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Let it Come Down
by
Paul Bowles
In Let It Come Down, Paul Bowles plots the doomed trajectory of Nelson Dyar, a New York bank teller who comes to Tangier in search of a different life and ends up giving in to his darkest impulses. Rich in descriptions of the corruption and decadence of the International Zone in the last days before Moroccan independence, Bowles's second novel is an alternately comic and h...more
Paperback, 304 pages
Published
October 31st 2006
by Harper Perennial
(first published 1952)
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Once more after finishing "Let It Come Down" by Paul Bowles I have become aware that some people are doomed to self-destruction and they rush there from their unhappiness and loneliness, from inability to adapt the surrounding reality, from consuming inside emptiness which tells them keep going from there. There is no escape from this horror of existence " a certain day, at a certain moment, the house would crumble and nothing would be left but dust and rubble, indistinguishable from the talus o...more
In "Let It Come Down" Bowles describes the journey of Nelson Dyar, a thirty year old man who has worked as a bank clerk in NY for ten years and decides to move to Tangier to assist in the travel business of a childhood friend. Dyar lives an empty life and is vaguely trying to feel like he is alive. He describes himself as a victim, buffeted about by other people's wills, and has to keep repeating to himself that he exists. When he arrives in Tangier he encounters a number of interesting characte...more
I bought this book, absurdly, based upon the title and the cover, in an airport on the way back from an alienating overseas work trip and it fit the mood perfectly. Let It Come Down is quite satisfying as a quick, creepy, and ominous read, and is pitiless in its assessment of its diverse characters striving for various nefarious ends in seedy Tangiers at mid century. It's vaguely noir, with its concern with plots and plans and second lives, most revolving around money or love/lust, but it veers...more
This is a gripping novel about an American who is wholly ignorant of the culture he finds himself immersed in. He was, however, also rather "empty" even back in America. This is pretty standard territory for Bowles, but this novel seemed to me to be a particularly existentialist novel in philosophy, something I had not considered that Bowles might have subscribed to (though, having just written that, it seems pretty obvious that he would have been; it was THE philosophy of the times). This is so...more
This is a dangerous book. It's about a guy who goes overseas and gets into trouble, to say the least. I read it long ago, but it popped into my mind as an interesting book to put down here. It had neat descriptions of going too far away that you can't really come back. It is based in Morocco where the author spent many years. Mr. Bowles also wrote "A Sheltering Sky", which was turned into a movie. His granddaughter was in my class in college. This book might mess you up, so I don't know if I can...more
I've never read Bowles before, but picked it up at a thrift store because it was cheap and I have an interest in early to mid-century Morocco. The story kept me going. I didn't think the prose was extremely beautiful. The rambling existential hashish clouds were a bit too much. However, I felt the book was still entertaining, and it made me think about what it means to be alive--and dead. What it is to feel something, and want something enough to build your own destiny vs. just bumbling through...more
Apr 01, 2013
Eric Franklin
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
rough travelers, experience addicts,
Recommended to Eric by:
Mark Vanderven
Shelves:
travel
"Let it Come Down" is the story of Nelson Dyar, a young man of no crowning achievements, nor direction, save to find some way to "live." As a result of his dissatisfaction with a bank teller job, he flees America for a loosely described job opportunity in Tangier. Ultimately, he becomes a blank canvas for the wills of a number of amoral expatriots and locals there, falling into a number of awkward social and legal predicaments in a very short time and ultimately expressing his unhinged desires t...more
Likely the most pathetic character ever evolved in a story - Nelson Dyar, a milque-toast-my-life-is-a-big-zero, heads to Tangier to the post-war International Zone to seek a new start. Meeting with Bowles-colorful characters(this author has a distinct style), he slowly begins to sink into the morass. Aimlessness and the effects of potent majoun (hash) lead to a surprising ending. Second Paul Bowles book I've read and similar in its GREAT character sketches. Dark, seamy characters who meet with t...more
I got a little nervous when Bowles abandoned the panoramic intrigue of Tangier's ex-pat and indigenous schemers (especially lesbian Eunice Goode and call girl Hadija) for Dyar's existential excursion past the limits of victimization and virtue, but found Bowles up to the challenge, especially, to my mind, the best descriptions of drug-induced paranoia and introspection anywhere.
"But even at the end of the night there would still be an ember of time left, of a subtle, bitter flavor, soft to the t...more
"But even at the end of the night there would still be an ember of time left, of a subtle, bitter flavor, soft to the t...more
Bowles novels are typically set in Morocco, where he lived for so many decades. The setting is meticulously and convincingly portrayed, but this novel, like his more famous "The Sheltering Sky," is not so much about setting as it is about youthful ennui and the desire to experience another world that might jolt one into a more authentic existence. In Bowles novels that place is Morocco in the 40's and 50's, but it could be just as easily any number of "foreign" environments. Almost all young peo...more
I know, I know--strange to be recommending a book I read more than 10 years ago (is it possible??), but this book made such an impression on me, it has stood the test of time.
I became fascinated with Paul Bowles in the early nineties, after someone loaned me a copy of The Sheltering Sky. There is something of the haunting power of the Other that pervades EM Forster's A Passage to India in that novel, but with a more existential outlook, unique to Bowles' narratives.
By the time I read Let It Com...more
I became fascinated with Paul Bowles in the early nineties, after someone loaned me a copy of The Sheltering Sky. There is something of the haunting power of the Other that pervades EM Forster's A Passage to India in that novel, but with a more existential outlook, unique to Bowles' narratives.
By the time I read Let It Com...more
Thank god the it did, the rain, come down on practically every page - or else otherwise observed. (Take note, please, William Boyd, as I have a beef with you about your latest - this being one of the counts.) No Sheltering Sky, but a very good read - an especial accomplishment in a novel whose protagonist is very unlikeable. Bowles is an excellent writer: the work is well-textured, plenty of wonderful images and language, observant and provocative.
Thanks to Connie's exhortations, here I am posting on Goodreads again. I bought this book at the John Street Strand's closeout sale because I really really love(d) the cover. The image doesn't do it justice - it's very plain and matte and the colors are terrific. I thought the story and the writing were very good also, but found the book overall to be a little too brutal for my tastes. No transcendence here.
Aug 06, 2010
Abbi Dion
added it
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Unfortunately, one of the most vivid and long term literary memories I have - when the drugged protagonist drives a nail into the ear (and brain) of someone sleeping - giving a description of what it felt like. I may have to reread just to make sure that I've remembered that correctly all these years...
Amazing. Dark. the explorations of Morocco in the days before independence full of foreboding...brilliant Bowles...maybe worth a re-read someday, though I worry I might not love it as much (like happened to me with my formerly all-time favorite 100 Years of Solitude on a 2nd reading, 30 years later!)
Bowles' particular kind of wit is far better suited to the short story, in my opinion. While his ingenious style remains undiluted in the larger form of the novel, I find his characters so mundane and, in fact, disgusting, that I am going around these days feeling hung over -- as though I'm the one who walked the streets of Tangier dead drunk until daybreak, stopping only to see a pornographic movie and have a quickie with a 16-year-old prostitute. Too much gin, too much debauchery, too many cha...more
Jul 27, 2011
Iain McNab
added it
Things go wrong for bored young bank clerk who quits New York for postwar and pre-independence Tangier when he smokes too much kif and can't handle his encounter with the Other. The tripped-out final section is terrific.
Jul 24, 2011
Chilly SavageMelon
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
beat-and-beat-related
I hadn't read Bowles in many years, but this return to his work didn't disappoint. He captures an ex-pat vibe in a well woven noir-ish tale. Also not a bad job of capturing in words the experience of eating THC laced foods. It makes me want to revisit The Sheltering Sky, and for that mater Morocco, though it certainly is no longer what it apparently was in the 50's.
Bowles also turned me on to Isabelle Eberhardt with a '72 collection called the Oblivion Seekers which I found while temporarily cra...more
Bowles also turned me on to Isabelle Eberhardt with a '72 collection called the Oblivion Seekers which I found while temporarily cra...more
Exotic and dark. Trippy and insightful. I literally felt like I'd been part of someone else's experience...like a dream that still sorta haunts me, and it wasn't even mine.
This one felt kind of like a Graham Greene book. Perhaps a little less subtle, especially toward the end. Bowles is definitely a master at what he does. Three and a half stars.
Banquo: It wil be Rayne to Night.
1st Murderer: Let it come downe.
(They set upon Banquo.)
Which is exactly how creepy and awesome this whole book is.
1st Murderer: Let it come downe.
(They set upon Banquo.)
Which is exactly how creepy and awesome this whole book is.
I wanted to like this more than I did. But I kind of struggled through it. Great murder scene, though.
I've read this book three times. Bowles captures desperation better than any other writer.
Everytime I see a coconut, I will think of this book and the absolutely horrifying ending.
Not nearly as good as Sheltering Sky - the characters are dull - and the setting inauthentic -- and cynical.
I always enjoy the anti-hero story, and at times found myself angry at the decisions the main character makes and the opinion he forms about the situations and people around him, but that is also because I found myself sympathetic to someone who is out of his depth and seeking something that he both doesn't know what it is or how to find it. I would be tempted to say that I'm left with the same feeling as if I'd just analysed my own behaviour in hindsight and wished I'd realised then what I know...more
been a long time. need to reread this book. i love bowles
One of the best books ever.
Perfectly titled, terse and relentless.
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Paul Bowles grew up in New York, and attended college at the University of Virginia before traveling to Paris, where became a part of Gertrude Stein's literary and artistic circle. Following her advice, he took his first trip to Tangiers in 1931 with his friend, composer Aaron Copeland.
In 1938 he married author and playwright Jane Auer (see: Jane Bowles). He moved to Tangiers permanently in 1947,...more
More about Paul Bowles...
In 1938 he married author and playwright Jane Auer (see: Jane Bowles). He moved to Tangiers permanently in 1947,...more
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Jun 19, 2012 10:57pm
Jun 20, 2012 03:32am