The Mosquito Coast has already been greeted in England as a denunciation of America's failures, and it may well be so greeted here. Paul Theroux, who lives in England but knows his native America, has surely decried, through his central figure Allie Fox, some of what is said to ail us…. (p. 1)

While indicting our aerosol cheese goop and excessive imports (Allic hates decaying America from both left-and-right-wing viewpoints) what he really hates is the world's imperfections. Maddened, in the jungle, he will cry: "It's savage and superstitious to accept the world as it is. Fiddle around and find a use for it." What a fine articulation of Americanness from this anti-American character.

And what an excellent way of calling America a Frankenstein's monster, and Allie something of a Frankenstein. For, yes, this surely is a gothic novel…. It is possible that some readers have forgotten, that many...