The Sheltering Sky
by
Paul Bowles
The Sheltering Sky is a landmark of twentieth-century literature. In this intensely fascinating story, Paul Bowles examines the ways in which Americans' incomprehension of alien cultures leads to the ultimate destruction of those cultures.
A story about three American travelers adrift in the cities and deserts of North Africa after World War II, The Sheltering Sky explores...more
A story about three American travelers adrift in the cities and deserts of North Africa after World War II, The Sheltering Sky explores...more
Paperback, 352 pages
Published
June 1st 2007
by Penguin Books
(first published 1946)
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Jan 04, 2013
Steve aka Sckenda
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Readers of Existential Literature; Desert Lovers and Nomads
Recommended to Steve aka Sckenda by:
Modern Library
"A black star appears, a point of darkness in the night sky's clarity. Point of darkness and gateway to repose. Reach out, pierce the fine fabric of the sheltering sky, take repose." (229)
The Sahara Desert called unto them. It beckoned them deeper into its vast emptiness. They went. What were they running from? What were they seeking? What did they find?
Port Moresby and his wife Kit have come to Algeria to get away from the Second World War. But the large coastal cities of North Africa have beco...more
The Sahara Desert called unto them. It beckoned them deeper into its vast emptiness. They went. What were they running from? What were they seeking? What did they find?
Port Moresby and his wife Kit have come to Algeria to get away from the Second World War. But the large coastal cities of North Africa have beco...more
"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 taken by none other than the band The...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 taken by none other than the band The...more
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 effect on my li...more
Whether its effect on my li...more
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 Come Down), bu...more
I've read almost all of Bowles' other stuff, and some of it comes close to this (especially Let it Come Down), bu...more
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 Sheltering Sk...more
So it pains me to report that not even the chance of such a obscured jewel could keep me interested in A Sheltering Sk...more
Feb 08, 2010
Whitaker
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
modern-canon,
2010-read
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 block just too m...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 block just too m...more
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 deterioration of a marria...more
A lot of shit goes down. At first you might think that you are just witnessing the deterioration of a marria...more
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, but unfort...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, but unfort...more
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, which is only two pages long. If I remember it right, it is something about waking up in a Northern African hotel room with the...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, which is only two pages long. If I remember it right, it is something about waking up in a Northern African hotel room with the...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Dec 04, 2007
Garrett
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
people interested in any sort of travel writing
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 one of...more
Bowles does an amazing job of describing the landscape (sub-Saharan Africa after WWII), the sickness of one of...more
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, perhaps not...more
Meh. For all the years that I’ve been thinking about this book and obsessing about parts of the movie, I found the actual text underwhelming and bewildering. I don’t understand why people would behave this way – especially the relationship between Port and Kit – and I don’t feel I got enough info to actually get it.
Bowles opens Pandora’s box at the end when Kit suffers a psychotic break and he writes it as a series of inexplicable choices made through pain and terror. If he really wanted to take...more
Bowles opens Pandora’s box at the end when Kit suffers a psychotic break and he writes it as a series of inexplicable choices made through pain and terror. If he really wanted to take...more
Dec 28, 2008
Jennifer (aka EM)
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Diehard romantics and existential atheists
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--ahem--not in my early 20s.
B...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--ahem--not in my early 20s.
B...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
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 which civiliza...more
I am really struggling with this one, I need all my mental determination to go on. The writing is unoriginal, the characters and their thoughts and words are cartoonish and silly. Their actions don't seem to make sense either so far. I think because the author had nothing actually to say, he keeps padding the pages with snapshots of scenery and mental ramblings which make me furious and are not nearly intriguing enough to fuel the novel. The book is obviously in love with itself and I feel like...more
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 watch the fu...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 watch the fu...more
Zombies in Love
Bowles, P. (1949). The Sheltering Sky. New York: Harper Perennial.
This post-WWII classic is similar in mood and tone to Camus’ L’Etranger. It is set in the Sahara of Northern Africa during the war, about 1940. A young, American married couple, Port and Kit, travel with their male friend, Tunner from town to town, village to village, in Algeria, mostly. They are footloose adventurers, not tourists. They have no return date, no agenda, no motivation, no interest in the local people,...more
Bowles, P. (1949). The Sheltering Sky. New York: Harper Perennial.
This post-WWII classic is similar in mood and tone to Camus’ L’Etranger. It is set in the Sahara of Northern Africa during the war, about 1940. A young, American married couple, Port and Kit, travel with their male friend, Tunner from town to town, village to village, in Algeria, mostly. They are footloose adventurers, not tourists. They have no return date, no agenda, no motivation, no interest in the local people,...more
I had not really heard of this novel or author until recently, when I stumbled across Brandon Lee's last interview on the set of The Crow, where he mentioned a quote, and apparently it's now inscribed on his tombstone. I might have also seen that it was on the Modern Library's list of 100 best novels, but I had forgotten about it. So when it was one of the Kindle Daily Deals recently, I jumped at the chance to read it. The title of the novel and the beautiful quote that Brandon Lee had mentioned...more
Paul Bowles had already established himself as an important composer when at age 39 he published The Sheltering Sky and became recognized as one of the most powerful writers of the postwar period. From his base in Tangier he produced globally ranging novels, stories, and travel writings that set exquisite surfaces over violent undercurrents. His elegantly spare novels chart the unpredictable collisions between "civilized" exiles and a Morocco they never grasp, achieving effects of extreme horro
Someone on this website described this as "a poor man's Ernest Hemingway." I think that was being generous. I for one have grown tired of reading about the ennui of "lost generations," who all happen to be spoiled rich kids (Holden Caulfield, Brett Ashley, Tom & Daisy Buchanan, to name a few) who are constantly trying to find a "thrill" in life to replace actually being productive.
Hemingway gave Jake Barnes a reason to be miserable, but even he wasn't merely a lay-about like the others, and...more
Hemingway gave Jake Barnes a reason to be miserable, but even he wasn't merely a lay-about like the others, and...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
“The Sheltering Sky” is a post World War II story about Port and Kit Moresby, a married couple from New York who are traveling in North Africa with their friend Tunner. At the start, the journey is an attempt by the couple to resolve their marital difficulties. Their ignorance of the dangers surrounding them, however, puts them on a path to oblivion, a journey that pits them against the desert, Arabs, French colonizers, a very unsavory mother/son combination, and their enigmatic selves.
Bowles ex...more
Bowles ex...more
Writing ¾ of a masterpiece is a dubious kind of achievement. The good significantly outweighs the bad of course, but the bad is more conspicuous in such exalted company. Furthermore, the bad here is very very bad indeed. The decline in quality in the final quarter of the book is so significant that if you told me that it was written by someone other than Bowles I would believe you with no qualms whatsoever.
I ought to point out that I don’t necessarily think that the quality of the prose decline...more
I ought to point out that I don’t necessarily think that the quality of the prose decline...more
I read this in preparation for a dinosaur expedition that we are planning for some time in the near future to Morocco. In the course of researching the culture I came across the name Paul Bowles and his alluringly titled "masterpiece", The Sheltering Sky. "His art far exceeds that of...the great American writers of our day" states Gore Vidal on the back cover. I can't agree. Not that I didn't find this a page turner for about two thirds of the book. It is at that point that Bowles decides to tak...more
I think 3.5 stars is more accurate. I am somewhat conflicted on how to rate/review this book. The first 3/4 of the book was very engrossing. I found myself thinking about it while I was not reading it and looked forward to when I could pick it up again. Bowles' prose is stark yet philosophical at times and elegantly portrays the characters' isolation and despondency. The themes are interesting and examined well and throughout there are lovely passages and descriptions of the characters' motivati...more
It happened to me often: Before finding out about the book, I get to see the movie...
It is the case with The Sheltering Sky- I saw part of the Bertolucci movie, which I did not enjoy, though I found the book brilliant, then I discovered that the book is included in The Top 100 Modern Library List...
The Sheltering Sky was a wonderful surprise for me: After two recent misfires with The Midnight's Children and The Decameron, I was afraid that I am losing my pleasure to read, the ability to concentr...more
It is the case with The Sheltering Sky- I saw part of the Bertolucci movie, which I did not enjoy, though I found the book brilliant, then I discovered that the book is included in The Top 100 Modern Library List...
The Sheltering Sky was a wonderful surprise for me: After two recent misfires with The Midnight's Children and The Decameron, I was afraid that I am losing my pleasure to read, the ability to concentr...more
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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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“Death is always on the way, but the fact that you don't know when it will arrive seems to take away from the finiteness of life. It's that terrible precision that we hate so much. But because we don't know, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens a certain number of times, and a very small number, really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, some afternoon that's so deeply a part of your being that you can't even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four or five times more. Perhaps not even. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless.”
—
126 people liked it
“How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, some afternoon that's so deeply a part of your being that you can't even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four or five times more. Perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless.”
—
50 people liked it
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I like the poetic, philosophical style of your review,...more
Jan 09, 2013 12:48am
Kalliope. Sorry I missed your comment...more
Mar 11, 2013 09:28pm