What do Paul Bowles’s isolated Westerners discover about themselves when confronted by alien civilizations?

Why do Bowles’s characters travel so far from home to go to such isolated places?

Characteristically, when and how does violence make its entrance into Bowles’s tales?

How does Bowles portray the North African desert in The Sheltering Sky?

In any Bowles story or novel, does foreign travel bring about a new state of mind in his main characters? If so, what is it?

How are nomadic tribesmen portrayed in The Sheltering Sky?

Though he began his literary career relatively late, Paul Bowles produced a significant body of work in a variety of forms, including the novel (his most famous is The Sheltering Sky, 1949), travel essays, poetry, and an autobiography (Without Stopping, 1972). Bowles also translated the work of some Moroccan writers and published the collection Too Far from Home: The Selected Writings of Paul Bowles in 1993. Before turning to writing, Bowles won fame as a composer.

Paul Bowles won the Rea Award in 1991, and his first novel, The Sheltering Sky, was widely acclaimed as an existential masterpiece. Esquire magazine called the creative nonfiction work Points in Time (1982) a “brilliant achievement, innovative in form.”

Paul Bowles (bohlz) is probably critically appreciated best for his short fiction, even though he is also known for his novels. Famous as a translator especially of Moroccan fiction, he translated from Arabic, French, and Spanish and wrote poetry, travel literature, and even music, to which he devoted himself during the 1930’s. His autobiography, Without Stopping, was well received when it was published in 1972.

Paul Bowles has a unique place in American literature. As an exile, he shared with 1920’s expatriate novelist Gertrude Stein, among others, a distanced perspective on his native culture. Through his translations, he earned an international reputation as an author with a North African sensibility. His fiction reflects a world akin to that written about by existentialists Jean-Paul Sartre or Albert Camus, and indeed he has been described as America’s foremost existentialist writer, a label more likely to restrict him to a time period than to characterize his fiction accurately. Although his nihilism does appear to be somewhat overblown, it also has a modern application, reflecting as it does a dark vision of the world as contemporary as the times demand.

Bowles became a guru of sorts to the Beat generation, although Bowles’s attraction for them had as much to do with his writings about drugs as it did with his generally pessimistic philosophy. Never an author of wide appeal, he has nevertheless had a loyal following among those interested in experimental and avant-garde writing. His work reflected a steady maturation, his 1982 experimental work Points in Time receiving praise from, among others, Tobias Wolfe, who wrote that the book was a completely original performance. Perhaps in the last analysis, Paul Bowles will be best remembered for his originality, his willingness to challenge definitions and the status quo in his fiction. With every work, he tried to forge new ground.