Paul Bowles says: Each man's life has the quality he gives it, but you can't say that life itself has any qualities. If we suffer, it's because we haven't learned how not to. The man who wrote the books didn't exist. No Writer exists. He exists in his books, and that's all. I write unconsciously, without knowing what I am writing.
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
Interest in the work of Paul Bowles and in the man himself does not appear to be appreciably declining. Caponi undertakes one further attempt to satiate readers' appetite with a collection of interviews dating from the early 1950s to as recently as 1990. The redundant aspect of repeated interviews with the same subject is tempered by Bowles' capacity over the years to give distinctively different responses to similar questions. His great regard for language crops up again and again, along with fascinating insights into such facets of Moroccan culture as dance cults and magic spirits. Perhaps Bowles' mesmerizing conversational dexterity is the one constant here. Set to follow this book is Caponi's next, titled Paul Bowles: Romantic Savage. Scheduled for publication in 1994, it certainly sounds provocative enough for any Bowles fan. Alice Joyce
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Gives even the real Bowles fan interesting new insights,
By p.j.murray@open.ac.uk (Lincoln, UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Conversations with Paul Bowles (Literary Conversations) (Paperback)
Caponi's collection of interviews, spanning several decades up to the early 1990's is a must for all real fans of Paul Bowles work, and an intriguing introduction to his life, work and influences for those who know little about him. As with any such collection of interviews, there is bound to be much repetition - different interviewers ask often essentially the same questions, while Bowles gives (more or less) the same answers. However, even for someone like myself, who thinks they know quite a bit about the man and his work (and maintains one of the Paul Bowles pages on the Web - Many of the interviews touch on many of the other literary figures Bowles has known - Tennessee Williams is a frequent topic of conversation, as are William Burroughs and the other beat writers, and their time spent in Tangiers. It becomes very evident from the few interviews that dwell on the subject that Bowles is not going to talk much about his late wife, Jane. His hatred for the biography 'An invisible spectator' comes through clearly in several places, but I found it intriguing that his preferred biographer (if he had to make a reluctant choice) would be Millicent Dillon, author of the biography of Jane Bowles. Altogether a very worthwhile read for anyone with any interest in Paul Bowles.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Covers Many of Bowles' Bases,
By
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This review is from: Conversations with Paul Bowles (Literary Conversations) (Paperback)
Though some of the topics in these interviews are repeated, overall they provide entertaining reading about Bowles, Tangier and his world. If you are not familiar with Bowles, I'd read Michelle Green's "The Dream at the End of the World" first, as it gives a fascinating and very well-written account of the expatriote community in Tangier, of which Bowles seems to have been the unelected president, or should we say sultan.
I don't regard Bowles as much of a fiction writer. (Apparently, he never got de-kiffed enough to see how sophomoric much of it is.) However, he is a very good conversationalist, as well as travel, or adventure, writer. (See "Without Stopping" and "Their Heads are Green and Their Hands are Blue.") Edith Wharton's "In Morocco" is a great primer for the cultural backdrop in which Bowles lived and thrived and, like Bowles, she documents people, places and things very well. (If you like Bowles, you'll love her.) Especially considering the current crisis between Islam and the West, it is important to read about the other guys without having to demonize them all the time. Bowles has an affinity for "the other guys" that is very refreshing. Yes, the North Africans are somewhat unreasonable, but then who isn't? And, is there a connection between Spain having the lowest confidence in President Bush's abilities (7%) and its proximity to, and long, troubled relations with, North Africa? Did you know that 90% of Morocco's Moslems were, at the time of Bowles' writing, not really Arabs, but Berbers, with a very different (and, from other Islamic pov's, unacceptable) approach to the religion? No?! Then read the book. (I had no idea.) If you want schisms, you got schisms. So the subjects discussed with Bowles are often more interesting than the man himself, who is a bit of a pervert and stuffed-shirt. But, he is also a sorcerer and magician, especially if you're stoned out of your mind on kif or majoun. He cultivated a following that was all too open to suggestion. O.K., now, if you can put up with a lot of name-dropping and self-aggrandisement, then you'll enjoy this book, as much of the interesting "dialogue" between Islam and the West has occurred in Morocco. From Tangier, Bowles could actually see the coast of Spain, and, with his cigarette holder fully extended, flick an ash or two toward Europe. But he could also venture south into the mysterious countryside, with its Atlas Mountains, unnerving desert, oases and towns. While the man himself might have been a sometimes irritating exercise in stoned-out tweed, many of his observations regarding the onslaught of civilization reflect this bizarre combination of aristocratic teahead, ethnologist, and sadistic dandy.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Chat with Bowles through time...,
By
This review is from: Conversations with Paul Bowles (Literary Conversations) (Paperback)
Paul Bowles' long and almost unbelievable life was bookended by recognition. Early on his best selling novels, including "The Sheltering Sky," not to mention his reputation as a composer of stage and screen scores, set him nearly in the middle of the cultural elité of his day. This book of interviews spanning more than 40 years parallels Bowles' own variegated experiences. Sandwiched between its covers sits countless tales of intrigue, loss and a subtheme of resigned acquiescence. As each conversation flutters by, a life philosophy of "it is what it is" gradually emerges. Bowles apparently believed, at least by the end of his life, that he followed the path that he had to. All along the way he claims he never planned or thought too much of consequences. This allowed him to run away from home (his family apparently searched for his body in the east river), visit eminent cultural figures (he would sometimes just show up at their doors), shaft Prokofiev, and more or less wander and do what he pleased. His life does seem like a series of evolving accidents that happened to occur in distant lands. But once the 1960s come around, and they do early in this book, Bowles' resting place and consistent interview locale is Morocco. By the end of the book readers will have heard 1,001 times that Gertrude Stein recommended Morocco to a young Bowles and that he arrived there with Aaron Copland in the 1930s. He never really left.
Another facet that emerges from the interviews are the attitudes of the interviewers themselves. Though Bowles is nearly always lucid and interesting, the very best interviews feature a dynamic and poignant questioner. The 1975 interview with Daniel Halpern stands out in this respect. This discussion finds Bowles penetrating into his writing like no other interview in the collection. Halpern keeps the pace going to the final line, "I didn't know I was going to sleep until I woke up." One also wonders how Bowles tolerated some of the more annoying interviewers, such as a certain 1984 interview in which the questioners seem to be fishing Bowles for anti-American quotes or attitudes. Bowles doesn't bite, but he consistently admits openly that he's not a fan of his homeland. And the disdain increases with age. In 1990 he even said "No, no. If I had heard wonderful things about the United States... I would be curious. But everyone has told me such awful things that I have no interest in seeing it: that it is a completely criminal country, dirty, extremely expensive. Why go?" But Bowles would end up returning, after this book was published, in 1995 for a festival of his music. He died 4 years later in Morocco and his ashes were buried in New York next to the family he seemed very estranged from. At the end of a 1988 interview, Bowles was asked "How would you summarize your achievement?" He answered in typical fashion "I've written some books and some music. That's what I've achieved." He never seemed to hold his own work in very high esteem and seems confused at all the attention lavished on "The Sheltering Sky," which he consistently refers to as the worst written of his novels. But when Bernardo Bertolucci arrives in Morocco to burn that same book onto film, the 1990 Boston Globe Magazine article included here shows that he did appreciate the attention, though perhaps with a little begrudging guilt. After years of neglect, his books remained out of print for decades, Bowles was rediscovered late in life. Who can deny him a little pleasure in that? This book reveals a side of Paul Bowles not evident elsewhere. Though the interviews can get repetitious in places (interviewers tend to ask the same questions "why do you live in Morocco" "Are your characters reflections of people you knew?" etc.), Bowles himself keeps all of the conversations from boredom. His often self-defacing, resigned attitude towards existence sometimes arrives with a feeling of strange comfort. Some may even find the book a relaxing read, like a series of interesting chats with interesting people in a fascinating place. Anyone interested in Bowles the writer or Bowles the now legendary expatriate should read this book. It was published before his death and during his late rediscovery, so the momentum picks up but nonetheless ends on a kind of cliffhanger. The final words in the book are an appropriate Bowlesian statement: "No, no, how can I go? The Café de Paris is full of poice and spies." So a book that features Bowles in person (textually) ends in the manner of one of his stories. Purely appropriate.
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