.

Comments: Don't let the cover scare you. That's only Kali, the Hindu goddess of destruction and creation, according to Theroux in this book set in Calcutta, India.

I saw A Dead Hand as another one of Theroux's travel books, this one masquerading as a crime novel. The characters give their frank opinions about the hot, dusty city and about the people who come to live in India. Even Mother Theresa doesn't escape their critical eye. Those comments and observations were more interesting to me than the murder mystery, which you can easily solve early in the book, I thought. I guessed the culprit(s) and possible motives half way through. Theroux drops hints here and there and then just about layers the pages with clues and insinuations that can only lead to one logical conclusion. Only the details were left to be filled in. Wanting to know the details kept me reading to the end.

Comments: I gave this book 4 stars as a travel book in disguise, 4 stars as a book about social injustice, and 3 stars as crime fiction.

Challenge: Thriller & Suspense Reading Challenge