well-worth reading
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I really enjoyed this book.It gripped me from the start but i am not really sure why?It is a page turner and at the end of each chapter i wanted to read on but i wanted more to happen.
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The Best Novel of the Twentieth Century
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Having picked this book up in my mid twenties after an initial fascination with the beat writers (and thus coming to Paul Bowles in relation to them) I quickly became absorbed in the atmosphere and wealth of detail in the book. I kind of see the book as a master class in effective novel writing. The plot wends its way unpredictably, staying very close to its two main protagonists and the sights and sounds of the Morocco of its time. The main feeling I get, whether you like this book or not, is the confidence with which Paul Bowles creates his very distinctive and daring plot... I mean that there is a very strict moral and philosophical intention underpinning the book, something very distinct to Paul Bowles' writing. These characters imagine themselves as adventurers/free spirits and yet their drama is of their own making. Bowles' triumph is that, via these two free spirits, he provides us with tensions that are more widely indicative of questions of individual freedom in the twentieth century. This couple each find a certain freedom from the circumstances they are striving for and yet, ultimately, it only provides them with a kind of corruption of self... a kind of lostness.
Bowles is also outstanding at writing complex character analysis, Kit's character particularly is very effectively drawn... she becomes unnervingly real by the end, in all her complexity (a female complexity that most new writers do not even attempt to aspire to).
I've come back to this novel twice since then and I always get something new from this book. Without doubt it is a dark and, in some ways, tragic book but it is also deeply human.
If readers are similarly impressed I'd also recommend Millicent Dillon's book on Bowles 'You Are Not I' along with Jane Bowles' books.
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'Heart of Darkness' for the twentieth century
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'TSS' by Paul Bowles is the story of Kit and Port Moresby, who are travelling around North Africa in the years preceding World War II, accompanied by their friend Tunner. Kit and Port are married but estranged, a couple who are as close to perfection for the other as their personalities allow, but who share a love of isolation and secrecy that means that there will always be a chasm between them. Tunner is a fly in the ointment, a sexual rival for Port, an irritant for Kit. On their travels they stay in increasingly hellish places, each more alien than the last, and encounter the nightmarish inhabitants, both European and African, of that remote landscape.
This book has been described as 'African Gothic', and this seems as good a label as any. A dark, brooding atmosphere persists throughout, although there is no horror in the traditional sense. Port and Kit are travelling through their own personal heart of darkness, weighed down by the metaphorical baggage the carry with them, and by each other. They attempt to escape this ever-decreasing circle by sexual liaisons that are both erotic and grotesque in equal measure, and by running as far from westerners and the western way of life as possible. However, their fear of the new, frightening, world they encounter, and their inability to rid themselves of the influences of their past lives lead them ever closer to their own personal hell.
'TSS' is brilliantly written, conjuring strong visual images of the world the Moresby's find themselves plunging into. The powerful writing style reminded me of Malcolm Lowry, and I recommend that fans of one try the other. Bowles' writing is less well structured, but just as successful at bringing the nightmare to life. It isn't an especially easy read, both because of Bowles' occasionally meandering prose and the grimness of the events being recounted. I was also a little bemused by the finale, which seemed to take Kit's African horror a little too far. Despite this, it was still an excellent book to have read, and one I can recommend to anyone interested in great writing.
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A wonderful snapshot of 1940's travellers.
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On my first attempt at reading this book, I will admit I became quickly bored and gave up. I perservered more diligently on my second attempt, although mainly through a lack of anything better to read. I'm glad I did, as once I had read through the opening chapters I quickly became absorbed. The wealth of detail Bowles incorporates into his pastiches is breathtaking, hauntingly echoing the emotions of the central characters. Kit and Port's travels into the desert are used to cleverly underline their increasingly conflicting personalities, both with similarly obscure views on the meaning of existence, yet too different to be easily reconciled. The minor characters in the book are also a joy to read about, bringing their own turbulence to the relationship. As the hostility, vastness and emptiness of the desert increase, so does Port's obsession, yet the desert is anathema to Kit and her 'omens' and the underlying tensions increase, subtley resulting in both their downfalls. A powerful and fascinating read, if only to lose oneself in the landscape for a while. The introduction by Michael Hofman is disappointing. I feel Hoffman has attempted to straddle a gap between scholarly interest and those reading for leisure, but has failed. There is nothing here that would be terrinbly useful to student readership except as a general background to Bowles' production of the novel, yet it is perhaps to specific and mildy boring to appeal to general interest readers.
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fantastic travel novel
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This is the first Paul Bowles book that I have read and now I am about to buy some more of his stuff. He captures the feeling of loneliness and vastness of the Sahara very well in this book. Bowles has a very straight forward writing style which makes it a joy to read.
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