Kingdom by the Sea (Essential Modern Classics) (Collins Modern Classics)

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But I can tell this author a few things about endings, especially since I didn’t like his own ending to this story. We still have those cars with old people in them, parked at the very edge of the sea, and the people in them, even on mild days, just looking at the sea, sometimes on camping chairs but still within touching distance of their ugly, smelly metal box.

The Kingdom by the Sea, Theroux's grumpy, funny account of this journey, was published the following year (1983) and caused outrage in many of the seaside towns the author had passed through and seemingly written off. I liked Theroux's memoir of his travels around the coast of Great Britain, but I didn't love it as I had hoped.It's got a bit of everything: great characters, a deeply atmospheric setting and a story that really keeps me engaged.

Now that Bob's girlfriend is dead, a vow he once made to her takes on macabre new implications; PW said, ``Westall's tale is good spooky fun--and thought-provoking as well. Because he felt like a bomb himself, and if anyone did anything to him, he would explode into a million pieces and nobody would ever be able to put him back together again.

Then there were a couple of parts that crossed quite far into uncomfortable and combined with the jarring, perplexing ending, took this from great to "it's ok" for me. Then he thundered downstairs, the crack of light from the kitchen door lighting up the edge of each stair-tread.