Too Far from Home: The Selected Writings of Paul Bowles [Paperback]

Paul Bowles (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 31, 2006

A striking collection of stories, poems, letters, travel essays, journal entries, excerpts from three novels, and more—including the complete text of The Sheltering Sky—from one of the most revered authors of the twentieth century

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

For serious students of Bowles and for rank neophytes, this collection is a good buy. For others, probably not. The volume includes the complete text of The Sheltering Sky and excerpts from three other novels; several stories from The Delicate Prey and other collections; a smattering of poems; travel writing from Their Heads Are Green and Their Hands Are Blue ; some 50 pages from the autobiographical Without Stopping and another 20 from Days: Tangier Journal 1987-1989 and an interview with editor Halpern, whose brief preface recalls his early encounters with Bowles and their collaboration on the literary magazine Antaeus . There are also nine letters of a rather banausic turn, which may be why they have not been published until now. The main attraction is the title novella, written recently and first published here. It has all the makings of classic Bowles: an American brother and sister in Mali's Gao region face the country and themselves. But at some 35 pages, it is too short for Bowles to paint the cumulative portraits he is known for, and the dark fable at the story's heart is overwhelmed by such ultimately sterile devices as the sister's letters home and the brother's pseudo-flirtation with a French widow.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Paul Bowles was born in Queens, New York, in 1910. He began his travels as a teenager, setting off for Paris, telling no one of his plans. In 1930 he visited Morocco for the first time, with Aaron Copland, with whom he was studying music. His early reputation was as a composer and he wrote the scores for several Tennessee Williams plays. Bowles married the writer Jane Auer in 1938, and after the war the couple settled in Tangier. In Morocco Bowles turned principally to fiction. The Sheltering Sky—inspired by his travels in the Sahara—was a New York Times bestseller in 1950, and has gone on to sell more than 250,000 copies. It was followed by three further novels, numerous short stories, nonfiction, and translations. Bowles died in Tangier in 1999.

Product Details

• Paperback: 568 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial (October 31, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061137405
• ISBN-13: 978-0061137402
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,470,104 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars misleading, May 3, 2009

By 

Jeffery Wang "tryingtocatchup" (Los Angeles, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Too Far from Home: The Selected Writings of Paul Bowles (Paperback)

A good selection but the back cover erroneously says that the book contains "the complete text of The Sheltering Sky". In fact there is only a 60 page excerpt.

4 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars one of those, April 5, 2001

By 

Geoff Riley (Bellingham, WA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Too Far From Home (Paperback)

One of those collections that cuts up larger works.