Find Your Way Home--Bestselling Sat Navs
Plan ahead and avoid traffic jams with one of our bestselling sat navs from top brands including TomTom and Garmin. We also stock a great range of up-to-date and fully-routable maps for your device, including popular destinations such as France, Portugal, North America and Scotland.
Call of the Weird: Travels in American Subcultures
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
Curled Up with a Good Book, 8/08
"It's a fun read, but even more so, it's an interesting one. You'll have trouble putting it down...Theroux presents the humanity in his subjects without necessarily sympathizing with them, walking the fine line between their extreme views and the normalcy of everyday life... Alternately funny and disturbing...An excellent read." --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
"It's a fun read, but even more so, it's an interesting one. You'll have trouble putting it down...Theroux presents the humanity in his subjects without necessarily sympathizing with them, walking the fine line between their extreme views and the normalcy of everyday life... Alternately funny and disturbing...An excellent read." --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Product Description
Louis Theroux's hilarious and thought-provoking journey through weird America
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is a really entertaining book, actually very funny at times - the bit with the alien medium was hilarious.
Theroux writes well - in a light and effortless to read style.
While it isn't too serious, he does pause to muse on the nature of weirdness, the origins of abnormal beliefs and behaviours in his subjects, and his own motivations for covering them. This is done without pretentious psychobabble.
The people covered are really fascinating and Theroux's interactions with them, as viewers of his TV series will know, are always revealing and amusing.
Theroux writes well - in a light and effortless to read style.
While it isn't too serious, he does pause to muse on the nature of weirdness, the origins of abnormal beliefs and behaviours in his subjects, and his own motivations for covering them. This is done without pretentious psychobabble.
The people covered are really fascinating and Theroux's interactions with them, as viewers of his TV series will know, are always revealing and amusing.
I really recommend this book.
17 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The word 'debut' seems a little weird for Louis, after all, most of the people who pick up this book will be long familiar with Louis and his collection of mad hatters from across the pond. Settling down with Louis' journey feels like rekindling some long lost friendships. I was most interested to catch up with Hayley, who I am sure had a bit of a thing for Louis - who wouldn't? Not even Christine Hamilton was impervious. Louis writes as he talks: charming, self efacing and respectful of his interviewees despite them having some horrific views. Ah...with the exception of Marshall Sylver who was a bit of a scumbag anyway. More power to you Louis and don't let anyone call you a poor man's Jon Ronson.
17 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I'm a bit of a fan of Louis Theroux's TV documentaries, but I came to this book not sure what to expect. Was it a travel book, a study in weirdness, a confessional, quirky, serious? But I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it and how quickly I ploughed through it.
The title is a bit mis-leading - "travels through American sub-cultures" - as this isn't really a travel book but a study of ten characters who Louis has met over the course of his journalism.
Louis moves to America and spends almost a year on a kind of road trip seeking out his favourite "weird" subjects. A porn performer, an alien-hunter, a pimp(!), Ike Turner and some scarey racist neo-nazis to name just a few. The chapter I found most fascinating was one about a woman called April. She's a neo-nazi and has two young blonde twins who she trains to sing nazi songs.
Somehow the humanity of even the most reprehensible of these people shines through. And Louis obviously has quite a close, affectionate bond with a lot of these people.
I recommend this to anyone who wants to figure out what compels people to believe outlandish things or to choose bizarre modes of life. Keep an open mind, and you wil love this book as i did!
Am I the first person to read this??? BUY IT!
The title is a bit mis-leading - "travels through American sub-cultures" - as this isn't really a travel book but a study of ten characters who Louis has met over the course of his journalism.
Louis moves to America and spends almost a year on a kind of road trip seeking out his favourite "weird" subjects. A porn performer, an alien-hunter, a pimp(!), Ike Turner and some scarey racist neo-nazis to name just a few. The chapter I found most fascinating was one about a woman called April. She's a neo-nazi and has two young blonde twins who she trains to sing nazi songs.
Somehow the humanity of even the most reprehensible of these people shines through. And Louis obviously has quite a close, affectionate bond with a lot of these people.
I recommend this to anyone who wants to figure out what compels people to believe outlandish things or to choose bizarre modes of life. Keep an open mind, and you wil love this book as i did!
Am I the first person to read this??? BUY IT!
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Louis theroux Call of the Weird
This is book is truly brilliant well written and structured. Portraying some of the people featured in the TV series Weird Weekends and where they are now. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Matthew Davies
Weird Weekends Revisted
My title to this review would have been a more apt title for Louis's book. Moreso I think it would have aided sales as I really didn't know what the book was going to be about, and... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Billy
A nice follow-up
I am a fan of the Louis Theroux TV shows and recognised the characters that appear in this book.
It's a nice, light read that is entertaining, witty and weird. Read more
It's a nice, light read that is entertaining, witty and weird. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Sam Whittam
Good for Louis fans
Always been a fan of Louis TV shows and stumbled on this book. It feels a bit dated now but is still an interesting read as I recalled some of the characters from the show. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Ian Br
Disappointing after the series
"The Call of the Weird" is so far documentary maker Louis Theroux's one and only book. He wrote it after finishing his series "Weird Weekends" for BBC2, which was a documentary... Read more
Published 15 months ago by M. A. Krul
Feels sad and exploitative at times
Louie Theroux has made a living out of interviewing eccentric people, and this works well on TV. It all feels a bit two-faced when you read this account of his attempts to catch up... Read more
Published 22 months ago by L. Hennessy
A disappointing look back at previous episodes
This book is a bit of a let down to be honest. Louis obviously decided to travel to America and write a book about trying to meet up with some of the previous subjects from his... Read more
Published 22 months ago by Super Drumkit Dominator
"...shocked by their beliefs..."
There are some weird people out there in USA land and Louis Theroux met them, filmed them, and then went back a few years later to see if they were still as weird as he thought... Read more
Published on 29 May 2010 by Eileen Shaw
Interesting read for any fan
Theroux leaves a lot unsaid in his documentaries, and in this book the reader is given a chance to hear all that he's thinking. Read more
Published on 2 May 2010 by Ms. N. A. Beale
Interesting
I found this interesting, but was constantly referring to my memory of the relevant programmes it mentions. Some pictures might have been nice.
Published on 29 Mar 2010 by Carol Wurcbacher
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
