In Tangier We Killed the Blue Parrot

by Barbara Adair

This mesmerizing novel draws the reader into the creative, erotic, and exiled minds of authors Paul and Jane Bowles. Set in Morocco in the 1940s, the story weaves around two well-known Paul, a composer and the author of The Sheltering Sky , and Jane, the author of Two Serious Ladies . Through an impressive amount of research Adair recreates the lives of these literary giants, addressing themes of narcissism, betrayal, moral confusion, and love. Their struggles to write and to love, both each other and others, creates an unusually rich reading experience that proposes lingering questions about art, power, relationships, politics, and ethics.

176 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2005

Reviews

[Emily Kestrel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sad and beautiful. Based on the life of Paul and Jane Bowles in Tangier, this short novel captures the lassitude and longing of expatriates yearning for a foreign country, artists yearning after their vision, and people yearning for a true connection.

[Tiah]

~Memories are remembered so that the adventure can be told. The telling of a memory makes the story, the story that is more exotic than the experience.~

~Suffering, he thought, is just about being alive.~

~I needed to hear the silence.~

~"Sometimes I think we should all live as if we were in a novel, then it would not hurt so much." Maybe we do live in a novel, Belquassim thought. But this is a story that I could never have imagined.~

~ You weren't supposed to be a writer, I am the writer. You made music, beautiful music. We complemented each other. Why did you have to write? I hate you for bein ga writer. I hate you for making me feel like this.~

[Gurth Bruins · Rating 5 out of 5]

WHY DO YOU WRITE?
I like it and it is a great way to pass the time. Initially, I just thought I could write; now I know I can. -Barbara Adair. >>
This is the most absurd understatement. Barbara Adair in fact writes with extreme genius.
In 'In Tangier We Killed The Blue Monkey' she has put together an unforgettable picture of real people, Paul and Jane Bowles, especially, creating a masterpiece.
I think this depends largely on her style, which is as perfect as Madeline Miller's. Not a word is wasted, the writing seems to write itself.