Book description
Jack Flowers, saint or sinner, caught a passing bumboat into
Singapore and got a job as a water-clerk to a Chinese ship chandler.
Now, on the side, he offers girls (indeed 'anything, anything at all')
to tourists, sailors, residents and expatriates, but he is haunted by
his lack of worldly success and his fifty-three years weigh heavily on
him. So when he agrees to act as blackmailer for the faintly sinister
American, Edwin Shuck, in a plot against a general from Vietnam, he
has high, not to mention wild, hopes of triumph.
These are the outrageous confessions of an ingenious con man in the
seedy and unforgettable world of expatriates amidst imperial ruins.
Paul Theroux's highly acclaimed books include
Dark Star Safari
,
Ghost Train to the Eastern Star
,
Riding the Iron Rooster
,
The Great Railway Bazaar
,
The Old Patagonian Express
,
Fresh-Air Fiend,
The Elephanta Suite
and
A Dead Hand.
The Mosquito Coast
and
Dr Slaughter
have both been made into successful films. Paul Theroux is also a
frequent contributor to magazines, and divides his time between Cape Cod
and the Hawaiian islands.
