Title: Theroux the Keyhole
Author: Louis Theroux
Type: Non-Fiction
Page Count/Review Word Count: 374
Rating: 4/5
Do you remember during the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated lockdowns when people all over the world were using the time to learn new skills or to get projects done? Yeah, this is Louis Theroux’s project.
It all started with him keeping a diary during the early days of COVID, and that diary then evolved into a book where he looked back at its impact. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that this is a COVID book though, because it’s so much more than that.
Louis Theroux has written three books by this point, and they show that as well as being a decent broadcast journalist, he’s also a talented writer. It’s actually a testament to his abilities as a writer that he’s able to convey that same sense of wry humour here as he does in his TV shows.
This is quite a different book to his other two, and I think that it’s inherently more personal. It’s also an unflinching self-examination in parts, and it doesn’t come across though he’s a particularly good person. He freely admits that he’s drinking too much and that it’s having a negative effect on his relationships with his family.
On the plus side, the way that he writes about his children is fun and engaging, and it really helps their characters to come to life. Those kids of his are pretty funny, often more so than Theroux is, and so if they join the family business then we’re in for a treat.
Ultimately, this is a fun little read that’s easier to read than some of Theroux’s other books, even though this is literally just a collection of his diaries during the pandemic. Published diaries rarely work, with the exception of Samuel Pepys and Alan Bennett, so I’m glad that this one turned out okay.
Just be warned that it’s not great escapist reading because it’s so tied to the COVID-19 pandemic that it’s impossible to separate the two. That’s left it feeling dated already, and it’s only a couple of years old. I’m not sure how it’ll fare in a couple more years.
