Rating: 
Summary: Inimitable Novel
Review: I recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a novel with unique characters and an unpredictable plot. This story is told from the point of view of Charlie Fox, son of Allie Fox. Allie is a selfish man who is fed up with American society. He improves upon the "imperfections" of the world with his ingenious inventions. He moves his family to the South American jungle to escape the defective society and create a suitable town of his own. Charlie relates his father's actions through admiring eyes at first, but he soon sees the flaws in his father's civilization. The family suffers many losses and eventually realizes that Allie is not saving them from a faulty society, but he is squelching them from thriving. This is a very well written, detailed novel that has a great deal of suspense. While the story is unique, all can relate to the feelings and thoughts of the characters in this exciting, thought-provoking novel.
Rating:
Summary: The Mosquito Coast
Review: It is only in a few instances where a book has affected me so profoundly. Here is a story with a somewhat reproachable philosophy, but a philosophy that I empathize with; Allie Fox sets out with his loyal family to start anew in the savage ridden coast of Honduras. It is here that life becomes a stage for great triumphs of ingenuity and human compassion, and also great tragedy. It is with this book that I listened, as did Charlie, to the constant discourse of his father, and felt the love and the eventual hate that he felt. Allie Fox was truly the modern day tragic figure set up to fail even in the very beginning. If only some of today's parents had the audacity to take their children away from their programmed lifestyles and actually learn about people and nature and socialization instead of preordained history taught to the blank faced TV generation waiting to race home to their playstations. Of coarse you can't play god or make ice in the jungle or lead your family against the river current to their ultimate doom (or salvation depending on how you look at it), but what other option did he really have? Was he to regress? Ultimately it was selfishness that drove him, and perhaps this overshadowed his philosophy, making it safe for us to think of his speeches as the rhetoric of a crazy man where as it should have acted as a reminder and wake-up call to the reader that we live in a society of banality, and boldness should not be shunned or disregarded.
Rating:
Summary: A Story of Courage
Review: I found Allie Fox to be magnetic. There is no doubt he is somewhat mad, but in his madness lies a fair amount of truth. In some ways I find myself wondering if perhaps Allie was right. He sees the modern world as ugly, dependent on manufacturing and pollution and religion, lost in it's own technololgy. He is trying to rescue his family from a desctruction that he believes is inevitable.
Contrary to other reviews I have read I have no feelings that Mother is weak or unable to stand up on her own. She believes in this remarkable man and his ability to make something out of nothing. Her reluctance to go against him comes from her true love for his strength of character and her desire to provide for her children. We are the ones who are stuck thinking survival means money and material goods. They were happiest with their simplicity, their basic needs and their faith in their father.
This story is tragic and beautiful, it is thought provoking and full of life. In the end, I am not so sure who the real savages are.
Rating: 
Summary: The modern-day dysfunctional Swiss Family Robinson
Review: This story is about a father too smart and presumptions for his own good., and the growing rebellion of the eldest son seeing the ugly side of his father. Allie Fox, a self-anointed inventor has a knack for inventing different odds and ends that will purportedly aid humankind. However, Allie's distrust and revulsion for modern day society (e.g. TV dinners, television, public school, brand names, etc.) is commanding. He believes humans can make themselves a better world, but illogically he seems to feel that the world can only be better if he invents it. Fed up with American life, Allie moves himself and his wife and four children to one of the remotest parts of Honduras to live a simple and dignified life. What's ironical is that Allie is trying to escape the excesses of America, yet in Honduras he builds a gigantic and totally unnecessary ice machine. Charlie, his eldest son, soon recognizes the ego and omnipotent attitude his father attains while in Honduras. This eventually leads from an idyllic situation in a small Honduran settlement to a complete disaster when Allie tries to demonstrate human prowess and ability to a native Indian population. Charlie is torn between devotion toward his omnipotent father, and the irrational evil that his father is becoming. Theroux is a fine writer, and illustrates an adventurous and tumultuous time in the modern-day dysfunctional Swiss Family Robinson.
Rating:
Summary: The Mosquito Coast: An Exciting Narrative, but Over-Written
Review: Paul Theroux's THE MOSQUITO COAST is a simply entertaining story that appeals to a very diverse audience. This narrative follows the life of a New England farm family as their father, Allie Fox, leads them away from the comforts of life in America, and into the primitive jungles of Honduras, where they will rely upon their wits alone for survival. Charlie, Allie's eldest son, narrates the story. This book is a very enjoyable read. Theroux is able to display his humorous side in the sometimes laughable antics of Allie Fox. Theroux also displays his talent as a writer of unique and memorable characters. In fact, the character of Allie, who is outrageously eccentric and cynical, is one of Theroux's finer acomplishments in this novel. Allie, a genius who at first decides only to lead a simpler life, eventually takes his faimly to the brink of an obscure death in the jungle. At certain points during the story, Allie begins to evoke a genuine hatred in the reader's mind, which requires a quality of writing that not many author's can create. Theroux's only major shortcoming in this book is his prolonged descriptions of some of the Fox's adventures in the jungle. Although exciting at first, it would take a most attentive reader to stay focused during several of Theroux's tangents midway through the novel. THE MOSQUITO COAST is a good book, but it might have been a great one if it were 100 pages shorter.
Rating:
Summary: Good, but eventually bordering on annoying.
Review: The character of Allie Fox is both the fuel and the fire of this ambitious and well-written yarn about an eccentric inventor who uproots his family and transports them to Honduras in search of Utopia in the jungle. But while this main character, the very heart of the story, is initially quirky and likeable, about midway through the book his raving mania takes on a dangerously annoying tone. While the author may have intended to do this on purpose, without Allie Fox this book becomes simply plain. With less than a hundred pages to go I was looking forward to the end of the book (not a good sign). I personally love books that I don't want to finish, the characters and story so real that I feel my life might end with the turning of the final page. All in all, this is a good book, just not a great one. The pages fly by. Don't be surprised to find yourself slapping at mosquitoes by book's end. You are there. It's just too bad the only interesting character is Allie Fox.
Rating:
Summary: Extraordinary Character Study
Review: Paul Theroux's novels generally feature carefully etched characters, but he surpasses himself with Allie Fox, the protagonist of the Mosquito Coast. Allie is a husband and father of four, but he seems to care far more about his "inventions" and radical social ideas than he does about their welfare. To act out his ideals, he moves his family to Central America to start a utopian society, unencumbered by traditional materialism. Some of his contraptions work and the community begins to flourish, until his plans become grandiose. Although the reader can see the tragedy that is to come, Theroux constructs an intriguing plot that keeps the reader drawn into the novel. Some readers may be greatly off-put by Allie and his behavior; however, he is undeniably a magnetic and fascinating force. Fortunately, the book is narrated from the point-of-view of the teenaged son, Charlie, which allows the reader some distance from the sometimes repugnant Allie. Other readers may be disappointed by Allie's wife. She plays a relatively small role in the proceedings, and she seems to blindly go along with Allie, even when she suspects detrimental effects on her family. However, a man like Allie probably would be married to such a woman, as he likes to be in charge and assert himself on others strongly. Overall, the Mosquito Coast is a one-of-a-kind literary experience, with a fantastic main character embedded in a rollicking-good story. Most highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Mosquito Coast
Review: This story is about a family taht didn't want to apply changes. Allie Fox named himself as an inventors by using any stuff and think and pit them all together to be a better mechine. Allie Fox moved to Jeromino because he didn't like American life style. His family didn't want to have a natural live. Cause it wasn't suitable for them. But they must follow their father. One day, Allie Fox bought an island named Jeronimo. He invented an ice machine to make ices and to cooled an island. But there an explotion happend. And the moved to another places in a boat.
When they slept, there was a strom happend in there. Their father and Charlie tried to help and ran to that places. Not for a long time, finnaly they can got out from that places. Then they found another places again. When in there, Allie Fox found a church. he didn't believe in God. And, he walked to that church and burnt it. Mr Spellgod was very mad and he killed Allie Fox with a gun.
In fact, i didn't like this story. Because it was impossible. No one want their life like that. That's why i didn't like this story. but it also an excited story. I can saw houses in the jungle, the foods, the way they slept in the jungle, etc. The character were very good acting too. especially the twins. they were very cute and nice.
Rating: 
Summary: The small story of Mosquito Coast
Review: The Story started about a father who was really hate living in the city. His name was Allie Fox, he is a inventer. He has a wife and 4 children, They all lived in New York. Then one day Allie Fox decide to go to a old country. In the way there Allie Fox met a priest and his daughter. When they arrived in the country, Allie Fox made an aggrement of buying a smalltown name Jeronimo. in the morning they went to Jeronimo, after they arrived to Jeronimo Allie Fox and his family started to build a new town. So they all started to made a better place to live. They also build a gigantic ice machine, that made ice from fire. But Allie Fox was to greedy so he tried to sell a ice to another village, but on their way there the ice melted. But suddenly they met 3 prisoner, then Allie told them to go to his village. When they arrived back in their village, all the people was gone following the priest. The next morning three men with a weapon came, it was the three men from the other village. Allie Fox started to burn the house to scared the savages, but it didn't work. In the middle of night Allie trap the savages in the ice machine and freeze them to death, but the 3 men was awake and started to shoot everywhere, then suddenly the machine blow up. The place was fill woth poison from the machine, so the leave the place. then they arrived to a coast and try to lived there, but in the night there was a tidal wave and it blown away the house. After a few days in the middle of the ocean they arrived at a town with a church. it was the church of the priest from before. Allie was really to arrogant so he burn the place, But the priest saw Allie and shoot him and he was dying. So they go back to their home. HE END
Rating:
Summary: Mosquitio Coast
Review: The story is about the Fox's family. allie Fox always think that America was an awful country. He hated everything about America. The people, the bilding, everything. One day he took his family to an island called Jeronimo. In there he and his family started a new life. Allie was happy in there, but not the rest of his family. His family was suffer in there. But there an explotion happened. They had to find a new place.
Allie was very stuborn. He always wanted his family to do what he told. Sometime his family really hated him. But in the end when Allie was died, his family realize how much they loved allie.
I like this story because the plot of the story was very unpredictable. The character were very unique and unusual. This story taught us that we have to hear everyone opinion.
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