- Paperback: 352 pages
- Publisher: Harper Perennial (Jun 2006)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0061137383
- ISBN-13: 978-0061137389
- Product Dimensions: 23.3 x 15.6 x 2.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,182,448 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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First Sentence
Aileen pulled out her mirror; the vibration of the plane shook it so rapidly that she was unable to see whether her nose needed powder or not. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
Aileen pulled out her mirror; the vibration of the plane shook it so rapidly that she was unable to see whether her nose needed powder or not. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
Previously cynical of the short story form; thinking nothing of any real depth or power could be formed within them; thinking they could be little more than entertainment for the attention-deficient.
How wrong I was. In capable hands and compiled thoughtfully, a - well, this - collection of stories is a pure joy that reflects and meditates on the human condition as well as any novel might.
The writer invites us to share in the lives of the dispossed, the possessed and those who possess, in equal measure; to empathise where we shouldn't; to explore the dynamic of (unequal) social relations.
This is done throughout via the interaction between the familiar and the fantastic; a fantastic canvas that allows the familiar to develop and adapt - or attempt to - as befits this environment and/or situation. Wherever we are, we are always there, and many of these stories illustrate that beautifully.
Yes, at first, I was sceptical and, after the first three tales, I thought I was in for a collection of much-the-same: maybe fine as stand-alone stories but, within a collection, a little too alike in their structure, style and approach.
Then, little by little, by 'Pages from Cold Point', things change, where we empathise with ... no, I won't say, but, by the time I'd finished 'Pastor Dowe at Tacate', I found myself seduced by each story.
All of them feel of perfect length; you are neither wanting more nor less. They drive along to their own conclusions, exactly as a short story should.
In short, I highly recommend this collection of strangely charming tales.
How wrong I was. In capable hands and compiled thoughtfully, a - well, this - collection of stories is a pure joy that reflects and meditates on the human condition as well as any novel might.
The writer invites us to share in the lives of the dispossed, the possessed and those who possess, in equal measure; to empathise where we shouldn't; to explore the dynamic of (unequal) social relations.
This is done throughout via the interaction between the familiar and the fantastic; a fantastic canvas that allows the familiar to develop and adapt - or attempt to - as befits this environment and/or situation. Wherever we are, we are always there, and many of these stories illustrate that beautifully.
Yes, at first, I was sceptical and, after the first three tales, I thought I was in for a collection of much-the-same: maybe fine as stand-alone stories but, within a collection, a little too alike in their structure, style and approach.
Then, little by little, by 'Pages from Cold Point', things change, where we empathise with ... no, I won't say, but, by the time I'd finished 'Pastor Dowe at Tacate', I found myself seduced by each story.
All of them feel of perfect length; you are neither wanting more nor less. They drive along to their own conclusions, exactly as a short story should.
In short, I highly recommend this collection of strangely charming tales.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
5 reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Tales of Those Away From Home
9 Nov 2001
Format:Paperback
Bowles likes to place his characters in situations where all the usual comforts have been removed. So his locations are remote ones. South America and North Africa are two of his favorite. The characters in these stories are usually sensitive types and so are already fragile and impressionble but in the unusual settings those characterictics are even more evident and make them especially vulnerable. Bowles characters are travelers set against native cultures and in such conditions the traveler is always at a disadvantage because he has left behind those things which have served to stabilize his life. The traveler is merely adrift in the world, while the natives of the visited region have remained rooted to a very old culture. America itself is a very young culture, a colonial culture, and the authors that Bowles admired were those early colonial writers like Poe. Bowles in a way continues with Poe's themes of Americans lost in the untamed wilderness of themselves. But also in Bowles writing one can feel the influence of writers he was contemporary with like Camus, who also experienced colonialism as he was raised in North Africa under French rule. There is violence in Bowles work of many kinds but always along with the violence is some discovery about either an individual or about the nature of the world in general or both as the violent act often serves to strip away a characters long held illusions which kept a certain version of the world in place and reveal a more primitive more vital world beneath. The stories by and large take place in the mind of the traveling westerner, though one story is told through the eyes of an Arab. You can get a complete collection of Bowles stories for about twice the price but this collection contains all the stories he is known for including the title story and Delicate Prey, his two most famous.But there are at least a dozen stories here which once read will never be forgotten.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Powerful stories from another world
4 April 2009
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I first came across this book while reading Francine Prose's "Reading Like a Writer." She provided a short excerpt from "A Distant Episode" and I was intrigued.
That particular story - the first in this collection selected by Bowles - was perhaps the most arresting, but they were all interesting. Each story quickly draws you into an exotic world with characters and settings that are palpable.
Perhaps I was most taken in by how different each of the stories seemed to be. From a horrifying, violent descent into obscurity and insanity to a simple collection of letters by a single author. From compact, intense stories to a meandering walk through the life of an older, single woman in a foreign place.
These images have stayed with me long after I put the book down.
That particular story - the first in this collection selected by Bowles - was perhaps the most arresting, but they were all interesting. Each story quickly draws you into an exotic world with characters and settings that are palpable.
Perhaps I was most taken in by how different each of the stories seemed to be. From a horrifying, violent descent into obscurity and insanity to a simple collection of letters by a single author. From compact, intense stories to a meandering walk through the life of an older, single woman in a foreign place.
These images have stayed with me long after I put the book down.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Walking into the dark, sinister desert of perverse fantasy.
4 Sep 2000
Format:Paperback
Reading these stories, set in North Africa where Bowles lived, is like like roaming some lonely alien landscape while being helplessly asaulted by feelings of dread, wonder, strangeness, and beauty. Lacking much descriptive prose,these stories are naked, simple, raw. Gradualy the self dissolves, the character's behaivor is so defined by their enviroment that they becme part of it . The reader, too, melts into the background. East and west colide violently, explode ; and nothing remains but the stark terror and magic of life. Own of Bowles best. A must forWilliam Burroughs fans too.
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