American novelist and short-story writer, poet, translator, classical music composer, and filmscorer Paul Bowles has lived as an expatriate for mor...
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Apr 01, 2008
Lara
rated it: 
"Each man's destiny is personal only inso as it may resemble what is already in his memory."
This quote is from Eduardo Mallea, and it begins The Sheltering Sky with that strange act of framing that so many authors employ, using the words of others to summarize or introduce the feelings that they are about to try to invoke in their readers. Above this quote is another phrase: "Tea in the Sahara," a chapter title, now-familiar but difficult to place. This was take More...
This quote is from Eduardo Mallea, and it begins The Sheltering Sky with that strange act of framing that so many authors employ, using the words of others to summarize or introduce the feelings that they are about to try to invoke in their readers. Above this quote is another phrase: "Tea in the Sahara," a chapter title, now-familiar but difficult to place. This was take More...
4 comments
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(23 people liked it)
Feb 16, 2008
Isaiah
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In my younger days, I sensed that this was a rudely under-appreciated book that, merely acclaimed, deserved inclusion within the canon of the Gods themselves (Hemingway, Melville, Joyce, McCarthy). More recently, I have realized that not the book qua narrative, but its singular intimacy with my person colored the profoundness of my love-affair with this novel. As a result, my review must be peculiarly subjective for someone so accustomed to the pretense of objectivity.
Whether its eff More...
Whether its eff More...
4 comments
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(16 people liked it)
Oct 04, 2008
Chip
rated it:
Oh man oh man. Someday I will have to revisit this, as I seem to mention it to anyone or anything who is willing to listen. Has probably become my favorite book of all time: simultaneously capturing the utter loneliness of existence, and the strange beauty of the desert/and/or the foreign. Makes me want to travel, makes me want to stay home and hide under the covers...it's that good.
I've read almost all of Bowles' other stuff, and some of it comes close to this (especially Let it Co More...
I've read almost all of Bowles' other stuff, and some of it comes close to this (especially Let it Co More...
10 comments
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(10 people liked it)
Dec 16, 2009
Jessica
rated it: 
I rarely don't finish a book. This is a personal tendency (obsessiveness) which cemented itself during forays into such tomes as Les Miserables (5th grade) and Tess of the D'Urbervilles (10th grade) in which the endeavor seemed like it would be fruitless, and then, ahoy! A beautiful gem on the sparkling sea surfaces, a hundred or so pages in, and I was rewarded for my patience...
So it pains me to report that not even the chance of such a obscured jewel could keep me interested in A Shelte More...
So it pains me to report that not even the chance of such a obscured jewel could keep me interested in A Shelte More...
3 comments
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(8 people liked it)
Feb 09, 2010
Whitaker
rated it: 
Like a sweet-talking charmer, Bowles seduced me with his crystalline prose. His sentences whispered in my ear and nibbled my nape, erasing thought from my haze-addled brain.
Later, many days later, I came to with a throbbing headache and a sour taste in my mouth. The crystal turned out to be crystal meth and it had severely eroded my judgement. What I had taken to be beautiful and enticing was just a jaded street hustler peddling the same old weary goods that had been around the bl More...
Later, many days later, I came to with a throbbing headache and a sour taste in my mouth. The crystal turned out to be crystal meth and it had severely eroded my judgement. What I had taken to be beautiful and enticing was just a jaded street hustler peddling the same old weary goods that had been around the bl More...
18 comments
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(18 people liked it)
May 25, 2008
Amy
rated it: 
In this novel a husband and wife and a sorta friend of theirs are travelling around North Africa. It's the 1940s, so one has to contextualize the sometimes awkward/semi-racist descriptions of the "natives." Or if you aren't interested in giving the characters any leeway, that's okay too, but the book works very well as a portrayal of arrogant, neurotic Americans in a hostile, alien world.
A lot of shit goes down. At first you might think that you are just witnessing the det More...
A lot of shit goes down. At first you might think that you are just witnessing the det More...
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(5 people liked it)
Jul 20, 2011
S.
rated it: 
This is an ambitious novel about alienation, isolation and despair. The story revolves around the character of Port Moresby, who, in disillusioned response to WWII, rejects America and Europe, leaving NY for Africa with his wife Kit as well as an acquaintance named Tunner, whom they both dislike.
Port feels Africa is less marred by war, and aims to spend a long period of time there. It’s not that he would fit in, he just wants to escape, or disappear. He may hope to flee his emptiness More...
Port feels Africa is less marred by war, and aims to spend a long period of time there. It’s not that he would fit in, he just wants to escape, or disappear. He may hope to flee his emptiness More...
8 comments
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(4 people liked it)
Jul 23, 2008
Sara
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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(5 people liked it)
Dec 04, 2007
Garrett
rated it:
This one reminds me much of both Greene and Maugham. The travelers in the Sheltering Sky are experienced, for sure, dedicated to really getting to know a place, hell-bent (literally) on getting the full experience, of living instead of touring. The swagger and confidence they have, the invincibility they feel, their sense of entitlement ultimately destroys them all in one way or another.
Bowles does an amazing job of describing the landscape (sub-Saharan Africa after WWII), the sickness of More...
Bowles does an amazing job of describing the landscape (sub-Saharan Africa after WWII), the sickness of More...
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(2 people liked it)
Jul 13, 2007
David
rated it:
i was all WOW! or maybe i was all WOWZY WOW WOW after i finished it. this quote will kill you. ""Because we don't know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, an afternoon that is so deeply a part of your being that you can't even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four, five times more, pe
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(5 people liked it)
Dec 02, 2011
Angus
rated it:
Disclaimer: This is not a review. This may have spoilers. Read at your own risk. Visit original post at Book Rhapsody.
***
Intro
I remember announcing to a once bookish friend that I intend to read this right after finishing the book that I was currently reading at that time. It must be Gilead, since it is the book that I wrote about prior to this. I then went to the bathroom and when I returned, he gave me his approval.
He said he likes the opening chapter, w More...
***
Intro
I remember announcing to a once bookish friend that I intend to read this right after finishing the book that I was currently reading at that time. It must be Gilead, since it is the book that I wrote about prior to this. I then went to the bathroom and when I returned, he gave me his approval.
He said he likes the opening chapter, w More...
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(2 people liked it)
Jul 15, 2010
Jennifer (aka EM)
rated it:
Forgot how much I loved this book. Love it. The richness of the character portraits, relationships, and existential themes; as well as the startling detail of the images are highlighted even more by knowing the ending.
Back with more ... heading into Part II.
12/28/08: A piece of writing by Donald Powell [link now dead-sorry!:] caused me to think about this book, and my very different response to it from when I first read it in my early 20s to 20 years later, when I am-- More...
Back with more ... heading into Part II.
12/28/08: A piece of writing by Donald Powell [link now dead-sorry!:] caused me to think about this book, and my very different response to it from when I first read it in my early 20s to 20 years later, when I am-- More...
4 comments
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(2 people liked it)
Jul 30, 2008
Chaz
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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2 comments
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(1 person liked it)
May 30, 2008
Sara-Maria
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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4 comments
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(2 people liked it)
Oct 29, 2008
Will
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(2 people liked it)
Sep 07, 2011
Peter
rated it:
Beautifully written and immensely engrossing, some passages speak truth in their descriptions of human existence and the nature of time. A particularly insightful passage I have "liked" as a quotation on this site. The book is largely about the effects of Western civilization, using Africa as a metaphor for the animal mind. One of the main characters eventually leaves civilization behind and joins the tides of the desert. Her transformation through this experience shows the way in whic
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(1 person liked it)
Oct 10, 2007
Amanda
rated it:
decadently written and beautifully tragic...
"Because we don't know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, an afternoon that is so deeply a part of your being that you can't even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four, five times more, perhaps not even that. How many more times will you w More...
"Because we don't know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, an afternoon that is so deeply a part of your being that you can't even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four, five times more, perhaps not even that. How many more times will you w More...
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(3 people liked it)
Jan 28, 2012
Richard
rated it:
Rating: A craven, self-preservationistic 2* of five
BkC8: Tedious twaddle.
When I'm right, I'm right.
The Book Report: Kit and Port Moresby (get the Australia/New Guinea colonial joke, huh? huh? How clever is Paul Bowles, right?) are not gonna make it as a couple. They just aren't. So, in time-honored rich-couple-in-over-relationship fashion, they Travel. They don't take a trip, or a vacation, oh perish forbid, they Travel. North Africa, they think, no one we know will More...
BkC8: Tedious twaddle.
When I'm right, I'm right.
The Book Report: Kit and Port Moresby (get the Australia/New Guinea colonial joke, huh? huh? How clever is Paul Bowles, right?) are not gonna make it as a couple. They just aren't. So, in time-honored rich-couple-in-over-relationship fashion, they Travel. They don't take a trip, or a vacation, oh perish forbid, they Travel. North Africa, they think, no one we know will More...
Jan 13, 2012
ميّ أحمد
rated it:
رواية ساحرة !
لم أقرأ رواية تزخر بأجواء الشرق بجمال هذه الرواية ، كما يقول الناشر تبدو كلوحات الفنانين المستشرقين و يمكن لأي رسام مهتم ، أن يقرأ الرواية وهي بلا شك ستلهمه الكثير .
الروائي الأمريكي بول بولز قضى معظم حياته في بلاد المغرب حيث انتقل إليها في العام 1947 ومن الطبيعي أن يتأثر بأجوائها في كتاباته , حالما بدأتُ في القراءة تذكرُت أني قبل فترة قصيرة أنني قرأت رواية أبنوس والتي كتبها الروائي الفرنسي ألبرتو بانكث - فيكيروا والتي تقوم على فكرة إدانة الرّق وتدور أحداثها في صحراء أفر More...
لم أقرأ رواية تزخر بأجواء الشرق بجمال هذه الرواية ، كما يقول الناشر تبدو كلوحات الفنانين المستشرقين و يمكن لأي رسام مهتم ، أن يقرأ الرواية وهي بلا شك ستلهمه الكثير .
الروائي الأمريكي بول بولز قضى معظم حياته في بلاد المغرب حيث انتقل إليها في العام 1947 ومن الطبيعي أن يتأثر بأجوائها في كتاباته , حالما بدأتُ في القراءة تذكرُت أني قبل فترة قصيرة أنني قرأت رواية أبنوس والتي كتبها الروائي الفرنسي ألبرتو بانكث - فيكيروا والتي تقوم على فكرة إدانة الرّق وتدور أحداثها في صحراء أفر More...
Jul 24, 2011
Salma
rated it:
قرأتها عام 2009 و كتبت حينها
رواية عن مغامرة ثلاثة أمريكيين رجل و زوجته و صديقهما في أرجاء صحراء المغرب العربي... الرواية طبعا تحمل الطابع الاستشراقي... و هي نموذجية باستشراقيتها: الفوقية الغربية... الانسحار بالغرابة و التوحش و البدائية الشرقية.. التقاطع الحسي بين الغربيين و الشرقيين... إلى آخر ذلك النوع من التصوير الغرائبي الذي يمتع الغربي بعوالم ذاك الآخر المختلف...0
لكن من التسطيح أن أقول أنها كذلك فقط... إذ أن فيها بُعدا آخر أعمق جعلها أكثر من كونها رواية استشراقية... و هو ال More...
رواية عن مغامرة ثلاثة أمريكيين رجل و زوجته و صديقهما في أرجاء صحراء المغرب العربي... الرواية طبعا تحمل الطابع الاستشراقي... و هي نموذجية باستشراقيتها: الفوقية الغربية... الانسحار بالغرابة و التوحش و البدائية الشرقية.. التقاطع الحسي بين الغربيين و الشرقيين... إلى آخر ذلك النوع من التصوير الغرائبي الذي يمتع الغربي بعوالم ذاك الآخر المختلف...0
لكن من التسطيح أن أقول أنها كذلك فقط... إذ أن فيها بُعدا آخر أعمق جعلها أكثر من كونها رواية استشراقية... و هو ال More...
Jun 25, 2011
Tom
rated it:
A bewitching book in which the reader can get lost and confused for chapters on end. Three Americans, a restless couple and a male acquaintance, head out into rural Morocco as a vacation lark, but the mood darkens as they move deeper into the desert. Kit, the woman, is self-absorbed, seemingly bored by both her husband and her lover. At first the journey is merely uncomfortable. The characters grumble about the primitive hotel conditions, the suspicious natives and the incessant heat. Yet, stran
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May 25, 2011
Tony
rated it:
Bowles, Paul. THE SHELTERING SKY. (1949). ****.
Early on, you suspect that you have entered a novel that has been over-rated since the day of its release. Then you are suddenly sucked into the desert regions of North Africa and sharing the lives of its protagonists. A young married couple from New York, along with a less than desired young man as a companion, has travelled to Africa in an attempt to reconcile their differences and, with any luck, put their marria More...
Early on, you suspect that you have entered a novel that has been over-rated since the day of its release. Then you are suddenly sucked into the desert regions of North Africa and sharing the lives of its protagonists. A young married couple from New York, along with a less than desired young man as a companion, has travelled to Africa in an attempt to reconcile their differences and, with any luck, put their marria More...
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Feb 05, 2011
Chris
rated it:
Shivering in the antarctic morality of The Delicate Prey, I'm continually needled by the desire to reread TSS and discover if I would still care as little for it today as I did when I read it more than a dozen years ago. I came to it back then with a fair amount of anticipation, having read several raving reviews, especially from posters I had enjoyed on that usenet staple rec.arts.books; and the disappointment that Bowles engendered in me was crushing. Too distant a narrative; Yank characters a
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(1 person liked it)
Jan 01, 2011
Stephen
rated it:
Many people have liked this book. I found it depressing.
It tells the tale of several American travelers, who are unconnected to each other, themselves, or anything else. They are on the move because they don't have any authentic core. Kit and Port are married, but it is an estranged affair. The people they meet are also estranged. Tunner, and the son and mother duo (maybe) are equally without roots.
As they grapple with what to do, they decide to go to the Sahara. Port dies. Ki More...
It tells the tale of several American travelers, who are unconnected to each other, themselves, or anything else. They are on the move because they don't have any authentic core. Kit and Port are married, but it is an estranged affair. The people they meet are also estranged. Tunner, and the son and mother duo (maybe) are equally without roots.
As they grapple with what to do, they decide to go to the Sahara. Port dies. Ki More...
Dec 13, 2010
Adam
rated it:
I don't understand the appeal of this book. Sure, the prose is beautiful, and the setting is interesting, but the characters will drive you insane. The Sheltering Sky is a book about three "friends" traveling in Saharan Africa. More than anything, I struggled to find sympathy for ANY of the characters. Port, the main character, thinks that traveling through the hellish Sahara desert will somehow save his marriage. Kit, his wife, is incredibly annoying and paranoid. Countless pages are
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Sep 25, 2010
Shawn
rated it:
I kept asking myself “Why do I like this book?” as I was reading, and never really found an answer-- I just did. The third person omniscient view point was used differently than most novels imbibing it with an anomalous feeling akin to the 1900s north African desert landscape portrayed. The prose wasn’t particularly vivid, the plot not entirely engrossing, the author certainly didn’t write the characters to be genial. Symbolism abounds, though, and through the machinations of fate’s crucible lik
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Apr 15, 2010
Ben
rated it:
“All the tales are a variety of detective story,” wrote Paul Bowles of The Delicate Prey and Other Stories (1950), “…the reader is the detective; the mystery is the motivation for the characters’ behavior.” On this note, Bowles’ first novel, The Sheltering Sky (1949), feels aligned more with the seedy double-crossings of Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep (1939) than Ernest Hemingway’s uber-inebriated expatriate games in The Sun Also Rises (1925). But, unlike Chandler’s gritty noir pragmatism, T
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Mar 21, 2010
carl
rated it:
Written right after WWII, this book is a precedent for the coming beat and hippie movements. The attempt to reject what one is, and attempt to adapt to something; in this case the desert ways, that one cannot be.
The descriptions of the desert landscapes and environs are poetic.
Port, the initial protagonist, moans his way through the story trying hard to be different.
Port's soulless wife, Kit can only reflect his disenchantments, till she gets a chance to be h More...
The descriptions of the desert landscapes and environs are poetic.
Port, the initial protagonist, moans his way through the story trying hard to be different.
Port's soulless wife, Kit can only reflect his disenchantments, till she gets a chance to be h More...
Feb 28, 2010
Alli
rated it:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
Nov 27, 2009
Ben
rated it:
The Sheltering Sky is a beautifully written story about the nature of existence. Is it to live life to its fullest, living in the moment rich with experiences? Is it to be still and embrace the oneness/oblivion of the universe, and to live in that moment? Port and Kit travel to North Africa, wresting, poorly, with these questions, though not consciously. Port yearns for oblivion, but seeks it through experiences. Kit years to live in the moment, but fear keeps her bottled up in herself.
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