Sheltering Sky (Paul Bowles)

An outstanding novel, one of the ten best of the last 50 years. Paul Bowles was the most talented and reclusive of the Beatniks (he spent most of his life in Tangiers) and was a talented composer and travel writer as well as a novelist. One of Bowles' major themes was the cultural clash between the West and Islam, long before it became a topic of general interest. Sheltering Sky is generally recognized as his best novel, and its film adoptation is also very well done. Bowles' incredible short stories and espcially his less well known, more realistic (and maybe superior) novel, 'Let It Come Down', are worth reading as well.

The closer the main characters get to the interior of the Sahara desert, the closer they get to their inner deserts of pain. Irrational behavior and violence is unexplained and accepted. A death, a kidnapping, and a trans oceanic search are written with such style that you yourself will feel the experiences of the characters as much as they do.

A truly powerful book in which the hero, Port, searches for something like ultimate loneliness or perhaps intense sensation, while his wife, Kit, follows along without questioning his decisions, until the decisions become hers alone. I kept wondering if they loved eachother.

Paul Bowles has a beautiful, poignant writing style which turns this story of three disillusioned travelers into a masterpiece. This is a book about loss; loss of bearings, loss of roots, loss of health, and eventually, loss of identity. A heavy, heavy book.

It's an upsetting Heart of Darkness played out in the desert. A powerful book that should not be undertaken by people looking for a quick, simple read.