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The Delicate Prey and Other Stories
by
Paul Bowles
Exemplary storles that reveal the blzarre, the dlsturblng, the perllous, and the wlse ln other clvlllzatlons -- from one of Amerlca's most lmportant wrlters of the twentleth century.
Paperback, 307 pages
Published
June 13th 2006
by Harper Perennial
(first published 1950)
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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 p...more
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.
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.
Pavan Rao
added it
Haven't yet made up my mind about these odd and at times cruel stories..definitely a page turner and stays with you long after you've read it..so something must be good about it...have to read some his other works to gauge the authors other works..read it an make up your mind
Superb stories from a master of the form. Each of the stories in this collection has a haunting, eerie quality. Particular standouts in the collection include "The Circular Valley," "Senor Ong and Senor Ha," and "A Distant Episode."
i didn't get to finish it, but i want to, and i like what i read.
I've read "By the Water" easily over fifty times.
Knocked both layers of socks off.
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."
"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.
Reading these stories off and on for over a year. Lush writing, "exotic" settings but I can't say I'm hooked on them. They are intriguing enough to make me want to read one of Bowles' novels after I'm finished.
These are really good little stories. I highly recommend this book. Paul Bowles likes to explore situations in which the dark side of human nature shows through despite the appearances and conventions obscuring it.
'The Delicate Prey' and 'A Distant Episode' are stunners. Bowles remains one of my top five, all time faves.
Not as good as the novels I've read by him. Some points of brilliance, often brutal.
Do you like being uncomfortable?
Yes?
Then you will very much enjoy this book.
Yes?
Then you will very much enjoy this book.
one of my favorite short story writers.
cruelty
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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 permanen...more
More about Paul Bowles...
In 1938 he married author and playwright Jane Auer (see: Jane Bowles). He moved to Tangiers permanen...more
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