Book Review: The Vanishing Point: Stories by Paul Theroux (Malawi 1963-1965)

I’ve read and reviewed the last seven books from the “Dean of Travel Writing,” Paul Theroux. I wrote my latest book, My Saddest Pleasures: 50 Years on the Road, in honor and appreciation of Theroux and another travel writer, “who personally knew and was inspired by Moritz Thomsen and passed their enthusiasm on to me.” Thomsen wrote the Peace Corps experience classic, Living Poor: A Peace Corps Chronicle. Theroux’s book, The Tao of Travel, celebrates 50 years of travel writing and inspired my series, “The Yin & Yang of Travel.”

Theroux is probably the most prolific of the Returned Peace Corps writers, with 33 works in fiction and 56 books overall. He’s also a prolific essay writer who published Figures in a Landscape in 2018. Figures in a Landscape was his third volume of essays, following Sunrise with Seamonsters (1984) and Fresh Air Fiend (2001) for 134 essays written over 53 years.

At 83, Theroux is being interviewed on many podcasts and journals, including Driving on TikTok, where he discusses all aspects of travel writing. Vanishing Point is a collection of eighteen stories. Each story focuses on life’s vanishing points—a moment when all lines running through one’s life converge, and one can see no farther yet must deal with the implications and what comes next.

Theroux has clarified that he doesn’t want a biography and would probably not cooperate if someone tried to write one. So, this collection of short stories is as close as we’ll get to an autobiography. Among the key themes of his experiences in childhood are taking risks and teaching abroad and, most prominently, experiences of aging in a culture that often renders older voices invisible. “I’ve been to a place you can never go to—it’s called the past,” Theroux writes as he positions the older writer as privileged witness and outsider. The settings include Hawaii and New England, where he resides now, and Africa.

One story, “The Silent Woman,” is about the assistant Theroux wished he had while researching for two years for his most recent book, Burma Sahib, about Eric Blair’s life as a policeman in the British Raj of Burma. Blair is the young George Orwell, one of the most influential writers of the 20th century.

One of the writer’s friends refers to the author’s assistant, Ollie, as an “epicene young man,” which sent me to my Funk & Wagnalls to find out what that means (feminine). Theroux is an avid researcher with a prodigious vocabulary and often uses different languages and dialects, which keeps readers on their toes. The story ends with a revelation about the assistant’s gender and how the author reacts to the realization.

In “A Charmed Life,” he reflects on how travel writing is a “beast” regarding one’s personal life and the basis of his unsuccessful marriages. “What I looked for in a lover, what I valued in a wife, what I’d never found was a woman who would accompany me into the metaphorical jungle of exoticism, as well as the actual one I aspired to explore…”

In one of the collection’s most revealing stories on aging, the protagonist confronts his mortality with this realization, “I might have years more with this power (to cast curses on someone). I thought, how shall I use it? What shall I wish for?” The question of purpose reverberates through his work, culminating in the acknowledgment, “This will be the last November of my life.” Theroux is a man who assesses and defines his legacy as a writer and in life.

The final story, “Finitude,” uses a chess game as a metaphor for life’s journey with the concept of “false summits,” those moments in life when we believe we’ve reached the pinnacle only to discover more of a mountain to be climbed. However, we can’t see or comprehend it. This metaphor captures the collection’s philosophical core—recognizing our limited perspective coupled with a never-ending challenge to move forward despite life’s uncertainty.

Far from leaning on his literary laurels, Theroux is reportedly working on a new travel novel set in Canada, which reflects his commitment to staying active and productive and giving back to his profession, “We need to do something to make a difference,” he insists, positing writing itself as a form of resistance against the invisibility which can come with age.

“Vanishing Point” is both a literary accomplishment and a philosophical statement. It is a collection of stories that refuse to ignore mortality while simultaneously affirming the ongoing value of creative work. For readers familiar with Theroux’s extensive bibliography, these stories offer new insight into the mind of a writer confronting his legacy while still actively shaping it.

Product details

· Publisher ‏ : ‎ Mariner Books (January 28, 2025)

· Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 336 pages

· ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 035872225X

· ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0358722250

o #155 in Short Stories Anthologies

o #439 in Short Stories (Books)

o #2,004 in Literary Fiction (Books)

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