SOURCE: Wright, Ronald. “Having His Kayak and Beating It.” Times Literary Supplement, no. 4661 (31 July 1992): 11.

In the following review, Wright compliments the authentic details and candid tone of The Happy Isles of Oceania, praising it as one of Theroux's best works.

Paul Theroux once said in an interview that it is hard to write travel books about nice places, because “there's no subject there.” And true to this nostrum he has sought out places that are unpleasant or, more often, has made them appear so by casting a jaundiced light. His formula is simple: hate everything other people like, and like everything that other people hate. That way the writer stands out from the crowd. Not that there is necessarily anything wrong with this kind of writing: Theroux's alembicated travels, told by a peevish and insouciant narrator, belong to a tradition which goes back to Alexander Kinglake and Laurence...