Paul Bowles: The Sheltering Sky, Let It Come Down, The Spider's House (LOA #134) (Library of America Paul Bowles Edition)

Five stars for The Sheltering Sky, three for Let It Come Down, and four for The Spider's House. The first is one of the great novels of the 20th Century: exciting, beautifully written, but with an harrowing ending. Let It Come Down has a structural problem in that all but two of the many characters introduced in the first half of the novel are absent from the second half. But the main difficulty for the reader is that the main character, Nelson Dyar, is an extremely unappealing human being. As events unfold you can't bring yourself to care about him. Some have compared Dyar to the title character of Camus' The Stranger, but I feel the resemblance goes little further than the fact that both characters are victims of anomie. Dyar, to my mind is even less appealing than the Algerian murderer, because he (Dyar) possesses the greater self-awareness. In fact Dyar is psychologically keen where others are concerned, but he proves himself to be sociopathic. The other characters in Let It Come Down, almost without exception, are also morally unattractive people, They are Americans and Europeans who, like Dyar, have found their way to Morocco. Bowles' undeniable stylistic mastery cannot save the novel. My guess is that some of those readers who are also frustrated by this book will be pleased, as I was, by the ending. You get the feeling our Paul was feeling badly about humanity when he wrote this.The Spider's House may be as good as The Sheltering Sky, but I am still processing. Some of Bowles' most beautiful descriptive writing is in this novel, particularly of the city of Fez, and the Moroccan adolescent, Amar, may be the most complex and finely drawn character in all his fiction. I shall say nothing about the plot. For me, actual events in Bowles' fiction are often secondary, anyway -- not because he makes them secondary, by any means, but because it is the inward constitution of the person which seems to produce his or her fate, over and above overt behavior. I cannot help suspecting that Islamic fatalism had an influence on Bowles' outlook; but then that's more about the world's inscrutabilty than some kind of 'hard determinism.' Everything that occurs in The Spider's House is reflected in the inner conflicts of Amar.After all this let me say that Bowles' short stories are the best things he wrote, and I encourage folks to read them first.

Let me start off by saying that I could never write an adequate review of these stories. I'm the farthest thing from a literary critic.So let's start with the book itself:I own a Kindle. It's a fantastic thing for travel, and I even gave it a 5-star review of its own. But when someone says "there's nothing like the physicality of a real book", this is the very embodiment of that statement.The binding is marvelous and timeless. Underneath the unassuming dust jacket are boards covered in a well-textured cloth the color of damp sand. It has a bound bookmark. The thin, crinkly pages are quite literally biblical. I look forward to turning them not only to find out what happens next, but also to experience the tactile pleasure of those fine leaves.I wish that all books were made similarly to this one. It is well worth the cost above any digital or paperback options.As for the content? As I intimated, I'd feel insecure giving an analysis of Bowles' work. In fact, prior to this I've never read anything he's written!I hope it will suffice to say that this is a page-turner, but not in the trivial way of The Davinci Code or The Wolf of Wall Street. It's not an "easy read" in that sense. It is, however, difficult to put down. I often found myself so engrossed that I didn't realize I'd been sitting in the same position long past the point of developing a crick in my neck and my legs having fallen asleep. I'd end up surprised by the time after coming up for air.The flow of Bowles' prose is so natural that it's easy to drift along with it. At times I felt like I was watching a movie, or perhaps something more immersive like lucid dreaming. It has a very natural depth.Suffice to say that if you haven't read The Sheltering Sky, Let it Come Down, or The Spider's House then you really must. If you have read them -- even if they're your intimate familiars -- then buy this edition simply to hold.

You can read the other detailed reviews, all earning 5 stars, and see why this item is ranked so highly. Three novels all in one nice, hardbound, 900+ pages volume, at a great price. I already had all three in paperback, and still ordered this book. If you love Paul Bowles as I do, or are just beginning to read his work, this is the book to buy.

I am captivated by the observations and writing style of Bowles that both brings me into his characters and the settings of Morroco. I was also prepared for my trip to Morroco (where i am writing this from) in the sense of cultural moods and a a few phrases. I have a feeling that his writing seeped something of Morroco into me that gave me some of the confidence I needed as an american in this foreign world.

A well-crafted tale written with beautiful prose.

I can't wait to delve into this book. It is a very nice cloth bound book in very good condition. It came faster than I expected.