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3.67 AVERAGE
3.67 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is a really fascinating character study and very well written, but it finally lost me in the third book when Kit gets sexually assaulted by two men from the caravan and promptly falls in love with one of them. Her loss of self and becoming of an "other" could have been achieved without this very strage decision. Also, up until then, I could excuse the misogynistic portrayals of women and racist portrayals of Arabs as coming from the perspectives of obviously flawed characters, but there is no change in book three... idk . I do like that everyone is awful.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Incest, Infidelity, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Antisemitism, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Alcohol, Colonisation, Classism, Pandemic/Epidemic
What is the symbol of the mirror?
What is the symbol of the edge or cliff?
Bowles: "Because we don't know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well, yet everything happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number, really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, some afternoon that's so deeply a part of your being that you can't even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four or five times more, perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless.
What is the symbol of the edge or cliff?
Bowles: "Because we don't know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well, yet everything happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number, really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, some afternoon that's so deeply a part of your being that you can't even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four or five times more, perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless.
I started reading this in Morocco, though I did not finish it until, like, literally nine months later. There is something really special about reading a book set across the globe while being there yourself. I remember sitting on a rooftop in Marrakesh, reading Bowles’ descriptions of winding alleyways and stray cats, of tea in the desert and the beating sun. All the while, I was looking out across those very rooftops and winding alleys, seeing stray cats, drinking mint tea, and sweating quite a lot from the sun… Being there made this novel come to life in many ways—I better understood the language used and the traditions at play. Bowles’ novel is about isolation and distance, expressed physically in the environment and between the relationships of the characters in the book, but also, more generally, these ideas represent the relationship and understanding that Americans often have with and of other cultures—even today. Though written a quarter shy of a century ago, I think there is still a lot to gain from reading The Sheltering Sky. I would recommend the audiobook. :0
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
-writing style is really elegant
-last third of the book is an imaginatively trippy account of someone completely losing their shit
-last third of the book is an imaginatively trippy account of someone completely losing their shit
Stunning, brutal, bleak. It shows life in a way that is hard to accept, yet a way that might be most easy to understand. Classism and wealth are no defence. We are all in this together, facing the same Sheltering Sky.