The Call of the Weird

The Call of the Weird

by Louis Theroux

Picador, $261

With his droopy fringe and glinting spectacles, Louis Theroux himself looks eccentric. Apparently intent on deflecting criticism that his act is sneering, in his latest look at deviance Theroux admits he may be as odd as some of the people he meets. 'I did start to recognise a kind of weirdness in myself,' he writes.

He made his name through a string of bizarre documentaries in which he confronted some of America's most unusual folk in his probing, slightly nervous and, some would say, wily style. The Call of the Weird revisits his victims, sorry, subjects: 12 in all, including Lamb and Lynx Gaede - blue-eyed Californian twins who sing songs extolling the virtues of white power in the guise of 'Prussian Blue'.

Rather blandly, each essay takes its name from the individuals under scrutiny. But the approach the London-based satirist takes is Gonzo; he becomes enmeshed with the action, a la Hunter S. Thompson, rather than standing back and observing.

Gonzo journalism can be infuriating, as when a hack starts a story with the word 'I' and peppers it with the first person, turning the subject into a sideshow. However, in this case, the author - the youngest son of travel writer Paul Theroux - avoids self-indulgence; the personal detail intensifies the mood of seedy tragicomedy embodied by the Hollywood apartment he rents.