The Lower River by Paul Theroux

Ellis Hock spent four years in Malawi, Africa, as a young man.  He lived in a remote village, not seeing another white man for weeks or even months.  With the help of the villagers, he built a school and he and an African woman educated the youth of the village.  The work was hard but fulfilling and Ellis was at peace.  He was known as 'The Snake Man' as he had an affinity for capturing snakes, poisonous or not.  Then Ellis moved back home to America.  He married and spent his working years running a high-end men's wear store.

When he gets older, things have changed.  The relaxed mood in American business wear means that there is less and less call for a high end store.  He finally sells it off, and then tries to decide what to do for his retirement.  His marriage had already failed and his ex-wife has his house.  Their only child is grown and married and her only concern is that he give her 'her due' now instead of her having to wait until he dies to get an inheritance.

Looking around, Hock sees little to keep him in America.  He decides to return to the happy place of his youth and to the work that was so sustaining.  He cashes out all his assets and returns to Africa.  He finds a man who will take him to the small village he lived in before.  Soon he is on his way, visions of happiness ahead of him.

But happiness is not what he finds.  He finds a village mired again in poverty, with no jobs and little food.  The school fell into disrepair years ago and no one is interested in rebuilding it.  The inhabitants seem to welcome him at first, but he soon realizes that what they are welcoming is his money and that they are determined not to let him leave without transferring it from him to themselves.  Soon he is a virtual prisoner, with only the granddaughter of his former co-worker and a misfit of the village as companions.  His every attempt to leave is thwarted until he finally gives up and accepts that this will be the place of his death.

Paul Theroux is known for his travel writing.  His early adventures spoke of his great railroad trips through such places as China, Britain, the Mediterranean, Siberia and many other places.  Readers thrilled at his authentic portrayal of the places he visited, warts and all.  But things have changed in the world to his mind.  He despairs of the fact that local cultures are wiped out at the thought of being like the modern industrial nations.  He sees that the people of these regions are giving up their traditional ways not for progress but for massive poverty.  The only people who seem to have gained are those few at the top who plunder the vast mineral resources and skim off the dollars in aid that enter the country.  In 2014, he wrote The Last Train To Zona Verde, where he returned to the Africa he lived in as a young man for six years.  What he loved then was gone and he saw poverty and restlessness everywhere he went.  The Lower River is a fictional exploration of these same themes and one can see the agony he feels for how the world has changed.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.