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Up Above the World (Abacus Books)
  
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Up Above the World (Abacus Books) (Paperback)

by Paul Bowles (Author)
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 224 pages
  • Publisher: Abacus; New edition edition (16 May 1991)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0349101833
  • ISBN-13: 978-0349101835
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 1,306,262 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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    #50 in  Books > Fiction > Cult Authors > Bowles, Paul

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Product Description

Review

Paul Bowles has achieved a rather indelible reputation as a writer even though he appears infrequently with essays, short stories, expatriate-exotica, etc. and perhaps because his early novel, The Sheltering Sky created such a furor. Here once again there is an insistent, almost tactile, sense of mood and menace and the prismatic prose shows off to unquestionable effectiveness in this torpid, dusty, spiny landscape in a country somewhere to the south. One is never quite sure what is happening or is going to happen; evil seems to be everywhere, rather like a disembodied presence. Equally faceless are the American couple, the Slades, traveling there. He is a much older man; she is his second wife; beyond that they make little contact with each other or the reader. In a city, they are picked up by a dilettante decadent, Grove (or Veto) Soto who has a casual, insolent attraction. He is living with Luchita, a Cuban girl who dreams of Paris and dreams through grass (marijuana). The first evening Mr. Slade becomes strangely ill and is taken to Vero's hacienda where he loses consciousness. Mrs. Slade too is less seriously sick but also suffers from amnesia, a feeling of disassociation, and an increasing uneasiness with her host. It is all only too well Justified by the close which reduces it to melodrama rather than psycho-drama. Still, it has been a figurative and literal skinprickler - balefully hypnotic. (Kirkus Reviews)

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Customer Reviews

4 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.2 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars An important book for fans, a "so what?" for neophites, 28 May 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Up Above the World (Paperback)
Bowles is a great writer and he has written better books. If you are new, have heard the murmurings, and are looking to be wowed, go with The Sheltering Sky. This is not his strongest plot or his strongest batch of characters; it is slow to get going and where exactly it gets to is up for debate. But, if you want to see Bowles laying his lifelong thematic obsessions bare, this is the book. The parargaph at the top of page 178 is one of the most shockingly honest things anyone has ever written about their art, other people, the world, period. Volumes could be written eucidating the second sentance of that paragraph (Bowles himself has written a few of them).
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3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars everything a novel should be, 5 April 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Up Above the World (Paperback)
This well-plotted novel is so much more than it seems. It doesn't take long to get right into the story with its moody pockets, hallucinatory scenes and beautiful people who are duplicitious at best. Each character is out for more and deserves less in this brilliantly written, Central American caper. To devour Bowles' obsession with landscape as description highlighted with his self-centered characters use of illicit drugs and wild sex is more tantilizing than being an active participant. Although I am a major Bowles groupie, I must say this is my favorite of his novels. I'm just sorry more people have not read it. He is a true genius in the old school of fiction writing where the reader can really think about the peculiar actions of the characters which lead to the next plot twist. If I weren't afraid of airplanes, I would fly to Tangier and serve him some mint tea. I hope he is comfortable during this period of his life in Tangier.I read that he is not feeling well.
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1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Be patient, be rewarded!, 7 May 1998
By A Customer
This review is from: Up Above the World (Paperback)
Also try Sheltering Sky by the same author.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Does not do what it says on the tin.
Hi folks, im a fan of Paul Bowles by the way.

Here i will list the following praise for 'Up above the world ' written on the back of the copy in my possesion ( you... Read more
Published 6 months ago by B. J. Crossley

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