|
I'm going through a Graham Greene/Paul Bowles phase, reading or re-reading; my first time with Bowles who has similarities to Greene in that they both seem depressed by life and fonder of misery, rain and dejection than in human happiness.
This is his second full length novel, after The Sheltering Sky but before The Spider's House.
I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as The Spider's House, which I read last Christmas.
Although it has much to recommend it, Bowles continues with his fascination about the effect that Arab/African culture and morality has on Western sensibilities.
I prefer it when, as he does in Spider's, he looks into the Arab soul. I suspect it took time for him to live, understand and adore the country.
Far and away the most interesting character in Let It is Thami; the Arab character. But he's hardly examined.
You can see the beginnings of Bowles' analysis and observation that culminates in Spider's. But he concentrates on the growing madness of Dyar, the American.
Still well worth reading if, like me, you're fascinated by Morocco and particularly in Tangier when it was an International Zone territory.
|
