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3.68 AVERAGE
3.68 AVERAGE
Hmm. I don't know. I was really enthusiastic about this book throughout the first third or so. Bowles was such a master at painting beautiful (and horrible) pictures with his words, but I started to lose interest when the plot (and the characters) started to dissolve. I guess I wanted more, somehow.
adventurous
dark
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
2 1/2. An admirably libertine work of mid-century American literature that is also kind of a joyless slog.
Maybe I'm too harsh. Paul Bowles was an evidently fascinating figure, a New York-born composer and poet who rubbed elbows with folks like Aaron Copland, Orson Welles, and the godfathers of the Beat Generation before settling down in Tangier for the larger part of his life. "The Sheltering Sky" is his first and most famous work of fiction, a story of a mutually unfaithful American couple (snappily named Port and Kit Moresby) in post-W.W. II Algeria and their doomed vacation into the Saraha. The novel includes succession of scuzzy hotels; a horrible illness and protracted death; a bit of philosophy; and – in the last and strongest act – a character's attempt at self-erasure via entry and escape from a nomad's harem. At the end I was left strangely cold.
Perhaps it's the sense of misanthropy throughout. Like some real-life expatriates I've known, "The Sheltering Sky" has a valid skepticism about the U.S. and other Western powers, while simultaneously showing a disdain for the backwards, unhygienic "natives" of its chosen locale. I think that Bowles was probably more progressive than his contemporaries, and he resists romanticism, but some of the dismissively grotesque and stereotyped descriptions of North Africans and others may leave a bad taste in the reader's mouth.
Not that the American protagonists are portrayed flatteringly in comparison. But in a literary world where fiction is becoming increasingly democratic and diverse, another tale of wealthy, neurotic Caucasian travelers feels a touch less vital than it might have at one time. I found Bowles's prose, too, to be uneven: at its best, it conveys the strangeness of the Saharan landscape with details that could only come from firsthand experience. It constructs a convincing psychological landscape, too, portraying Kit's vertiginous mental state in the second half of the book. At its worst, it's clumsy, with characters' thoughts confusingly placed within quotation marks, and the aforementioned philosophizing. "The Sheltering Sky" may have something interesting to say about the existential dread suffusing the West during and after the Second World War, but it has nowhere the diamond-cut brilliance and clarity of "The Stranger", with which it has many parallels. Read that and then "The Mersault Investigation" instead.
Maybe I'm too harsh. Paul Bowles was an evidently fascinating figure, a New York-born composer and poet who rubbed elbows with folks like Aaron Copland, Orson Welles, and the godfathers of the Beat Generation before settling down in Tangier for the larger part of his life. "The Sheltering Sky" is his first and most famous work of fiction, a story of a mutually unfaithful American couple (snappily named Port and Kit Moresby) in post-W.W. II Algeria and their doomed vacation into the Saraha. The novel includes succession of scuzzy hotels; a horrible illness and protracted death; a bit of philosophy; and – in the last and strongest act – a character's attempt at self-erasure via entry and escape from a nomad's harem. At the end I was left strangely cold.
Perhaps it's the sense of misanthropy throughout. Like some real-life expatriates I've known, "The Sheltering Sky" has a valid skepticism about the U.S. and other Western powers, while simultaneously showing a disdain for the backwards, unhygienic "natives" of its chosen locale. I think that Bowles was probably more progressive than his contemporaries, and he resists romanticism, but some of the dismissively grotesque and stereotyped descriptions of North Africans and others may leave a bad taste in the reader's mouth.
Not that the American protagonists are portrayed flatteringly in comparison. But in a literary world where fiction is becoming increasingly democratic and diverse, another tale of wealthy, neurotic Caucasian travelers feels a touch less vital than it might have at one time. I found Bowles's prose, too, to be uneven: at its best, it conveys the strangeness of the Saharan landscape with details that could only come from firsthand experience. It constructs a convincing psychological landscape, too, portraying Kit's vertiginous mental state in the second half of the book. At its worst, it's clumsy, with characters' thoughts confusingly placed within quotation marks, and the aforementioned philosophizing. "The Sheltering Sky" may have something interesting to say about the existential dread suffusing the West during and after the Second World War, but it has nowhere the diamond-cut brilliance and clarity of "The Stranger", with which it has many parallels. Read that and then "The Mersault Investigation" instead.
A perennial favorite. Apathy, hopelessness, complicated relationships, mythical landscapes. It's all so devastating.
Despite having read this book, I have no idea what happened in it. I liked the beginning despite it's oddness and somewhat obscure information hidden behind excellent writing. I thought I had a handle on the book and what it was trying to say--It's about trying to reconnect on a human level and hiding behind a setting, a fear or another person to avoid actually doing so, right? But then wait, somebody just died, there's all sorts of rape going on and then the books just ends in what could easily be mid-paragraph. I'm sure there was some overall message/theme/parallel, but wow did it pass me by. I finished this book wondering what exactly had just happened to me. The dry and parched Saharan setting of the book mimicked that of my brain after reading through this. The skill of writing saves it from being a "bad" book but wasn't enough to make it a book I enjoyed.
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
adventurous
dark
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
First published in 1949, The Sheltering Sky was Paul Bowles’ (1910-1999) debut novel.
It’s a rather enigmatic tale about a young American couple travelling through French North Africa after the Second World War, but what begins as a typical story (albeit in an atypical setting) of a marriage on the rocks morphs into something else entirely.
Part horror, part suspense (part WTF is going on?), it’s a chilling tale about strangers in a strange land and the unforeseen fates that can await the naive traveller.
The story goes something like this. Port and Kit Moresby, a sophisticated American couple from New York, are exploring Morocco and Algeria with their friend Tunner. They don’t have a proper itinerary, they simply move from place to place when they feel like a change of scenery because, as Port puts it, they are not tourists but travellers.
But while the trio take their time moving around the country there are tensions at play.
In the opening chapters, for instance, Port spends a night with a local prostitute (a pattern that repeats throughout the novel) and puts himself in danger of being robbed or mugged.
Later, when the trio meet a young Australian traveller, Eric, and his mother, Mrs Lyle, a travel writer (whose vile views on Arabs and Jews make for uncomfortable reading), staying at the same hotel, they are offered a ride to Boucif by car. Port accepts, but Kit and Tunner go by train because there’s not enough room for all of them in the vehicle. It is during this long train journey that Tunner makes a pass at his friend, setting into motion a convoluted love triangle in which Kit constantly plays off her lover with her husband.
Port, who has his suspicions about his wife’s trysts, engineers it so that Eric gives Tunner a lift to the next city on the pretext that Kit and Port will catch him up in a few days. This is where things get tricky. Port’s passport is stolen and it’s dangerous to be a foreigner with no identifying papers. It’s also dangerous to be on the road during an outbreak of meningitis, and when Port falls sick on a long bus journey the sense of danger becomes even more heightened.
All the while the Saharan landscape and her ancient cities form an exotic backdrop in which the characters play out their petty dramas which quickly escalate to become life or death situations.
On the whole, The Sheltering Sky is a strange yet beguiling read — and one I won’t forget in a hurry.
For a more detailed review, please visit my blog.
It’s a rather enigmatic tale about a young American couple travelling through French North Africa after the Second World War, but what begins as a typical story (albeit in an atypical setting) of a marriage on the rocks morphs into something else entirely.
Part horror, part suspense (part WTF is going on?), it’s a chilling tale about strangers in a strange land and the unforeseen fates that can await the naive traveller.
The story goes something like this. Port and Kit Moresby, a sophisticated American couple from New York, are exploring Morocco and Algeria with their friend Tunner. They don’t have a proper itinerary, they simply move from place to place when they feel like a change of scenery because, as Port puts it, they are not tourists but travellers.
But while the trio take their time moving around the country there are tensions at play.
In the opening chapters, for instance, Port spends a night with a local prostitute (a pattern that repeats throughout the novel) and puts himself in danger of being robbed or mugged.
Later, when the trio meet a young Australian traveller, Eric, and his mother, Mrs Lyle, a travel writer (whose vile views on Arabs and Jews make for uncomfortable reading), staying at the same hotel, they are offered a ride to Boucif by car. Port accepts, but Kit and Tunner go by train because there’s not enough room for all of them in the vehicle. It is during this long train journey that Tunner makes a pass at his friend, setting into motion a convoluted love triangle in which Kit constantly plays off her lover with her husband.
Port, who has his suspicions about his wife’s trysts, engineers it so that Eric gives Tunner a lift to the next city on the pretext that Kit and Port will catch him up in a few days. This is where things get tricky. Port’s passport is stolen and it’s dangerous to be a foreigner with no identifying papers. It’s also dangerous to be on the road during an outbreak of meningitis, and when Port falls sick on a long bus journey the sense of danger becomes even more heightened.
All the while the Saharan landscape and her ancient cities form an exotic backdrop in which the characters play out their petty dramas which quickly escalate to become life or death situations.
On the whole, The Sheltering Sky is a strange yet beguiling read — and one I won’t forget in a hurry.
For a more detailed review, please visit my blog.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated