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jkaps 's review for:
The Sheltering Sky
by Paul Bowles
My first reaction upon finishing this was "what the hell was that?" I randomly picked this out at the library because of its pretty cover. The description on the back also describes it as a novel which analyzes how Americans' misunderstanding of other cultures leads to the destruction of those cultures. Also, the author was a gay New Yorker who lived his whole life as an expat in Morocco, so it sounded cool. Honestly, the first 2/3 of the book could have taken place anywhere, especially any foreign place. It is way more about the dysfunctional relationships of the 3 main characters, mostly focusing on Kit and Port, than anything else. Port is a typical American "traveller, not a tourist" archetype. He loves sex tourism, is outraged when he can't sleep with whatever blind girl he finds hot, and is outraged when the prostitute he sleeps with reaches for his money. He also says at one point that he feels that the Sahara, the dirt, land, trees, etc. belongs to him just as much as it does the Moroccans. At least Kit says "what the hell” to him. I imagine he is probably supposed to be unlikable, but this book just seemed racist to me. (Not to be your friend that's too woke...) I don't think this because Kit experiences fetishized repeated sexual assault at the hands of "the natives" (even though that was handled.... interestingly, because she immediately fell in love with and married the guy, I think it is realistic that a woman traveling alone in the Sahara in the 1930s would experience a lot of sexual violence) but because if there were a Bechdel test where two non-white named characters have to talk about anything not in relation to our main character whiteys then this book would decidedly fail. It's pretty clear, though, that that is going to be the case by the third or so chapter. I admit that the writing style is compelling if a little pretentious. Another thing that bothered me about this book, aside from the racism and then the sleeper weird rape plot that really comes out of left field at the end, is the fact that the characters all just hate each other. Even though affection is expressed sometimes between Kit and Port, to me they really just seem to detest each other. It all had a very cynical vibe to it. At least the weird incestuous English couple was entertaining, but the way everyone (including the reader) hates Tunner just gets tired. Port's (and the narrator's) constant sneering at others' bad French is ironic given that he doesn't speak Arabic.
Maybe some of these complaints are just me having bad reading comprehension, because it's very possible this is a Sopranos-style "we're not supposed to like anyone they’re all bad people” book, but there are stories focused on bad people that are less off-putting than this one. It's this quality combined with the blind spot for depicting anything from "the natives’” point of view that left a bad taste in my mouth. I did still enjoy reading it because of the compelling style, but the more I think about it the more problems there were. I like post-colonial literature so I had high expectations but this did not meet them.
Maybe some of these complaints are just me having bad reading comprehension, because it's very possible this is a Sopranos-style "we're not supposed to like anyone they’re all bad people” book, but there are stories focused on bad people that are less off-putting than this one. It's this quality combined with the blind spot for depicting anything from "the natives’” point of view that left a bad taste in my mouth. I did still enjoy reading it because of the compelling style, but the more I think about it the more problems there were. I like post-colonial literature so I had high expectations but this did not meet them.