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kyop14's review against another edition
5.0
"If he desired to cease being nervous he must conceive a situation for himself in which that ignorance had no importance."
mallorymanley's review against another edition
dark
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Content Warnings
Minor: Rape
ztkrogman's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
literatetomato's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
sabarehman's review against another edition
3.0
Hands down the most bizarre book I have ever read.
At surface level, the novel tells the stories of the numerous ways western culture causes the destruction of alien cultures. It tells the story of self-centered travelers.
After recently immersing myself in a foreign culture with an American cohort for two months I received first hand experience of how the ignorance and incomprehension of new cultures by the western world can poison an atmosphere.
I picked up this book about an American trio traveling North Africa and saw many examples of travelers traveling just to say they travelled.
However, the rooted question throughout this novel is:
“what does it feels like to completely lose yourself and mind?”
The third portion of this book was absolutely fever dreamy?? I felt insane reading it. What. Was. Happening. Is this what it feels like to see someone lose their sanity and sense of being???
Some quotes:
“there was the certitude of an infinite sadness at the core of his consciousness, but the sadness was reassuring, because it alone was familiar"
"How fragile we are under the sheltering sky. Behind the sheltering sky is a vast dark universe, and we're just so small."
“The seductive voice in each of us that promises freedom through refusing responsibility, refusing the labor of choice by which we create ourselves”
At surface level, the novel tells the stories of the numerous ways western culture causes the destruction of alien cultures. It tells the story of self-centered travelers.
After recently immersing myself in a foreign culture with an American cohort for two months I received first hand experience of how the ignorance and incomprehension of new cultures by the western world can poison an atmosphere.
I picked up this book about an American trio traveling North Africa and saw many examples of travelers traveling just to say they travelled.
However, the rooted question throughout this novel is:
“what does it feels like to completely lose yourself and mind?”
The third portion of this book was absolutely fever dreamy?? I felt insane reading it. What. Was. Happening. Is this what it feels like to see someone lose their sanity and sense of being???
Some quotes:
“there was the certitude of an infinite sadness at the core of his consciousness, but the sadness was reassuring, because it alone was familiar"
"How fragile we are under the sheltering sky. Behind the sheltering sky is a vast dark universe, and we're just so small."
“The seductive voice in each of us that promises freedom through refusing responsibility, refusing the labor of choice by which we create ourselves”
christopherc's review against another edition
3.0
A 1949 novel of an American couple discovering the North African desert by a writer who, for all his depiction of this setting as alien and hostile, famously fell in love with the region and lived there for half a century. Porter (“Port”) and Katherine (“Kit”) Moresby are independently wealthy types traveling the world as tourism takes off again after the destruction of World War II, and in spite of all the adventure, they are unable to restore the missing spark to their marriage. Traveling them is their friend Tunner, who seeks to bed Kit in spite of his loyalty to Port.
Were the novel only a depiction of this love triangle, it wouldn’t be particularly memorable, and indeed the first half of the book, though smooth and fast reading, doesn’t promise much. But wow does this book take a sudden curve about halfway through into Cormac McCarthyesque death and a fantastical arrival in the Sahel. I see this novel as flawed by the inconsistent attention paid to description – Bowles often glosses over events that other writers would bother fleshing out, and these characters hardly have back stories – but I nevertheless enjoyed reading it and found the ending satisfying.
Were the novel only a depiction of this love triangle, it wouldn’t be particularly memorable, and indeed the first half of the book, though smooth and fast reading, doesn’t promise much. But wow does this book take a sudden curve about halfway through into Cormac McCarthyesque death and a fantastical arrival in the Sahel. I see this novel as flawed by the inconsistent attention paid to description – Bowles often glosses over events that other writers would bother fleshing out, and these characters hardly have back stories – but I nevertheless enjoyed reading it and found the ending satisfying.
jennieleigh's review against another edition
4.0
I love, love, loved the first half of the book. The second half... confused me and felt like a separate book. I finished it shaking my head. But richer.
tico's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
carlaabra's review against another edition
“Psychological terror”?! It’s nowhere to be found. Instead we just have the boring story of a depressed woman traveling with her male FWB/husband through 1940s North Africa. She wants him, he couldn’t care less and goes to see prostitutes, meanwhile some other friend of theirs secretly desires her. What a pitiful love triangle. I’m told this book gets to some existential themes about the human condition, which normally I love (the meta-story about the girls having tea in the Sahara? That was great!) but the prose is so boring that I’m throwing in the towel now.