Customer Reviews

An Invisible Spectator: A Biography of Paul Bowles

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Some people don't like this biography because it places, in their view, too much emphasis on the years before Tangier and Morocco. This is exactly its great value, because this book shows that Paul Bowles was a very strange person long before he ever went to Africa. From the beginning he was alienated, at odds with his culture, and in conflict with his parents, which we might read in a larger sense as being in conflict with the norms of Western culture. The origins of his complex and inhibited sexual life are all too obvious in terms of the experiences of his youth and his sexual abuse at the hands of an uncle in Paris. His opportunism, his search for and acceptance of financial favors without any thought of repayment, his chilling coldness toward other human beings, and his wanderlust in search of an environment where the ordinary Western values of life are not relevant, are presented here as developing quite naturally from his early life.

Actually one might say that Tangier didn't make Bowles. At least as viewed by the typical American, Bowles made Tangier, because we tend to see it through his eyes. As the mysterious oracle of a new type of orientalism, as the temptingly cynical presenter of decadent Arab customs in which he was perhaps actually participating, Bowles was one of the chief architects of Tangiers' decadent reputation. Bowles was a classic unreliable narrator secretly pushing his own Eurocentric agenda. He was the cracked and distorted lens through which so many of us viewed (and still view) the culture of Islamic Africa. In a dialectical sense, Bowles was accepted as the ideological dictator of Tangier, the official Fuhrer of information and attitudes. And this was a truly vast mistake.

Some have invoked Bowles as almost a scientific researcher into the myth and magic of Morocco. And yet in many ways he gives a very confused picture of the Moroccans. His needs, his lusts, and his paranoid terrors make his judgments increasingly unreliable as we realize exactly who he was. Bowles was a wounded personality, a timid magician who hid behind a mask like the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, a fugitive posing as an oracle, and a sadistic manipulator who didn't hesitate to stab his friends in the back just for fun.

Paul Bowles himself said that this book was "a betrayal," meaning that it presents a great deal of information that he wanted to keep secret. He was right, and that makes it all the more valuable. It's an essential read, because when you have digested it, other Bowles biographies will suddenly be revealed in a totally new light. This is Bowles the human being, not Bowles the famous writer. This book is an exploration that you owe yourself if you have any interest whatsoever in Paul Bowles.

Paul Bowles lived in Morocco for a reason, he embraced the mystery of it,perhaps enjoyed losing his western self in it, and there is no solving in any easy rational way the mystery that is Paul Bowles. But this is a great gathering of the known facts. I appreciate the lack of speculation and reading into things ....the author allows you to accompany him through this life decade by decade, sticking to what is known. And Bowles, however good your guide, remains a territory for the most part unknown.
It may be worthwhile to compare this to Paul Bowles own autobiography Without Stopping published in early seventies.
In this biography you get a picture of Paul as a child, as well as a restless young man who cannot resist the call to Europe. You get Paul as composer of numerous film scores, poems, and a general idea of this middle period before that better known period as writer marked by the publication of that first book Sheltering Sky. Also there is an interesting portrait of Jane, his talented and troubled wife. And a picture of Paul at work with his protege Mohammed Mrabet whose oral tales he transcribed(including:Love With a Few Hairs, Lemon, Boy Who Caught Fire, others). This will give you a very good idea of Paul as glimpsed by an outsider as it is a competent and readable dossier of facts and dates. There are more speculative works about Paul Bowles available but really I think the fiction is the place to go. There you will find the most interesting Bowles, the composer of tales and mysteries, even riddles of what it is to be human. The story of Paul's life is interesting and perhaps it will help some who like to interpret stories with the support of biographical data but ultimately the facts in this case anyway do not go very far.

Bowles' autobiography "Without Stopping" has been referred to as "Without Telling" by Burroughs. Invisible Spectator follows it step-by-step, especially with regard to the early years. Additions to what Bowles fans want to know are largely limited to some speculations about Mr. Bowles' sexual relationships and a bits of new information from letters, interviews, and obscure publications. Historical context should have been provided given that Mr. Bowles was born in 1910, almost ninety years ago.

The last few decades are glossed over, especially considering the blow-by-blow account of the early years of career-building and travel. Again, these events are known largely from Mr. Bowles' autobiography and Invisible Spectator adds little. Little light is shed on the later years after Mrs. Bowles' death in the 1970s. These years have been highly productive for the subject, and much more interesting to this reader than the virtually prehistoric youth of Mr. Bowles. From the Beats on, the biography serves up the skimpiest information. If you have never read anything about Paul Bowles you will be entranced as his life is fascinating. If you have, there's little new here. The author is a fan, and a biography by a detractor would be much more fun. Regardless, cheers to Mr. Paul Bowles for letting the biographer have access to personal information. I wish he had done a more interesting job with it.