THE TIME OF FRIENDSHIP

by Paul Bowles ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 10, 1967

Paul Bowles is somewhat out of fashion now. His general theme of cultured Americans falling prey to the intoxicants and disturbing sensuality of North Africa or Europe, a spectacle which apparently shattered many readers during the Fifties, seems quite muted, even a bit genteel, after the splendid decadence of Durrell's Quartet and Genet. The ending of The Sheltering Sky, the expatriate wife willingly disappearing into someone's harem--does that chill anyone anymore? He is, of course, an accomplished writer, as this new collection of stories demonstrates, sketching his confrontations with delicacy and dramatic shrewdness, pitting some element of bourgeois morality or insensitivity against an older, wiser, more dangerous and rewarding civilization. In The Hour After Noon, for instance, plotted with Maugham-like diligence, evil is manifested not by Monsieur Royer's liking for little girls, but through the proprietress of a Moroccan pension, an Englishwoman whose hypocritical puritanism leads to tragic consequences. The best of the tales Frosen Fields is a bit atypical, especially the middle- west setting, though here too innocence and bestiality again consort, but with superb psychological economy and grace.

Pub Date: July 10, 1967

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Holt, Rinchart & Winston

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1967

Categories: FICTION