Customer Reviews

Yesterday's Perfume: An Intimate Memoir of Paul Bowles

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1 star:		(2)

 

 

I was loooking forward to this book, hoping it would be about Paul, whom I knew fairly well and whose work I much admire. But it's not primarily about Paul; it's about Ms. Nutting and her silly fantasies. This book is sheer narcissism, an ego-trip par excellence. And Ms. Nutting's photos aren't all that good either. Why anyone would pay $75 ($60 on Amazon) for this nonsense is beyond me. Here are the same old stories (about Cherifa and Jane, etc.) told better elsewhere (i.e. in the biographies.) There's unattractive cattiness here as well -- for example the mean reference to the number of letters Paul may or may not have written to Debra Winger. Finally there's little perception into Paul's behavior -- the passive-aggressive way he manipulated everyone (especially the marginal people) around him. Paul Bowles was a superb writer and a fascinating man...but he was also a complex human being with plenty of faults and flaws. Unfortunately there's nothing here but empty idolatry.

Cherie Nutting somehow attached herself to Paul Bowles and took lots of photographs. Many of these are of herself in various gauzy poses. We also get the inside story in the form of her dreamlife. "Memoir" indeed, but who cares? What does all this have to do with Paul Bowles, especially the version that created the books and music? Toward the end of this volume we realize how lonely and confused Mr. Bowles was, and how ripe for an opportunistic Ms. Nutting. I don't know exactly what to call this thing, but the Bowles name would more correctly appear in it as a footnote.

Yesterday's Perfume is a veritable banquet of tastes and sensations as well as an honest and intimate tribute to the late Paul Bowles.

Cherie Nutting truly loved "Pablo" as she refers to him, and her photos reflect her affection and reverence. In his last year of life Bowles spent considerable time preparing observations and comments for this book to both make it more marketable and to demonstrate his affection for Cherie Nutting.

This is a very handsome book. Its photographs are rich in symbolism as well as substance. For those who are interested in Bowles, this book will be most satisfying indeed.

This is an untypical book about an untypical person. Just as the photographs of the Western and Southwestern landscape by Ansel Adams evoke the majesty of nature, so do the photographs of Cherie Nutting well represent the life and surroundings of the author Paul Bowles. The Bowles mystique is spread throughout the land. Here in Chicago respected Tribune columnist Jon Anderson and political and real estate consultant Phil Krone were among Bowles' friends and admirers. In a sense Nutting's volume pierces through the myth that Bowles was a reclusive hermit. In fact he was a very social and convivial man who balanced his life between the discipline of hard work that any craft requires, and the conduct of life as a traveler, not only through geography but minds as well. In a very lighthearted and elegiac way this is what Ms. Nutting captures.

Paul Bowles' collaboration with the photographer Cherie Nutting was a very special endeavor. It was his last writing before his death in November 1999. This hardcover book is beautifully produced, and Mr. Bowles himself actually handwrote some of the text and wholeheartedly participated in it. He relied on the artistic ability of his friend to produce--over a period of many years--such quality photos of himself and those around him. This is a 'must have' book for any afficionado of Paul Bowles. I highly recommend it. It is inconceivable to me why anyone would write a negative review, but perhaps those are the unfortunate and jealous souls who were not included.