The Call of the Weird

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Insight or voyeurism? - Rated
There are some great features to Amazon: competitive prices, the chance to browse for a vast selection of books at any hour of the day, generally good service. Here is a bad thing: judging a book by its cover (or the reputation of the author). I bought this because I have enjoyed some of Theroux's TV programmes and it sounded a bit different.

Theroux's plan is to revisit subjects he had met during the making of a TV series on weird Americans and see how they have changed in the intervening few years. The problem is that it doesn't quite work and I think Theroux realises that quite quickly. The writing is engaging and honest but it's partly a story of tracking the people down and partly a story about what they said when he found them. Neither story is terribly interesting.

The story of finding the subjects again is fairly tedious, to be honest. Theroux tracks them through the internet, phone calls and visits to likely hangouts but there's no great detective work or suspense, just description. And this is ok - Theroux comes across as likeable and decent, you'd actually like to meet him, but there are limits to how interesting the story of him tracking people down can be.

Then there's the times when he finds his subject and draws them out. Again, it's hard to get very involved. Another reviewer calls the interviewees dreary and some of them are. Some are sad, as well, and neither feature makes for very gripping reading. You could wander into your local psychiatric out-patient clinic and have the same sort of chat, I suspect.

Louis Theroux is a talented journalist and author and his best work is ahead of him. You wish his weird subjects would grow up and get on with their lives (some of them have) and you wish Theroux would stop hanging around with them and get on to something that really matters. The Victorians used to visit asylums to gawp at the lunatics and this feels a bit like the same voyeuristic serving up of human frailty.

Hit and miss - Rated
Louis Theroux's television persona and subject matter are always engaging, warm and interesting. He comes across as a thoroughly nice chap and treats his weird and wonderful subjects with dignity and respect. His book, a contituation of the meetings he had continues in this vein and very readable it is. However he doesn't really delve as well as you had hoped and and you are left wondering "Is that all I get".
Probably best as an introduction to Louis' weird world. If you have seen the TV shows you may end up disappointed.

Brilliant read! - Rated
This book is undeniably fun and VERY entertaining! There is very little else to say. Definetly worth a read!

Ok, not great - Rated
I have to say I would give this 3-4 stars, I didn't enjoy the book anywhere as much as his series. I am a fan on his documentarys however it does not necessarily transfer too well to book, perhaps because you see everything through his eyes (or indeed words) rather than for yourself and this has obvious bias. It is interesting to read what eh personally thinks though and I do think it was a well written book if a little disjointed. I would certainly recommend it to any fan but if you're not especially keen on Louis then probably not one for you.

If you were a fan of the TV series,,, - Rated
If you were a fan of the TV series, and you are interested in what happened to the people who he interviewed, then by all means this book is for you.

For me, however, this book was a little disappointing. While it does explore the gaps between Louis' previous meetings with these characters and their recent meetings, there is little character exploration or in-depth discussion about these people and what makes them who they are. There are brief summaries of their previous meetings and why Louis was drawn to them, but at the end of the book this leaves you with little. Unfortunately, it also results in these catch-ups becoming trite and somewhat grating. While in the TV series these aspects would have been neccesary, Louis seems to feel that because of the nature of this book their ommision is no problem. I disagree.

Even for fans of the TV series, there is probably little new ground here. This might not be a problem for some, but it leaves the book somewhat lacking in a genre where books regarding the examination of gonzo characters are now in abundance. For newcomers to Theroux like myself, my advice would be to buy the DVD instead.