SOURCE: Urquhart, Alexander. “Fly-Blown Odyssey.” Times Literary Supplement, no. 4836 (8 December 1995): 12–13.

In the following review, Urquhart offers a mixed assessment of The Pillars of Hercules, which he concludes is “an uneasy book” despite its “many delights.”

At a time when the world's wilder places are rapidly becoming holiday destinations, it is heartening to discover that good travel writing can be done in an unexotic location. Paul Theroux has returned to the most heavily trodden, thoroughly documented terrain of all to make a year-long trek around the Mediterranean. At his best, he juggles the components of travel writing with rare precision and achieves a superbly balanced interaction between traveller, reader, journey and culture. The Pillars of Hercules is, however, not Theroux at his best. At times it infuriates and seems ill-conceived, but it is also immensely entertaining and there are passages which are as good as anything that he has...