The Delicate Prey and Other Stories

by Paul Bowles, Vendela Vida (Foreword)

Paul Bowles once said that a story should remain taut throughout, like a piece of string. That tense, stretched tone is the key to this collection of 17 eerie tales by the author best known for The Sheltering Sky. The Delicate Prey is dedicated: "For my mother, who first read me the stories of Poe." If Poe had lived in Mexico, and he'd had ice water running in his veins to counteract his feverish romanticism, he might have crafted something like these odd vignettes about human frailty and cruelty. The setting is a world where palm trees are like "shiny green spiders," where bats reel silently overhead in a jet-black sky, where a hot, relentless wind blows across deserted plazas.

As Tobias Wolff writes in Esquire, "The Delicate Prey is in fact one of the most profound, beautifully wrought, and haunting collections in our literature.... Bowles's tales are at once austere, witty, violent, and sensuous. They move with the inevitability of myth. His language has a purity of line, a poise and authority entirely its own, capable of instantly modulating from farce to horror without a ruffle."

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, American, Literature, Africa, Classics, Horror

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1950

About the author

Paul Frederic 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, with Auer following him there in 1948. There they became fixtures of the American and European expatriate scene, their visitors including Truman Capote, Tennessee Williams and Gore Vidal. Bowles continued to live in Tangiers after the death of his wife in 1973.

Bowles died of heart failure in Tangier on November 18, 1999. His ashes were interred near the graves of his parents and grandparents in Lakemont, New York.

Reviews

[Jean-Luke · Rating 4 out of 5]

For me Paul Bowles is a strange mix between Richard Yates and Patricia Highsmith. His settings are stifling, his couples are unhappy, and his characters are frequently deluded if not entirely deranged--the result is often something macabre and grotesque. Or so some would describe it. I like my characters a little off-kilter, a little selfish, a little mean, because guess what? The world isn't all rainbows an butterflies, but did you really need me to tell you that? It's no wonder the deducation reads for my mother, who first read me the stories of Poe. Deserts, jungles, scorpions, and mosquitos--there were a handful of stories with more urban settings that almost felt out of place in the collection. Many of the stories feature foreigners in a country and among people of a culture they think they understand, but don't, yet by no means are the stories all white-people-in-foreign-places.

PS - I know this was published in 1950 and all, but next time I'd appreciate a few more details in the instances of gay sex, instead of having it occur almost in the paragraph breaks. Thanks. Still, refreshing for the 50s. Non-sarcastic thanks.

Tea on the Mountain - 4
The Scorpion - 3
By the Water - 3
A Distant Episode - 5
The Echo - 3
Call at Corazón - 5
Under the Sky - 4
Pages from Cold Point - 5
How Many Midnights - 3
The Circular Valley - 5
At Paso Rojo - 4
Pastor Dowe At Tacaté - 4
You Are Not I - 4
The Delicate Prey - 3
Señor Ong and Señor Ha - 5
A Thousand Days for Mokhtar - 4
The Fourth Day Out from Santa Cruz - 3

[Fatman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Paul Bowles is a master of writing horror without writing horror. Only one story in this collection hints at the supernatural, but they all induce a sense of deep unease.

[S̶e̶a̶n̶ · Rating 4 out of 5]

(4.5) Bowles is a master of the creeping dread. Some stories feel like a punch in the gut. In others the punch never comes but you're still left waiting for it. Not sure which is more terrifying.

[Mariel · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Delicate Prey, yeah, and they are, but I had a feeling that if I could peak out of the corner of my eye when no one was looking that I would see a predator licking someone else's blood off their own paws. They would curl into a tired ball after a fit of violence they wouldn't have wanted to help, you know? Dream of chases and far off screams and it wouldn't seem any more real than the heat coming off the ground in waves. Never mind the no one looking part. The predator would wrap itself in a blanket and put itself right at your feet. These stories are creepy in the way that a mother might feel if she had given birth to a monster. Involving, you know, in a should be familiar to you way, because you said hello to it and gave it food, and instead it is something you would never want to recognize. A monster that doesn't know it's a monster. A monster that acts within its own instinctual code. You're not its concern. You're food.

I didn't like Paul Bowles at all when I was younger. I have a hard time remembering when I read some things (I have always read a lot, even when I didn't actively seek out books to read) but, considering that there was a film version (not a good film) starring John Malkovich, it was probably some time in my late teen years. That's close enough to my timeline. I'm not going to try to read my own mind from way back when. It was probably something like "Boring!" Paul Bowles is not boring. He is a come up from beind you writer. Dammit, I hate it when I get self conscious in reviews. I never know how to describe prose styles or narrative or .... Um, I'm pretty useless at all that, anyway, and does anyone look to me for that? I doubt it. Okay, the usual thing. I know I'm a monster. You can hate me for it later.

The thing is the thing when I write about some of my favorite stories in the collection, or stories that I won't struggle as much to write about (pretty much everything is just great). There are 17 stories and no way am I doing all of them. No, I don't hear you crying. Tough! (I'm also too lazy to do the proper accent marks. Will my barbarism never cease?)

at pasa rojo.
Sisters Chalia and Lucia have never married while their mother was alive. Garbed in frontierswoman breeches and what a fun new life, respectively, they retire to their brother's estate. I am not Paul Bowles so my description is some Hollywood actor's version of a ranch. Don Federico is affably the man with the money, saving everybody blah blah blah. You know what I said about vipers who don't want to see themselves as vipers? Chalia tastes her first taste of sexuality with one of those lower on the food chain oh so lucky to work under Rico. Maybe they were, comparitively, but it is still their word against theirs and it can't be fun to be "lucky". It is chilling that Chalia sleeps like the innocent baby when getting to have her way and keep the image she wants to have. I don't think Rico will continue to be one of the better ones if he sees them as "lucky" to have him and Chalia as in a right above place... I really did like that aspect maybe the best of all in Bowles's stories. It is something I've noticed in people when they've hurt someone else. They would cry if they bruised their hand after throwing a punch. It's just the bit of reality that a story of monsters needs, you know?

Okay, I started writing the above review days ago and then I got sick of it. Reviewing short stories collections is a pain in the ass! I've had a JG Ballard review unfinished for ages. (I didn't even get that far for Bowles. Sorry, Bowles! I've treated your wife even worse.)

My favorites were the echo and you are not i. A mother turns on her daughter on an invited vacation and she has dreams of the unfairness of it all violence. Kicking someone in and the worst fantasy you could give in it to. Pretty much how I feel about my nemesis the turtle, sometimes. It would be nice... No! No, it would be wrong. Besides, he has that hard turtle shell. (Wrong...)
"For a while during her childhood this fear of having no mental privacy had been extended to anyone, even persons existing at a distance could have access to her mind."
That's me. Shit. I have tried to empty my mind of all thought so many times in case anyone could mind read. Not that I do that now! I mean me younger, like Aileen in the echo story. Of course that's what I meant!

"Now she felt open only to those present. And so it was that, finding herself face to face with Prue, she was conscious of no particular emotion save the familiar vague sense of boredom. There was not a thought in her head, and her face made the fact apparent."
I dig the way that Bowles writes things. He could dig your body into the ground with only your ears sticking out and then the bad prey would eat you alive. Ruthless thought reflections that sound more terrible bouncing off mountain like shit of bad expectations and social disorders.

you are not i a woman escapes from a mental institution and her sister ends up in her place, doing the things that her sister did. I had a feeling that the crazy sister still didn't become the not crazy sister so you are not i could be we are not i. She did go around putting stones in the mouths of the train crash victims. What would that be for if people put money on eyelids to pay for the trip across the river styx? To weight down in the river and a price of silence?

I read some old New York Times article from some author I've never heard of when this collection originally came out (1950). The dude criticiszed Bowles for writing about foriegn places like Mexico and Morrocco. I don't get it. Every monster in all places are not foriegn to themselves.

I don't remember now which story had the rapist who thought he could pay the woman off afterwards. Or the slutty son who could not be contained on a deserted island for father and son. (I wish I could read this stuff and not start to worry about my own monster tendencies. Keeping wild animals as pets and his setting his own free, but without looking inside the cage and only to protect it.) Definitely had that delicate monster feeling here. Anyway, I like Bowles an awful lot now. Janes Bowles too. I also read some other author's blog posts about both of their short stories (she didn't have much to say. Uh oh, now I feel bad about skimping here too!). The lady said that call at corazon was autobiographical, according to Bowles. if it was I have a hard time believing it was about Jane. Revenge? I guess you don't "know" an author through their writing but the feeling I have about Janes Bowles from what I read about her isn't that. She is as much about trying to peer into the veins under skin for the true look as he. I could see them staring at each other. Besides, if they were passionate it wasn't about each other, from what I know about them. I don't really want to know. I am happy relating to the second guess thing. I liked (just review Jane, Mariel!) about Two Serious Ladies how Miss Goering admits to every damned thing about herself. I relate to that! I like these two admitting shit authors. Monsters know they are monsters and they fear it.

I liked every story a lot. You could be afraid of everything.

p.s.
My copy is some old ugly copy and not a pretty new copy with the camel and Gore Vidal's Bowles essay. I think that Gore Vidal has the same taste as me in American writers. He's been coming up constantly these days. He sure did love Paul Bowles. (Truman Capote, champion of Jane, he did not love. Noooo, how can you not love my beloved Truman? That's why you don't try to find out about the personal lives of your favorite authors. Vidal couldn't deal with bitchy Capote. Eyes seeing better than looking into eyes. Monsters hiding in closet. I don't care. I'm pretty sure he knew himself even if he was fake as shit in society.)

[Dmitry Berkut · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a collection where every story is about a boundary — between people, between cultures, between life and what lies beyond it. Bowles writes about collision without morality or passion. His characters constantly step outside their familiar worlds and almost always lose themselves.
Reading these stories, you realize that “cruelty” for Bowles isn’t a flaw but the natural state of a world where there is no justice, only existence. Violence, indifference, misunderstanding, the loss of language — they’re elements of his landscape, like wind or sun in the desert.
From A Distant Episode to The Circular Valley runs a path from ethnographic observation to pure metaphysics. At first, man still appears as an observer, but gradually he becomes the prey — the body into which something alien and greater enters.
Bowles writes evenly, without pity, and within that dryness lies poetry. He doesn’t force horror; he simply shows how easily everything can disappear. There is no catharsis in these stories — only the residue of silence.
The Delicate Prey is not about death, but about the indifference of life itself. And still, you can’t look away: there’s a terrible, pure beauty in it.

[Zak · Rating 4 out of 5]

A superb collection of short stories. I wouldn't call them horror and most are not even of the supernatural but these stories stirred up a definite sense of intrigue, mystery and unease as I read them. Even 'The Scorpion', a really short story about an old woman who lived in a cave, with a rather abrupt ending, left me with a weird, queasy, indescribable feeling. I just could not stop reading and whenever I was away from it, I wanted to get back to it as soon as possible. The stories that stood out the most for me were 'Senor Ong and Senor Ha', 'The Circular Valley' and 'Pages from Cold Point'. I can't wait to read more from this author.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

A few of them blend together in my memory, but the best stories- “Senor Ong and Senor Ha”, “The Circular Valley”, “The Fourth Day out from Santa Cruz”, “Pages from Cold Point”, “By the Water” and “The Delicate Prey”, in my opinion- have a quality about them that’s entirely unique. It’s hard to describe the horror that wells up from these stories. It’s existential horror, reminiscent of the scene in The Sheltering Sky when Port and Kit look at the sky over the desert and Port says that he sometimes gets the feeling that it’s sheltering them from what’s behind it…which is, he supposes, “nothing… absolute night.”

In The Sheltering Sky, the universe is simply indifferent to suffering. Port suffers, as my friend Kareem pointed out to me, “because he gets sick.” The Delicate Prey is a little different. The universe in these stories is malignant. A few of the stories, in particular the last two, which I like, are so brutal that the sadism overwhelms, to a degree, Bowles’s careful construction. Stories like “The Circular Valley”, “The Fourth Day out from Santa Cruz” and “By the Water”, however, seem just about perfect, and stand out in my mind as unlike anything else I’ve read.

[Edita · Rating 5 out of 5]

[...] and some of the things could never have been his if he had not purposely changed to fit them.
*
He consoled himself by recalling that it is only in each man's own consciousness that the isolation exists; objectively man is always a part of something.
*
Life is visually too hideous for one to make the attempt to preserve it.
*
Only other people lived and died, had their lives and deaths. She, being inside herself, existed merely as herself and not as a part of anything else. People, animals, flowers and stones were objects, and they all belonged to the world outside. It was their juxtapositions that made hostile or friendly patterns. Sometimes she looked at her own hands and feet for several minutes, trying to fight off an indefinite sensation they gave her of belonging also to the world outside. But this never troubled her deeply. The impressions were received and accepted without question; at most she could combat them when they were too strong for her comfort.

[Bob · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was in an essay by Gore Vidal that I first encountered the name Paul Bowles many years ago. At the time I was a teenager working in a small used bookstore where a large portion of my meager earnings wound up going right back to the store for books. I asked the proprietor of the store if we had any books by Paul Bowles. She pulled a volume from the shelf behind the counter saying “yes, and it is a first edition”. At the time I could not understand why anyone would buy a hardcover book when a paperback edition of than same book existed, but since there was no paperback copy of the book in the store I put up the big money ($7.50) to purchase this first edition. That was the first first edition I even purchased knowing that it was actually a first edition, and it was a good start to my book collecting mania… These are amazing stories that reminded me in some ways of Poe, but with a stronger sense of horror and the incomprehensibility of different cultures. Highly recommended!

[Szplug · Rating 4 out of 5]

These stories are seriously messed up - rife with ambuscading menace. I was rather indifferent to The Sheltering Sky, but these short stories are some of the best I've read in a long time. I'm thinking I might have to bump TSS - it must be thirteen, fourteen years since I had at 'er - back into the rotation for a reappraisal.

[Tom Coffeen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bowles' prose is cold and elegant. His themes are disculturation and dislingual anxiety. "A Distant Episode" and "The Scorpion" stand as antitheses to the presumption of the necessity of Western modes of socialization and communication. Horrifying and riveting stuff.

[Michael Cross · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book doesn't care if you live or die . . .

[Graham P · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sparse and sinister tales make-up this collection of Bowle's darker fiction. Full of quiet menace, each tales paints a different shade of alienation - whether it's in Latin America, Morocco or Manhattan, each exposes individuals on the precipice of some life-changing (life-threatening) moment. He wisely grazes the surface and leaves much to the imagination, but others (including the brutal 'A Distant Episode') goes for the throat. From the era of the late 40s, early 50's, Bowles tales are right up there with Daphne Du Maurier's. Well-to-do tourists be warned next time you try to integrate yourself into a culture that doesn't want to welcome you.

[Grace H. · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 — very good at setting the mood, creating this intense ominous energy that creeps around you as you read. People seem to love Bowles for this, but no one on the internet will explain the stories. does anyone get it? I did not and for most of the stories ended thinking “huh? That’s it?” I felt like I was missing the point most of the time, which I probably was. But still docking stars cause there were just too many instances where plot points felt too random or rushed and unconnected. Maybe I need to be smarter to read this book

Side note I have decided to write more reviews in 2024, just for myself to look back on. Feel free not to read

[Jim Coughenour · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've long admired the dark novels of Paul Bowles (The Sheltering Sky; Let It Come Down; Up Above the World) and his excellent memoir Without Stopping, but his short stores are utterly strange, illuminated and cruel. They seem to have been written by a man in a fever with ice in his veins. My favorites: "Delicate Prey," "A Distant Episode" and especially the ultra-chilling "Pages from Cold Point."

[Leo Derosby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Paul Bowles is officially an S-tier author, he genuinely possesses the essence of style and employs it to elegant, cruel ends. His writing is perfect and economical. He lays out disturbing erotic scenes using the most measured, unembellished language. Often amidst a mundane passage he thrusts in grotesque scary images and energies with casual sleight of hand such that you are caught off guard and scandalized. events often feel senseless and meaningless but linger in the mind as though there is some unexcavated terrifying answer or meaning . Kind of reminds me of Joyce. Short story collections are so frustrating and rarely perfect bc you have to keep resetting your attention and learning names but this was near perfect , plus the placement of the stories relative to one another is good bc they get more and more evil . 4.5

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Visceral.

[Samleigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a joyful quick read, this was a random pick up a book on the side of the road sort of thing. With the penguin stamp of approval and only 54 pages long I knew it wouldn’t be to much of a risk. An extremely short book with three short stories ‘The Delicate Prey’ a frightful tale of befriending a stranger, ‘A Distant Episode’ a terrifying account of kidnapping and slavery and ‘The Circular Valley’ A tale of a crumbling Monastery haunted by a living spirit called an Atlájala. All three are beautifully written short stories and a perfect introduction to Bowles.

[Arya Stark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Als je Paul Bowles leest hoef je eigenlijk nooit meer zelf op reis. Het zij omdat hij je echt laat rondlopen in het desbetreffende land (o.a. Zuid-Amerika, Marokko) of omdat de verhalen zo schokkend zijn dat je nooit meer je veilige leesfauteuil wil verlaten. In dit boek De Tere Prooi staat het verhaal - Een onwerkelijke episode - dat een van de engste, verrassendste en huiveringwekkendste verhalen is dat ik ooit las. Ik was er nog dagen door gefascineerd en van in de war. Knap dat een schrijver dat kan.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

"A distant episode" is one of the most scorching stories written by an American(ex-pat or otherwise) in the 20th century...intelligent, visceral, and very scary.(the image of the dog hit with a rock will never...ever leave me.)"Pages from Cold Point" and "Delicate Prey" are also nasty little bundles.

[Andrea Ta-wil · Rating 3 out of 5]

To be clear, the writing is superb. I gave this book three stars because every story except one made me feel AWFUL. That probably isn't fair to the book, and I do want to encourage others to read it--particularly writers looking for an example of narrative that's exquisitely descriptive without being purple or overly sentimental. But for heaven's sake, don't read it if you're in a dark place.

[Don · Rating 5 out of 5]

'The Delicate Prey' and 'A Distant Episode' are stunners. Bowles remains one of my top five, all time faves.

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

This dude is weird as hell and I love him.

[Saad Abdulmahmoud · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Delicate Prey (this edition) consists of 10 short stories.

A distant episode
The story of the linguist professor at Ain Tadouirt.
Is captured sold scolded and went mad.

You are not I

Call at Corazon
A couple are on honeymoon but it doesn’t look like it.

At Paso Rojo
A visit of the sisters Lucha and Chalia to their brother at a ranch. The sisters are 40+ of age and unmarried. Is about the frustration/ discrimination of Chalia. Also the injustice done to Roberto the Indian by her.

The delicate prey
Is about the three Filala leather merchants and a Mungari.
The two brothers and their nephew Driss traveled with their stuff through dangerous route. And then there is this strange Mungari who managed to get their stuff. He tried to sell it. Got caught and justice is done by the tribe. Is put into a deep pit. Only his head is visible and left to die in the desert.

Señor Ong and Señor Ha
Is one of my favourites. Is about Nicho who lives with his tante. Señor song Chinese guy - drug dealer- come to live with them.

A thousand days to Mokhtar
A thousand days imprisonment for Mokhtar because he has a bad dream in which he murderd the butcher. The verdict is because a good citizen should not have such a bad dream.

The echo
Is about Aileen. She can’t bear Prue who lives with her mother. Aileen is undergoing a crisis.

Under de sky
Is about Jacinto who ives in a hot place- the Inferno-
The story is about his yearly visit to the town and his adventures in it.

Tea on the mountain
The is my favourite in the book.
A woman writer is adapted to her cheap live in the International Zone. The story is about how Ghazi and Mjid see her and why they want to make or have a relationship with her, an European woman.

Mjid said “should I tell you about Ghazi? One of his father’s wife’s is a slave from Senegal. Ghazi and all 7 brothers look like negroes”.
She asked him “do you consider yourself better than a negro”. “It’s not a question of better but of pretty and ugly” he answered.

[Jorge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Paul Bowles is genius at building suspense in small dosis, starting with a vague sensation that something is off and gradually increasing until the drama hits us with full force. With a sublime prose and magnificent use of language, he takes us to remote places in Latin America and North Africa (Sahara), where native customs are quite different and Western visitors don't understand or refuse to understand, then pay the price for it. Careful "atmospheric" settings, where natural forces (the sea, the wind, the insects...) invade our senses and set the mood for the story. The violence in some stories may leave readers out of breath. With a definite Poe flavor, but the stories are believable without effort. The situations remind me of those created by the great Uruguayan writer Horacio Quiroga. Bowles is a master of language, context, atmosphere, suspense.

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty dark collection of stories, full of humans inflicting suffering on themselves and others--both intentionally and unintentionally--while a coldly indifferent universe looks on. Bowles definitely accentuates the casual cruelty of humanity, and he uses foreign settings (Latin America, North Africa, etc) to remove the sense of safety and predictability that a "civilized" Western society could offer. The last two stories, "The Delicate Prey" and "A Distant Episode," are particularly horrific and demonstrate the violence and degradation that can exist between humans in a "primitive" state. Some of the stand-out stories for me were "At Pasa Rojo," "Senor Ong and Senor Ha," and "Pages from Cold Point." Additionally, "You Are Not I" was certainly creepy, and "How Many Midnights" was quite poignant.

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well this is a weird book indeed, not quite what I expected. The writing is beautiful, the descriptions of the sounds and the places is astonishing, feels like he spent years there, just taking everything in. But the stories, man are they disturbing. There's a lot of evil and malice in his characters, and sometimes the story is very uncomfortable. Others are more nostalgic and leave you a little sad. There wasn't one that gave me joy or left me happy. There's lots of dispair, so it can get you down if you're not in the right mood. I normally don't mind sad stories, I can even enjoy them sometimes, but disturbing ones are really not up my alley. At least not these particular ones.

[Stan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having been given this book by my father, I started reading this without any idea of what to expect. From the cover art and the title I expected it to be a bunch of stories about life in foreign lands. As the first story, "At Paso Rojo," came to an end, I was surprised in the best way. The stories are disturbing and I expect will be stuck in my mind for a long while after reading. The matter-of-fact tone of writing creates a very impassive atmosphere about these stories, many of which seem to involve isolated people in sticky predicaments. I wish to read more like this. Difficult to put down. Found myself dashing to my room to read a few more pages in-between holiday time with the family.

[Ashlyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked these stories. The way the author talks about nature is very good and how there is such a large variety of content in here. I think this piece works best as a collection of short stories because he dwells on each subject for just the right amount of time and then moves on to the next. My favorite story was the one about the lady in New York City, that one was really special to me. Despite being the story that the book is named after I didn't really get 'The Delicate Prey' all that much. It was interesting sure, but I felt it was oddly out of place with everything else in the story. That and the last one.

[James W. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been reading this collection of short stories in between other books as I didn't want to finish it in one go, it was that good. Set in the early to mid 20th century its a collection of vignettes that describe the lives of the inhabitants of far flung corners of the world and incorporates occasional elements of magical realism to beautiful effect. The stories are in turns heart-rending, wistful and sometimes truly diabolical. Often the writing makes you feel like a voyeur, having such a deep insight into the thoughts and lives of the characters that feel very vivid and real.