The first thing to say about [The Consul's File] is that it makes excellent reading. The stories span a wide range of mood and theme. At one extreme there is comedy—a forty-five-year-old Englishwoman blandly commandeering the title role in the local drama society's production of Suzie Wong; at the other there are revenge, rape, murder and a ghost or two. Paul Theroux appears to be equally at ease with any of these subjects. He is a natural short-story writer. Repeatedly he contrives a plot that is compact, interesting and unpredictable. His surprise endings have an organic quality: they do not trimly dispose of what has gone before, but ask the reader to reinterpret it. The narration is quick, clear and restrained; the stories are left to speak for themselves. The general standard is high but I particularly enjoyed "Pretend I'm Not Here", "Diplomatic Relations" and the deftly...