Melody Murray's Books

Equal parts weird documentary follow-up and navel gazing Gen-X memoir, this quirky book was... well, quirky. Theroux apparently made a series of documentaries about fringe-dwellers (white power believers, UFO contactees, porn stars & the like) back in the 90s and was inspired to follow up ten years later. Most of the odd ducks were still odd. Some were dead. Some were marginally less odd. Along the way, Theroux is forced to examine his journalistic motives and himself. It's interesting in a strange sort of way- reading about what I think of as "harmless kooks" was pretty fun in a "Gosh I'm so much saner than these people" way, but when he was talking to the hardcore Hitler-lovers it made for scary and horrible reading- the kind where one wonders how one can share any DNA with these creatures.Theroux is a solid writer with the occasional flash of insight. An enjoyable book overall.