Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Man Who Crossed Disciplines and Abetted Creativity, July 4, 2005
Virginia Spencer Carr is not only a fine biographer in this recounting of the life of the ubiquitous Paul Bowles, she also was a friend of a fascinating man who touched many aspects of the arts and made his mark in multiple areas of creation. Some of those areas were in his friendships and interpersonal critiquing of famous artists such as WH Auden, Benjamin Britten, Ned Rorem, Aaron Copland, Tennessee Williams, Virgil Thompson, Carson McCullers, and Gertrude Stein. His life began as a poet, progressed through years as a composer of music that never quite found its place, and ended as a novelist of such impressive books as 'The Sheltering Sky', 'Let It Com Down', 'The Spider's House' etc.
Carr takes all this into account and serves it up with a thorough amount of information about Bowles' carefully guarded private life. Married to lesbian author Jane Bowles, Paul Bowles was one of those sub rosa gay artists who managed to bond with many other great gay artists in a time when such interplay was hardly condoned. Carr manages to give insight as to how these people learned form each other (for instance the infamous February House in New York where many of them lived communally for a while); she does this without resorting to gossip or sensationalism, respecting the fact that writing biography includes an obligation to yield a viable picture of the subject.
Bowles spent much of his life in Tangiers (this is where Carr first met him) and most of his successful novels and writings were influenced by his observations of the clashes between the 'tourists' who visit Morocco yet never connects with the realites and idiosyncrasies of that mysteriously magical place. Much the same could be said about the ambiguous persona of Paul Bowles. How much of his life was due to his inherent talents and how much was due to his integral interplay with the artists of his entourage? Carr poses some fine explanations in this very readable biography of a man who remains an enigma. Grady Harp. July 05
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Solid Effort, January 22, 2010
This review is from: Paul Bowles: A Life (Paperback)
Bowles is an odd sort. He rose to fame and fortune in an artistic era when it was possible to know only 5 people in New York City and, if they were the right people, make a literary career from them. He literally slept his way to the top, bedding musical and literary celebrities from NYC to Berlin, Hollywood, London and Morocco. Isherwood, we are told, named his famous Sally Bowles after him. He was Aaron Copeland's lover for years. He ran in high artisitc circles, including Gore Vidal, Peggy Guggenheim, and Tennessee Williams. He got most of his commissions from them. His wife, Jane Bowles, ran in even higher circles, bedding grand heiresses, including Woolworth and Reynolds, who bankrolled her theatre productions and pulled strings to see her fiction published. Finally, Jane went off her rocker, jealous, evidently, over her husband's sustained success. Having moved in the gay aristocracy of the 30s, Bowles's attracted the next generation of drug and sex fiends, including Ginsburg and Burroughs, after establishing residence in North Africa. His wife became a rather hopeless alcoholic whose literary production was reduced to a trickleuntil her early death in Spain. Although a success in virtually every artistic endeavor, he seems to have failed to make enough money to retire gracefully. The author tells us that he was reduced to teaching fiction writing in old age, no doubt a rather serious comedown for such a lofty gentlemen, who once traveled first class, and kept a household of servants, sexual and otherwise. One wonders why he ever joined the communist party, given his taste for the high life. One gathers that Bowles lived long enough to see the world change dramatically. It's a story of a closed world. Bowles would write a story, pass it to an old friend, have it published, and then see it reviewed by an old lover. These guys backed each other up. He wrote music for most of Tennessee William's productions, while Tennessee would review Bowles' novels for the NY Times. They traveled with letters of introduction, staying in grand mansions and palaces as house guests. It was indeed a time when the going was good. The biographer herself was once a friend and a patron who provided assistance when Bowles was in need of medical assistance. He has been well-treated by this admiring scholar, who writes well, if not critically. Bowles had what was once known as a charmed life.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
6 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
what happened?, January 30, 2005
this book, we are told, was originally a manuscript of 1,308 pages. i mention this because one comes upon paragraphs here and there that seem part of a longer work. the first chapters are by far the best with the narrative smooth and the early years "fleshed out". however, when bowles' artistic carreer begins so do the problems, which may have to do with the tremendous job of cutting out 3/4 of the original manuscript.
the book contains no new important information or point of view but there are some new details here and there ( mainly about press runs, money matters and sexual partners).
ms. carr travelled 13 times to tangier for her research, arranged for bowles' medical operations in the u.s.a. and had her subject as a house guest for 3 months. however, bowles' literary executor refused to authorize this biography. we are not told why.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
|
|
|
