Status
Available
Call number
Publication
Mariner Books (2015), Edition: Reprint, 368 pages
Description
"A dark and bitingly humorous collection of short stories from the "brilliantly evocative" (Time) Paul Theroux A family watches in horror as their patriarch transforms into the singing, wise-cracking lead of an old-timey minstrel show. A renowned art collector relishes publicly destroying his most valuable pieces. Two boys stand by helplessly as their father stages an all-consuming war on the raccoons living in the woods around their house. A young artist devotes himself to a wealthy, malicious gossip, knowing that it's just a matter of time before she turns on him. In this new collection of short stories, acclaimed author Paul Theroux explores the tenuous leadership of the elite and the surprising revenge of the overlooked. He shows us humanity possessed, consumed by its own desire and compulsion, always with his carefully honed eye for detail and the subtle idiosyncrasies that bring his characters to life. Searing, dark, and sure to unsettle, Mr. Bones is a stunning new display of Paul Theroux's "fluent, faintly sinister powers of vision and imagination" (John Updike, The New Yorker)"--… (more)
Media reviews
One might wish there were more of a balance between compassion and aggression in “Mr. Bones.” But that would be an unfair, even an absurd wish, like wanting García Márquez to have set his best-known novel somewhere other than Macondo. A writer sees what he sees, imagines what he imagines.
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“Mr. Bones” is a series of characteristically dark and sharply focused snapshots from the world that Paul Theroux has observed — and invented. Show Less
Guardian
The best of these stories channel a Cheever-like weirdness, plumbing the depths of eccentricity and violence swilling beneath the surface of ordinary American life. Theroux understands, often with devastating effect, how dramas both big and small can produce catastrophic and lasting psychological
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consequences. Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member brendajanefrank
While reading "Mr. Bones" I kept telling my husband that he just has to read this book. It is so good that I couldn't wait to share it with him.
What brilliant writing and amazing imagination! "Mr. Bones" has aspects of Stephen King style weirdness, but on a more sophisticated level. Theroux gives
Three stories are actually collections of vignettes of a page or two in length. Yet, Theroux is able to convey compelling images and events in this short space. I am at impressed with the effective characters and scenes he creates in just a page.
A general theme of "Mr. Bones" is that people are strange, even grotesque, in behavior. Often we witness the gradual disintegration of a person. These are fascinating portraits of bizarre experiences and characters.
Theroux's nonfiction writing of people and places has been critical, even controversial. I sense that "Mr. Bones" may capture Theroux's impressions of people, on an exaggerated level.
"Mr. Bones" loses one star due to poor endings. The stories are magnificent, but just tail off. I felt like Theroux didn't know how to wrap them up.
What brilliant writing and amazing imagination! "Mr. Bones" has aspects of Stephen King style weirdness, but on a more sophisticated level. Theroux gives
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us twenty short stories of varied settings and styles, from four to fifty pages in length. Their commonality is that all are artfully written and ingenious.Three stories are actually collections of vignettes of a page or two in length. Yet, Theroux is able to convey compelling images and events in this short space. I am at impressed with the effective characters and scenes he creates in just a page.
A general theme of "Mr. Bones" is that people are strange, even grotesque, in behavior. Often we witness the gradual disintegration of a person. These are fascinating portraits of bizarre experiences and characters.
Theroux's nonfiction writing of people and places has been critical, even controversial. I sense that "Mr. Bones" may capture Theroux's impressions of people, on an exaggerated level.
"Mr. Bones" loses one star due to poor endings. The stories are magnificent, but just tail off. I felt like Theroux didn't know how to wrap them up.
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LibraryThing member SheTreadsSoftly
Mr. Bones by Paul Theroux is a very highly recommended, wonderfully descriptive collection of twenty short stories. There should be a story that will appeal to almost everyone in these masterfully well written stories, many of which take common-place occurrences and put a twist on them.
The
Minor Watt: A wealthy man destroys his priceless treasure simply because he can.
Mr. Bones: A mild mannered father has a drastic and startling personality change.
Our Raccoon Year: A plague of raccoons changes a family's already fluid dynamics.
Mrs. Everest: A painter meets a gallery owner who courts his company even though she doesn't like his work.
Another Necklace: An author has a secret.
Incident in the Oriente: An overseas contractor wields his influence over those he employs.
Rip It Up: Anxious, pimply fourteen-year-olds devise a plan to extract retribution on their bullies.
Siamese Nights: A man is assigned to work in Bangkok where he keeps a pictorial diary of drawings and meets someone special.
Nowadays the Dead Don’t Die: A man in the bush is asked to take a man with no family to the hospital. When the ill man dies on the way, he is unceremoniously buried - but then things begin to go wrong.
Autostop Summer: A writer visits Italy and recalls a trip there many years ago.
Voices of Love: This is a collection of short vignettes, first-person flash fiction, of unfaithful people.
The Furies: A man marries a much younger woman and his past begins to catch up with him.
Rangers: Scam artists hook-up and hit the road.
Action: A young man runs an errand for his father, who is very protective of him.
Long Story Short: Another collection of short first-person flash fiction stories that feature young men coming-of age.
Neighbor Islands: A Hawaiian police officer catches his wife in a compromising position and then the incident is looked at from several viewpoints.
The Traveler’s Wife: A travel writer's wife starts expressing her opinions.
The First World: A wealthy man retires to Nantucket where he wishes to build his dream house.
Heartache: An elderly writer dies in the deep South.
I’m the Meat, You’re the Knife: A man who is back in his home town for his father's funeral visits his old English teacher who is dying.
Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt via Netgalley for review purposes.
The
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collection includes:Minor Watt: A wealthy man destroys his priceless treasure simply because he can.
Mr. Bones: A mild mannered father has a drastic and startling personality change.
Our Raccoon Year: A plague of raccoons changes a family's already fluid dynamics.
Mrs. Everest: A painter meets a gallery owner who courts his company even though she doesn't like his work.
Another Necklace: An author has a secret.
Incident in the Oriente: An overseas contractor wields his influence over those he employs.
Rip It Up: Anxious, pimply fourteen-year-olds devise a plan to extract retribution on their bullies.
Siamese Nights: A man is assigned to work in Bangkok where he keeps a pictorial diary of drawings and meets someone special.
Nowadays the Dead Don’t Die: A man in the bush is asked to take a man with no family to the hospital. When the ill man dies on the way, he is unceremoniously buried - but then things begin to go wrong.
Autostop Summer: A writer visits Italy and recalls a trip there many years ago.
Voices of Love: This is a collection of short vignettes, first-person flash fiction, of unfaithful people.
The Furies: A man marries a much younger woman and his past begins to catch up with him.
Rangers: Scam artists hook-up and hit the road.
Action: A young man runs an errand for his father, who is very protective of him.
Long Story Short: Another collection of short first-person flash fiction stories that feature young men coming-of age.
Neighbor Islands: A Hawaiian police officer catches his wife in a compromising position and then the incident is looked at from several viewpoints.
The Traveler’s Wife: A travel writer's wife starts expressing her opinions.
The First World: A wealthy man retires to Nantucket where he wishes to build his dream house.
Heartache: An elderly writer dies in the deep South.
I’m the Meat, You’re the Knife: A man who is back in his home town for his father's funeral visits his old English teacher who is dying.
Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt via Netgalley for review purposes.
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LibraryThing member ozzer
Most of Theroux’s collection of stories is about men behaving badly in various ways (usually sex) but get their comeuppances in the end in clever and unexpected ways. The collection is uneven, with some real gems while others don’t seem to work well, usually because they are too short to be
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engaging. Theroux attempts two stories as a series of unrelated vignettes, most of which are less than a page long. Although one was themed by various forms of sexual relationships ("Voices of Love”), the other was not obviously related thematically and thus quite disjointed (“Long Story Short”). The longer stories seemed to work better. In “Our Raccoon Year” a divorced father takes care of his two boys in a very permissive way. At first he accepts raccoons on his property but slowly transforms into being obsessed with eliminating them. He will do anything to them. In the end he gives up custody of his two boys to his much-hated wife so that he can pursue his obsession with killing raccoons. Some of the stories had plot twists that were difficult to see coming. In “Incident in the Oriente”—Moses is a very efficient independent contractor working with a small group of workers in Ecuador. Their work is behind schedule because two of his workers are too friendly with the natives and each other. He needs them to stay on the job but work harder. This seems like an insoluble problem. However, he solves it by ordering one of the men to shoot the other’s pet dog. This breaks up their friendship and successfully gets them to focus on the work. Sometimes what appears to auger for a bad outcome ends favorably. “Rip It Up” has two nerdy boys who are bullied in high school and plot revenge on their tormentors. This becomes the making of a bomb they plan to set off at a soccer match but by mistake they explode it and one of them gets injured. Instead of causing them problems, this gives them a certain cache with the cool kids because the latter think of them as a couple of dangerous rebels. Show Less
LibraryThing member jldarden
The first third of this collection was interesting but I have to say the middle was muddle of quite short stories that made little sense and had no kind of conclusion and little satisfaction. the final few longer stories were just ok. This from a writer whose novels I have enjoyed. Not highly
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recommended. Show Less
Awards
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2014
Physical description
368 p.; 5.31 inches
ISBN
0544483952 / 9780544483958