The Mosquito Coast

The Mosquito Coast, published in 1981 by Paul Theroux, is an adventure story narrated by 13-year-old Charlie Fox, the son of a brilliant inventor who uproots his family to establish a self-sustaining settlement in the jungles of Honduras. Writing in the tradition of novels like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Robinson Crusoe, The Swiss Family Robinson, and Lord of the Flies, Theroux cited the Jonestown Massacre and the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith as influences in his development of the story (Vognar, Chris. “Paul and Justin Theroux on Eccentric Patriarchs and 'The Mosquito Coast'.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 23 Apr. 2021)

Plot Summary

Dissatisfied with his job on a New England farm and consumed by a paranoid fixation on a war in the United States he believes is imminent, Allie Fox abruptly quits his job and brings his wife and children (13-year-old Charlie, 11-year-old Jerry, and 5-year-old twin girls Clover and April) to the Mosquito Coast in Honduras. Told from Charlie’s point of view, the novel follows the steady escalation of Allie’s destructive and delusional behaviors and culminates in his death.

Buying a defunct banana farm, enlisting the help of his neighbors, and utilizing the abundance of resources he brings along with him, Allie leads his family in the construction of their own settlement in the wilderness named Jeronimo. Reaching out to neighboring indigenous communities to provide them with ice from his “Fat Boy” refrigeration appliance, Allie seeks the accolades and appreciation of those he considers “savage.” When he arrives at one village, he makes the mistake of revealing Jeronimo’s whereabouts to a trio of men with exploitative intentions, and their arrival at the settlement culminates in the explosion of Jeronimo when Allie attempts to use it to freeze them to death.

Allie’s mental health deteriorates, and he concludes that the United States has been obliterated by war in their absence. Allie leads his family through the wilderness, bereft of resources, forcing them to struggle on the banks of a lagoon to eke out a meager existence. Forced to turn their makeshift dwelling into a houseboat, the family drifts, their health deteriorating with each day until they happen upon a Christian mission along the banks of the river. Allie refuses his wife when she pleads with him to ask for their assistance. Unable to withstand the danger and oppression of their father’s despotism, Charlie and Jerry seek help from the mission on their own. When Allie attacks the mission, setting fire to the property, he is killed in the resulting gunfire. His family floats down the river as he slowly succumbs to his wounds. His wife and children are ferried to the port city of La Cieba.