{"id":13668,"date":"2014-07-28T01:37:32","date_gmt":"2014-07-28T05:37:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/?p=13668"},"modified":"2014-07-29T12:24:45","modified_gmt":"2014-07-29T16:24:45","slug":"paul-theroux-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/2014\/07\/28\/paul-theroux-action\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Theroux: “Action”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Click here<\/a> to read the story in its entirety on The New Yorker<\/em> webpage. Paul Theroux\u2019s \u201cAction\u201d was originally published in the August 4, 2014 issue of The New Yorker<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"Click

Click for a larger image.<\/p><\/div>\n

Betsy<\/strong><\/p>\n

What a great story. Economical, comic, and compassionate, \u201cAction,\u201d by Paul Theroux, tells of a father and son who are negotiating an understanding of each other. The father, a widower, is cautious; the son, a small fifteen year old, is impatient. To the father who has lost his wife, the son must be protected. To the son who wants to get on with things and get some \u201caction,\u201d whatever that is, the world beckons. I have enjoyed very much Theroux\u2019s recent stories. Is it because I live in Massachusetts and these stories take place in Medford or Boston? Is it because I know Theroux is about my age, and the stories seem to be about my past as well? Yes, and yes, but these are good stories, and this — the best.<\/p>\n

Theroux mentions in his interview with Deborah Treisman (here<\/a>) that one of his favorite stories is \u201cThe Steppe,\u201d by Chekhov. Theroux remarks that \u201cAction\u201d is \u201ca tiny footnote to that great tale.\u201d That story (which you can read online here in Constance Garnett’s translation<\/a>) tells of a boy traveling by train in the company of some older men. So \u201cAction\u201d is another New Yorker<\/em> piece in the spirit of one story in honor of another.<\/p>\n

How autobiographical is this story by someone who is 72? I don\u2019t know, but I would like to remark that the story feels like someone remembering his own life. The writer is not apart from his characters, not above them. I am reminded of \u201cA&P\u201d and Updike, who often is writing from a superior point of view. Another thing the story accomplishes is the revelation of feeling — something a recent autobiographically induced story (\u201cLast Meal at Whole Foods\u201d) struggled with. \u201cAction\u201d felt universal. I am a woman, and this story reminded me of being a girl, wanting adventure, and getting in over my head.<\/p>\n

Finally, I enjoyed very much the conceit that both father and son could be \u201ctwo people.\u201d The story works a little bit like a poem — it doesn\u2019t tell you everything — but it tells just enough for you to be drawn in and to also sense how, for instance, one\u2019s own father might be \u201ctwo people.\u201d For that surprising reverie, I thank Theroux.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week\u2019s story from The New Yorker<\/em> is Paul Theroux’s “Action.\u201d Read the full post<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":13670,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"libsyn-item-id":0,"libsyn-show-id":0,"libsyn-post-error":"","libsyn-post-error_post-type":"","libsyn-post-error_post-permissions":"","libsyn-post-error_api":"","playlist-podcast-url":"","libsyn-episode-thumbnail":"","libsyn-episode-widescreen_image":"","libsyn-episode-blog_image":"","libsyn-episode-background_image":"","libsyn-post-episode-category-selection":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_use_thumbnail":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_use_theme":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_height":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_width":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_placement":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_use_download_link":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_use_download_link_text":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_custom_color":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-explicit":"","libsyn-post-episode":"","libsyn-post-episode-update-id3":"","libsyn-post-episode-release-date":"","libsyn-post-episode-simple-download":"","libsyn-release-date":"","libsyn-post-update-release-date":"","libsyn-is_draft":"","libsyn-new-media-media":"","libsyn-post-episode-subtitle":"","libsyn-new-media-image":"","libsyn-post-episode-keywords":"","libsyn-post-itunes":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-episode-number":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-season-number":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-episode-type":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-episode-title":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-episode-author":"","libsyn-destination-releases":"","libsyn-post-episode-advanced-destination-form-data":"","libsyn-post-episode-advanced-destination-form-data-enabled":"","libsyn-post-episode-advanced-destination-form-data-input-enabled":false,"libsyn-post-episode-premium_state":"","libsyn-episode-shortcode":"","libsyn-episode-embedurl":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[94,389],"tags":[560],"coauthors":[504],"class_list":["post-13668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-yorker-fiction","category-paul-theroux","tag-short-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Theroux-Action.png?fit=320%2C436&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pqqvZ-3ys","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13668"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13668\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13698,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13668\/revisions\/13698"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13668"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=13668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}