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Their Heads are Green and their Hands are Blue is an engaging collection of eight travel essays. Except for one essay on Central America, all of these pieces are concerned with locations in the Hindu, Buddhist, or Islamic worlds. A superb and observant traveler, Paul Bowles was a born wanderer who found pleasure in the inaccessible and who cheerfully endures the concomitant hardships with a matter-of-fact humor.

Customer Reviews (9)

Stunning writing, startling content
Here we see into the mind of the Muslim.It is a startling, stark land influenced by the harsh desert and harsher religion.Quite interesting as this is kind of the pure view where much of the worlds news is now stemming from.

Classic travel writing of place and time gone by
Paul Bowles's collection of travel pieces dating from 1950-1963 reveals a love of solitude and the unfamiliar road in a time when American influence began to dominate the post-war world. Seeking refuge from growing American conformity at home, Tangier, Morocco became Bowles's permanent address in 1947. Tangier made an ideal jumping-off point for Bowles, who visited Sri Lanka (Ceylon) in 1950, Cape Coromin, India in 1952, Istanbul, Turkey in 1953, and made frequent trips into Morocco and the Sahara, where he documented and recorded its music and musicians.

His travel writing can be at once witty and withering. Many of his observations are about the discomforts and disappointments of traveling; reading the more sour reports one might wonder why he put himself through all the trouble. Bowles obviously relished his role as the cultural outsider, and enjoyed writing about drugs, sex, and traditions the West found taboo. The people he describes are individuals, sketched boldly and without reserve. A trip to Ketama, "the kif center of all North Africa," becomes a chance to provide an extensive description of Morocco's drug culture.

His willingness to describe the whole of his experience makes Bowles's writing more than mere reporting -- from an unexpected swarm of flies, to the unrelenting sun, to the cool desert night and the noisy neighbors in an overcrowded hotel. He was blunt about writing these pieces for pay(and published in American travel magazines) but the result remains an engaging and entertaining collection.

Their Heads are Green and Their Hands are Blue
Unable to write a review of the above title; the book was given to someone as a gift. The book was chosen because the author is a favorite of the person who received it.

Tonally challenged
Bought as a gift.Have not read it, though I will eventually

Equals His Better Short Fiction
I like this book better than some of Mr. Bowles' longer fictional efforts.He is good at relatively short accounts, where his rich life experiences are related through highly descriptive prose. Bowles captures the abnormal psychology of the planet itself moreso than that of the individual, which is better left to Camus or Faulkner.Also, he is able to find some humor and meaning in the Western-Arab relationship, which helps relieve some of the strain of our current showdown, which Mr. Bowles foresaw.Especially funny to me is an account by Bowles of finding a filthy rag at the bottom of a pail of murky water he and his Arab travelmate had been using for drinking water.They up and left the "hotel" (and town) that day.

Also of interest are chapters on Ceylon.

Bowles seems to be more capable writing about real people and events than he is when functioning in the only slightly altered world of his fiction. I think it has something to do with him being an emotional loner.Like Sartre, he is more of an observer, more of a thinker, than a writer, so his fictional characterizations are, like Sartre's, often wooden and unconvincing (to me at least).To this viewpoint, he would strongly object I think.But, notice I refrain from calling him a moralist or a philosopher.If he were a painter, I would classify him as a post-impressionist like Matisse (great colorist, intriguing designs, romantic, but limited by "decorative" priorities.)And, like Matisse, he never really shocks me like a true Fauve because, no matter how gruesome the details of the narrative, his narrative voice is always too cultivated.He can't help it; he's from New England.For his fictional style to match the content, his manner would need to be cruder, like Kirchner or Vlaminck.And he is really not a portrait artist like Dickens, Joyce or Faulkner either.Or, maybe it's that his portraits capture places and milieus moreso than individual psyches.In this book, it doesn't matter because he is truly in his element: he travels wildly, observes meticulously and remembers creatively.
... Read more

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Paul Bowles says:Each man's life has the quality he gives it, but you can't say that life itself has any qualities. If we suffer, it's because we haven't learned how not to.The man who wrote the books didn't exist. No Writer exists. He exists in his books, and that's all.I write unconsciously, without knowing what I am writing. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Chat with Bowles through time...
Paul Bowles' long and almost unbelievable life was bookended by recognition. Early on his best selling novels, including "The Sheltering Sky," not to mention his reputation as a composer of stage and screen scores, set him nearly in the middle of the cultural elité of his day. This book of interviews spanning more than 40 years parallels Bowles' own variegated experiences. Sandwiched between its covers sits countless tales of intrigue, loss and a subtheme of resigned acquiescence. As each conversation flutters by, a life philosophy of "it is what it is" gradually emerges. Bowles apparently believed, at least by the end of his life, that he followed the path that he had to. All along the way he claims he never planned or thought too much of consequences. This allowed him to run away from home (his family apparently searched for his body in the east river), visit eminent cultural figures (he would sometimes just show up at their doors), shaft Prokofiev, and more or less wander and do what he pleased. His life does seem like a series of evolving accidents that happened to occur in distant lands. But once the 1960s come around, and they do early in this book, Bowles' resting place and consistent interview locale is Morocco. By the end of the book readers will have heard 1,001 times that Gertrude Stein recommended Morocco to a young Bowles and that he arrived there with Aaron Copland in the 1930s. He never really left.

Another facet that emerges from the interviews are the attitudes of the interviewers themselves. Though Bowles is nearly always lucid and interesting, the very best interviews feature a dynamic and poignant questioner. The 1975 interview with Daniel Halpern stands out in this respect. This discussion finds Bowles penetrating into his writing like no other interview in the collection. Halpern keeps the pace going to the final line, "I didn't know I was going to sleep until I woke up." One also wonders how Bowles tolerated some of the more annoying interviewers, such as a certain 1984 interview in which the questioners seem to be fishing Bowles for anti-American quotes or attitudes. Bowles doesn't bite, but he consistently admits openly that he's not a fan of his homeland. And the disdain increases with age. In 1990 he even said "No, no. If I had heard wonderful things about the United States... I would be curious. But everyone has told me such awful things that I have no interest in seeing it: that it is a completely criminal country, dirty, extremely expensive. Why go?" But Bowles would end up returning, after this book was published, in 1995 for a festival of his music. He died 4 years later in Morocco and his ashes were buried in New York next to the family he seemed very estranged from. At the end of a 1988 interview, Bowles was asked "How would you summarize your achievement?" He answered in typical fashion "I've written some books and some music. That's what I've achieved." He never seemed to hold his own work in very high esteem and seems confused at all the attention lavished on "The Sheltering Sky," which he consistently refers to as the worst written of his novels. But when Bernardo Bertolucci arrives in Morocco to burn that same book onto film, the 1990 Boston Globe Magazine article included here shows that he did appreciate the attention, though perhaps with a little begrudging guilt. After years of neglect, his books remained out of print for decades, Bowles was rediscovered late in life. Who can deny him a little pleasure in that?

This book reveals a side of Paul Bowles not evident elsewhere. Though the interviews can get repetitious in places (interviewers tend to ask the same questions "why do you live in Morocco" "Are your characters reflections of people you knew?" etc.), Bowles himself keeps all of the conversations from boredom. His often self-defacing, resigned attitude towards existence sometimes arrives with a feeling of strange comfort. Some may even find the book a relaxing read, like a series of interesting chats with interesting people in a fascinating place. Anyone interested in Bowles the writer or Bowles the now legendary expatriate should read this book. It was published before his death and during his late rediscovery, so the momentum picks up but nonetheless ends on a kind of cliffhanger. The final words in the book are an appropriate Bowlesian statement: "No, no, how can I go? The Café de Paris is full of poice and spies." So a book that features Bowles in person (textually) ends in the manner of one of his stories. Purely appropriate.

Covers Many of Bowles' Bases
Though some of the topics in these interviews are repeated, overall they provide entertaining reading about Bowles, Tangier and his world.If you are not familiar with Bowles, I'd read Michelle Green's "The Dream at the End of the World" first, as it gives a fascinating and very well-written account of the expatriote community in Tangier, of which Bowles seems to have been the unelected president, or should we say sultan.

I don't regard Bowles as much of a fiction writer.(Apparently, he never got de-kiffed enough to see how sophomoric much of it is.)However, he is a very good conversationalist, as well as travel, or adventure, writer. (See "Without Stopping" and "Their Heads are Green and Their Hands are Blue.")

Edith Wharton's "In Morocco" is a great primer for the cultural backdrop in which Bowles lived and thrived and, like Bowles, she documents people, places and things very well.(If you like Bowles, you'll love her.)

Especially considering the current crisis between Islam and the West, it is important to read about the other guys without having to demonize them all the time. Bowles has an affinity for "the other guys" that is very refreshing.Yes, the North Africans are somewhat unreasonable, but then who isn't?And, is there a connection between Spain having the lowest confidence in President Bush's abilities (7%) and its proximity to, and long, troubled relations with, North Africa?Did you know that 90% of Morocco's Moslems were, at the time of Bowles' writing, not really Arabs, but Berbers, with a very different (and, from other Islamic pov's, unacceptable) approach to the religion?No?! Then read the book.(I had no idea.)If you want schisms, you got schisms.So the subjects discussed with Bowles are often more interesting than the man himself, who is a bit of a pervert and stuffed-shirt.But, he is also a sorcerer and magician, especially if you're stoned out of your mind on kif or majoun.He cultivated a following that was all too open to suggestion.

O.K., now, if you can put up with a lot of name-dropping and self-aggrandisement, then you'll enjoy this book, as much of the interesting "dialogue" between Islam and the West has occurred in Morocco.From Tangier, Bowles could actually see the coast of Spain, and, with his cigarette holder fully extended, flick an ash or two toward Europe.But he could also venture south into the mysterious countryside, with its Atlas Mountains, unnerving desert, oases and towns.

While the man himself might have been a sometimes irritating exercise in stoned-out tweed, many of his observations regarding the onslaught of civilization reflect this bizarre combination of aristocratic teahead, ethnologist, and sadistic dandy.

Gives even the real Bowles fan interesting new insights
Caponi's collection of interviews, spanning several decades up to the early 1990's is a must for all real fans of Paul Bowles work, and an intriguing introduction to his life, work and influences for those who know little about him. As with any such collection of interviews, there is bound to be much repetition - different interviewers ask often essentially the same questions, while Bowles gives (more or less) the same answers. However, even for someone like myself, who thinks they know quite a bit about the man and his work (and maintains one of the Paul Bowles pages on the Web -

Many of the interviews touch on many of the other literary figures Bowles has known - Tennessee Williams is a frequent topic of conversation, as are William Burroughs and the other beat writers, and their time spent in Tangiers. It becomes very evident from the few interviews that dwell on the subject that Bowles is not going to talk much about his late wife, Jane. His hatred for the biography 'An invisible spectator' comes through clearly in several places, but I found it intriguing that his preferred biographer (if he had to make a reluctant choice) would be Millicent Dillon, author of the biography of Jane Bowles.

Altogether a very worthwhile read for anyone with any interest in Paul Bowles. ... Read more

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Analyzing the evolution of China's financial reforms since Deng Xiaoping gained firm control of the CCP leadership in 1978, this book examines the reforms from a political economic perspective and explores the complex interactions between the actors shaping the reform process. It sets out to identify the successes and failures of the financial reform process in the light of market socialism, financial liberalization and late development. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

delicious!
a fabulous recounting of a scintilating relationship consumated by mail alone! whosoever could claim such today? i was deeply moved. hats off elysium! ... Read more

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Between 1987 and 1989, Paul Bowles, at the suggestion of a friend, kept a journal to record the daily events of his life. What emerges is not only just a record of the meals, conversations, and health concerns of the author of The Sheltering Sky but also a fascinating look at an artist at work in a new medium. Characterized by a refreshing informality, clear-sightedness, and passages of exquisite prose, these pages record with equal fascination the behavior of an itinerant spider, a brutal episode of violence in a Tangier marketplace, and the pageantry and excess of Malcolm Forbes's seventieth birthday party. In Days, a master observer of the foreign and obscure turns his attentions toward his own daily existence, giving us a startlingly candid portrait of his life in late twentieth-century Tangier.

Customer Reviews (5)

Mundane
Unless one knows the characters, there is nothing of interest in this diary.

Thank you for the Days
Paul Bowles often claimed that he lacked ambition. So when Daniel Halpern, an editor at Ecco Press, requested that Bowles start keeping a diary, he didn't seem to understand why. "I would have nothing to report", he insisted. Thankfully, he begrudgingly agreed, and "Days" resulted. Bowles recorded scattered entries from August 19, 1987 to September 5th, 1989. Contrary to his expectations, this short book burgeons with interesting slices of his life in Morocco. Everything from the inexplicable behavior of a spider in his room to the arrival of Mick Jagger in Tangier gets filtered through Bowles' unique perspective. Even the most trivial observations have interest in this context.

One of the more fascinating scenes involves the hubub over a package that Bowles receives. He quickly gets called down to the post office and told that he has a "contraband" book. They don't allow him to see it nor to find out who sent it. But from that moment on his mail gets delayed an extra day for security reasons. Some weeks later he finds out that a friend had tried to send him a copy of Salman Rushdie's "The Satanic Verses." Whoops.

Bowles also writes about day trips he takes with friends, journalists seeking interviews, health problems, his frustrations with certain biographers, aging, his friend's behavior during Ramadan, and the culture of Morocco. Many fascinating things happen. One woman finds him by pretending to be his daughter Catherine from Germany. A French journalist asks him "do you like living this way?" Another journalist keeps futilely asking him "why" questions. When Bowles tells her he won't give accurate answers to such questions, she asks "why not?" He also takes umbrage with writers who feel, by the act of writing, that they're "leaving a part of themselves behind." Bowles reflects, "This would have been understandable earlier in the century when it was assumed that life on the planet would continue indefinitely. Now that the prognosis is doubtful, the desire to leave a trace behind seems absurd." Later on he also says, somewhat uncharacteristically, "I was treated like a star and loved it."

During this time Bowles also finds out about Bernardo Bertolucci's intent of filming "The Sheltering Sky." The two meet a few times, but unfortunately the narrative breaks off before filming begins. Bowles actually appeared in the 1990 movie as himself. But, according to some later interviews, he wasn't completely sold on the project. Regardless, his acting career didn't end there. He also appeared in 1995's "Halbmond" as well as some early art films. If only he had written for a few more months.

"Days" remains a unique look at the seventy-something Bowles in Morocco. In it, he never shies away from editorializing, criticizing, or making poignant statements. None of his other writings or interviews provide quite the same perspective or intimacy. Paul Bowles died ten years after completing this mini memoir. He had spent the majority of his life in Tangier. Sadly, his diary seems to end here. Which leaves the only complaint about "Days": it ends far too quick and produces a lingering thirst for more.

Atmospheric Slice of Life
Long after the expatriate American writer ceased to be a phenomenon in the 20th century, Paul Bowles, composer and writer, lived on in Tangier, Morocco, until his death just a couple of years ago at age 88. DAYS is a journal he kept at the request of the editor of a literary journal that was in the late 1980's planning a theme issue based on personal journals and notebooks. Bowles was not a diarist, and his first entries reflect his lack of purpose or investment in the form. The entries are not daily by any means or particularly long, but once he gets into it, his product is fascinating. He has a flair for nailing a scene or a mood in a quick sketch. Some may wish to read this for the glimpses of his well-known friends and visitors and his perspective of such social events as a Malcolm Forbes' party. I found the picture of contemporary Muslim-controlled Tangier to bestriking. This was written from 1987 - 1989 during which time Salmon Rushdie's SATANIC VERSES was published and a friend of Bowles rather thoughtlessly sent him a copy which the mail inspectors confiscated, which put him in the line of fire for a time. It was also the period when Bertolucci began the process of filming Bowles' novel, THE SHELTERING SKY.

I have to admit, I came to this book knowing next to nothing about Bowles. I had hoped it would be more of a travelogue, or something like Steinbeck's working journals, and it was neither. On the other hand, I was intrigued enough to want to learn more about Bowles, to read his work, and to be sorry that the journal ends abruptly. I realized that given his reports of the stream of photographers, interviewers, would-be biographers, aritsts, celebrities and strangers who came to his door like pilgrims, that he was someone of consequence in our visitable past, and I'm sorry I was not more aware when he was alive. For those who share my ignorance of the man, there is an informative short biography...

Interesting insights into Paul Bowles life
I picked this volume up because of the references to the Guatemalan writer Rodrigo Rey Rosa; I am very fond of his work.I found items of far greater interest in the day to day activities of Paul Bowles.The challenges ofcensored mail, time disconnects (e.g. cafe closed when filming is supposedoccuring), of ill-tempered fasters during Ramadan, and business concerns(copyrights, translators, contracts ...) make for interesting observationsin the hand of Paul Bowles.If you have any interest in Bowles, Mrabet orRosa, this book is worth your time.

Immediate, comprehensive; interesting portrait of Bowles.
Paul Bowles has been of interest to me ever since I read THE SHELTERING SKY so many years ago. Now with DAYS: TANGIER JOURNAL, the reader gets a behind-the-scenes of one of the most enigmatic writers of the twentiethcentury. The landscape and people of Tangier, Morocco are expertly paintedin all their mysterious charm as Bowles simultaneously deflates and expandsupon his own legend. If you are interested in Bowles, this book is a mustread for the insight that it gives, insights not necessarily illuminatedupon in the average Bowles biography or documentary. Bowles isself-effacing but his contribution to fiction is huge, and this book islike looking through a door, cracked half-open, at the man himself in allhis many facets. Morocco itself also figures large in Bowles' art, and thereader gets a real taste of that exotic locale with all its danger and N.Africanwonder. ... Read more

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Peter Bowles, father of the Beat movement, went from being a bestselling novelist to becoming a mysterious cult figure, influential amongst the American expatriate community in Tangier. This biography, the author's first book, is based on interviews with Bowles and those who have known him best. It reveals more than Bowles' autobiography, "Without Stopping", exploring his childhood, marriage and self-imposed exile from America. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Demystifies The Mysterious Writer
Some people don't like this biography because it places, in their view, too much emphasis on the years before Tangier and Morocco. This is exactly its great value, because this book shows that Paul Bowles was a very strange person long before he ever went to Africa. From the beginning he was alienated, at odds with his culture, and in conflict with his parents, which we might read in a larger sense as being in conflict with the norms of Western culture. The origins of his complex and inhibited sexual life are all too obvious in terms of the experiences of his youth and his sexual abuse at the hands of an uncle in Paris. His opportunism, his search for and acceptance of financial favors without any thought of repayment, his chilling coldness toward other human beings, and his wanderlust in search of an environment where the ordinary Western values of life are not relevant, arepresented here as developing quite naturally from his early life.

Actually one might say that Tangier didn't make Bowles. At least as viewed by the typical American, Bowles made Tangier, because we tend to see it through his eyes. As the mysterious oracle of a new type of orientalism, as the temptingly cynical presenter of decadent Arab customs in which he was perhaps actually participating, Bowles was one of the chief architects of Tangiers' decadent reputation. Bowles was a classic unreliable narrator secretly pushing his own Eurocentric agenda. He was the cracked and distorted lens through which so many of us viewed (and still view) the culture of Islamic Africa. In a dialectical sense, Bowles was accepted as the ideological dictator of Tangier, the official Fuhrer of information and attitudes. And this was a truly vast mistake.

Some have invoked Bowles as almost a scientific researcher into the myth and magic of Morocco. And yet in many ways he gives a very confused picture of the Moroccans. His needs, his lusts, and his paranoid terrors make his judgments increasingly unreliable as we realize exactly who he was. Bowles was a wounded personality, a timid magician who hid behind a mask like the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, a fugitive posing as an oracle, and a sadistic manipulator who didn't hesitate to stab his friends in the back just for fun.

Paul Bowles himself said that this book was "a betrayal," meaning that it presents a great deal of information that he wanted to keep secret. He was right, and that makes it all the more valuable. It's an essential read, because when you have digested it, other Bowles biographies will suddenly be revealed in a totally new light. This is Bowles the human being, not Bowles the famous writer. This book is an exploration that you owe yourself if you have any interest whatsoever in Paul Bowles.

Where reason does not go
Paul Bowles lived in Morocco for a reason, he embraced the mystery of it,perhaps enjoyed losing his western self in it, and there is no solving in any easy rational way the mystery that is Paul Bowles. But this is a great gathering of the known facts. I appreciate the lack of speculation and reading into things ....the author allows you to accompany him through this life decade by decade, sticking to what is known. And Bowles, however good your guide, remains a territory for the most part unknown.
It may be worthwhile to compare this to Paul Bowles own autobiography Without Stopping published in early seventies.
In this biography you get a picture of Paul as a child, as well as a restless young man who cannot resist the call to Europe. You get Paul as composer of numerous film scores, poems, and a general idea of this middle period before that better known period as writer marked by the publication of that first book Sheltering Sky. Also there is an interesting portrait of Jane, his talented and troubled wife. And a picture of Paul at work with his protege Mohammed Mrabet whose oral tales he transcribed(including:Love With a Few Hairs, Lemon, Boy Who Caught Fire, others). This will give you a very good idea of Paul as glimpsed by an outsider as it is a competent and readable dossier of facts and dates. There are more speculative works about Paul Bowles available but really I think the fiction is the place to go. There you will find the most interesting Bowles, the composer of tales and mysteries, even riddles of what it is to be human. The story of Paul's life is interesting and perhaps it will help some who like to interpret stories with the support of biographical data but ultimately the facts in this case anyway do not go very far.

A slight improvement on Bowles' autobiography
Bowles' autobiography "Without Stopping" has been referred to as "Without Telling" by Burroughs. Invisible Spectator follows it step-by-step, especially with regard to the early years. Additions to whatBowles fans want to know are largely limited to some speculations about Mr.Bowles' sexual relationships and a bits of new information from letters,interviews, and obscure publications. Historical context should have beenprovided given that Mr. Bowles was born in 1910, almost ninety yearsago.

The last few decades are glossed over, especially considering theblow-by-blow account of the early years of career-building and travel.Again, these events are known largely fromMr. Bowles' autobiography andInvisible Spectator adds little. Little light is shed on the later yearsafter Mrs. Bowles' death in the 1970s. These years have been highlyproductive for the subject, and much more interesting to this reader thanthe virtually prehistoric youth of Mr. Bowles. From the Beats on, thebiography serves up the skimpiest information. If you have never readanything about Paul Bowles you will be entranced as his life isfascinating. If you have, there's little new here. The author isa fan,and a biography by a detractor would be much more fun. Regardless, cheersto Mr. Paul Bowles for letting the biographer have access to personalinformation. I wish he had done a more interesting job with it. ... Read more

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Webster's bibliographic and event-based timelines are comprehensive in scope, covering virtually all topics, geographic locations and people. They do so from a linguistic point of view, and in the case of this book, the focus is on "Paul Bowles," including when used in literature (e.g. all authors that might have Paul Bowles in their name). As such, this book represents the largest compilation of timeline events associated with Paul Bowles when it is used in proper noun form. Webster's timelines cover bibliographic citations, patented inventions, as well as non-conventional and alternative meanings which capture ambiguities in usage. These furthermore cover all parts of speech (possessive, institutional usage, geographic usage) and contexts, including pop culture, the arts, social sciences (linguistics, history, geography, economics, sociology, political science), business, computer science, literature, law, medicine, psychology, mathematics, chemistry, physics, biology and other physical sciences. This "data dump" results in a comprehensive set of entries for a bibliographic and/or event-based timeline on the proper name Paul Bowles, since editorial decisions to include or exclude events is purely a linguistic process. The resulting entries are used under license or with permission, used under "fair use" conditions, used in agreement with the original authors, or are in the public domain. ... Read more

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"It's an easy enough job if one has something to say," Paul Bowles remarked in a letter to his mother about his first foray into music criticism. And Paul Bowles, indeed, had plenty to say about music. Though known chiefly as a writer of novels and stories, Paul Bowles (1910-99) thought of himself first and foremost as a composer. Drawing together the work he did at the intersection of his two passions and professions, writing and music, this volume collects the music criticism Bowles published between 1935 and 1946 as well as an interview conducted by Irene Herrmann shortly before his death.

An intimate of Aaron Copland and protege of Virgil Thomson, Bowles was a musical sophisticate acquainted with an enormous range of music. His criticism collected here brilliantly illuminates not only the whole range of modernist composition but also film music, jazz, Mexican and Moroccan music, and many other genres. As a reviewer he reports on established artists and young hopefuls, symphonic concerts indoors and out, and important premieres of works by Copland, Thomson, Cage, Shostakovich, and Stravinsky, among others. Written with the austere grace of his better-known literary works, Bowles's criticism enhances our picture of an important era in American music history as well as our sense of his accomplishments and extraordinary contribution to twentieth-century culture. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

composer and critic
this book consists of articles from "modern music" and short reviews (written under deadline) for the new york herald tribune between 1935 and 1946. concerts and new records are briefly noted, while longer pieces study the new art of film soundtracks and music from other countries.
what is interesting is that bowles, as a composer, not only deals with the performances, but with the compositions being played. pleasure for some readers will be found in the way works and artists are savaged in such a civilized way.
sometimes, however, the criticism is direct. shostakovich's 6th symphony is "insensitive heavy-handed clowning". one piece by richard strauss "has an ugly form and character", while another has "fascinating hideousness". rachmaninoff is tagged with an "unamusing degenerate style" and a "deficient harmonic sense".

of possible interest to some are the short mentions of new 78s by the likes of tampa red, sonny boy (john lee) williamson, and jazz gillum. was there anyone else reviewing "race records" for major publications?

dealing with art music, one encounters concepts such as " tonal ambiguities", "phrasal tournure", "harmonic unreliability", "harmonic brutality", "circumspect tonalities" and "meaty logical harmony".

occasionally, a review such as the one describing his friend virgil thomson's 2nd symphony ("its musical ideas alternate between naive sincerity and the professor's classroom joke") make one want to hear the composition in question.

the only real gaffe comes when, referring to moroccan ghaita players, he says, "gills are pierced in the neck of the player". the technique of "circular breathing" was evidently unknown to him at this time ( before he moved to tangier and became a famous writer of fiction).

Music and Writing in Different Rooms
It would be possible to know of Paul Bowles (1910-1999) as a writer exclusively.His first novel, The Sheltering Sky (1949), established him as one of the greatest English language novelists of the post-war generation. However, Bowles was a gifted and prolific composer as well.While he was modest about his accomplishments as a composer, Bowles' managed to compose three operas, five ballets, incidental music for over twenty stage productions, as well as many chamber works, film scores and songs.Of the two pursuits (writing and music composition), Bowles described them as being "different rooms".His creative mind could only manage one at a time and to him they were distinct.It is with interest then to learn in Paul Bowles on Music (edited by Timothy Mangan and Irene Herrmann) that Mr. Bowles was writing articles and reviews about music long before the publication of his novels and stories.In all, he managed to write over four hundred articles and reviews for Modern Music and the New York Herald Tribune where he was ultimately employed as a music critic and writer between 1942-1945. The book provides an important introduction which describes how Bowles was courted by the composer and music critic Virgil Thomson for the Herald Tribune job and how he doubted he could write under strict deadlines.

Except for a non-revealing interview (his last) at the end of the book, the rest contains his articles and criticisms arranged in chronological order.The idea is an appealing one since this `non-fiction' of his has never been compiled in one book until now. With Bowles' music reaching a wider audience of late one might be interested in what he had to say about the subject.Unfortunately, there is not much interest in reading the reviews.Bowles' intelligence, wit and musical knowledge are evident but many of the reviews reveal him as opinionated and petty: "...most of the music reminds me of the Indian stuff in old Westerns, only it's not quite so good.".Remarks like this appear without explanation. We never learn in his reviews why something is "good" or "awful" just that, from his perspective, they are. The letters and articles hold more interest and import as they reveal Bowles' passion for and careful research of topics ranging from folk music to jazz. One may want to keep the layered metaphors and psychological perception of his novels and the rhythmic precision and harmonic spaciousness of his music in different rooms as he intended.

For Bowles' scholars, this book is essential because it fills a void.Everyone else may want to start with Paul Bowles' novels and compositions before reading his criticisms.It seems, in the final analysis, that his fear of writing well on deadline was rational and the writing included here, simply does not do him justice.

Paul Bowles Reviews Music
I wanted to read this book of Paul Bowles's (1910 - 1999) music reviews for several reasons.I am an admirer of Bowles's fiction, including the novel "The Sheltering Sky," which he wrote as an expatriate American in Tangiers beginning in 1947.Furthermore, before he began his career as a novelist, Bowles was a rising and prolific composer.A self-taught protege of Aaron Copland, Bowles wrote ballets, suites, art songs, film scores, and scores for the theater, including plays by Tennessee Williams.Music and literature are two of my passions.

This leads me to the third reason for wanting to read this book.Bowles spent several years reviewing music of all sorts, chiefly for the "New York Hearald Tribune" and for the periodical "Modern Music".He wrote this work as a journalist, for little pay, and with tight deadlines.Yet he managed to write well and to find something important to say.It is this work-a-day world of writing that reminds me of my efforts, and those of my fellow reviewers, writing on this siteIt is a challenge to write short pieces with regularity on subjects one loves and to try to produce something others will find valuable.In short, Bowles's reviews, and his progress from composer to critic to novelist somehow became emblematic and inspirational to me of the Amazon reviewing process.

In this book, Timothy Mangan and Irene Herrmann have gathered together Paul Bowles's music reviews written primarily from 1940--1946.Bowles writes in a spare, understated, succinct style that will be familiar to readers of "The Sheltering Sky".His reviews cover a broad spectrum and include reviews of scores for films, record releases, and concerts.They cover too a wide range of music, including the then-recent works of Stravinsky, Leonard Bernstein, John Cage, and other contemporary classical composers, to folk music of Mexico, North Africa, South America, and Cuba, through American jazz and blues.I was intrigued by his references to the blues singer Memphis Minnie (p. 230), the blues pianist Champion Jack Dupree (sings "with a fine primitive self-accompaniment on the piano", p.205), and Arthur Crudup (p.230) who would become the most direct and immediate influence on young Elvis Presley.

Bowles's reviews give a lively picture of concert life in New York City during the war years as he describes for us the venues for music, and the performers and performances that he witnessed.Many young composers and performers he reviewed were just starting out and would subsequently become famous, such as the 25 year old Leonard Bernstein (Bowles reviewed the premier of his "Jerimiah" symphony) and the young 18 year old pianist Eugene Istomin.But he also reviewed concerts by composers and performers then considered to be of promise who have subsequently been forgotten.It is good to remember these composers and flegling performers and their efforts.The book allows the reader to see the manner in which musical tastes have changed from the 1940s to the present.

Bowles was a composer and writes about music from a composer's viewpoint.He writes eloquently about structures, harmonies, music periods, textures, interpretations and performance practices.One can learn a good deal about listening intelligently to music from these reviews, even though the performances, and in some cases the music he describes, has long been forgotten.

I noticed that Bowles had a predeliction for early music and, in particular for the music of the harpsichord.In a review praising a 1942 concert by harpsichordist Ralph Kilpatrick, Bowles wrote: "it is difficult not to be enthusiastic over such a concert, if only because it involves the harpsichord itself, that antidote to the poison sounds of our era's daily life.It is the instrument which allows every note of every voice of a piece of contrapuntal writing to be heard with complete clarity; remote and recessed as a voice may sound, it is never hidden." (p.58)In a 1991 interview included in this book, Bowles offered similar observations in discussing his reactions to the performances of Wanda Landowska (pp 267-269).Bowles's criticism of "the poison sounds of our era's daily life," echoed in many reviews in this collection, perhaps help explain his decision to leave New York City in favor of the life of an expatriate in Tangiers.

Bowles decried what he viewed as a growing commercialization and uniformity in all types of music, from folk, to jazz to classical and cherished music as a way of life rather than as a casual entertainment.It is fitting to quote the end of his final review, written in 1946, in which Bowles decried the increasingly sterile character of traditional folk music.He wrote:

"In Latin America as elsewhere, the radio and cinema are systematically exterminating folk music before its creators and consumers are in a position to participate in the creation or enjoymnent of art music.What fills the gap? Commercial music.But there are still thousands of small villages in that part of our hemisphere where radios and projectors have yet to arrive, and where the people still make their own music just as they have for centuries, not for entertainment, but because it is an absolute essential to their living." (p.257)

It is this ideal of music as "essential to living" that I found most lasting in these reviews by Paul Bowles.

Robin Friedman ... Read more

Product Description
Morocco - the name of this North African country conjures up romantic images of exotic Marrakesh, the casbah in Tangier or Fez, colourful marketplaces, and mysterious veiled women. No American writer is more closely identified with Morocco than Paul Bowles, who travelled there with his wife, Jane, in the 1930s and remained as a famous expatriate for many years. In 1991, San Francisco-based photographer Barry Brukoff travelled to Morocco to meet Bowles and encourage him to provide a text to accompany Brukoff's photographs of the country. Brukoff's photographs capture the look and feel of North African light, the brilliant colour of Arab mosaics, the characteristic shapes of mosque doorways and minarets, the bustle of native markets and the serenity of a desert oasis.Amazon.com Review
Morocco is a land of heat and light, of vibrant colorsshimmering under a North African sun. Clinging to the northwesternmostcorner of the African continent, it has stood at a cultural crossroadsfor 1,000 years, its caravans penetrating deep into sub-SaharanAfrica, its armies swarming north across the Straits of Gibraltar toconquer half of Spain before Morocco was itself colonized by theFrench. In modern-day Morocco, Peugeot trucks compete with donkeys forright of way, and women swathed from head to foot in djellabas andveils zoom through the streets on motor scooters. The cry of themuezzin calling the faithful to prayer floats above the squawk andclamor of television sets, and businessmen in dark suits walk pastmosques 1,000 years old during their daily commutes. Morocco is aland of heartbreaking beauty, color, and contrast, and inMorocco, author Paul Bowles and photographer Barry Brukoffbring it all to life in glorious images and lively prose.

Perhapsbest known for his masterpiece The Sheltering Sky, Bowles haslived in Morocco for many years, and these previously publishedarticles are a perceptive and entertaining introduction to his adoptedland. (There's also a brand new foreword.) The 80 accompanyingphotographs are stunning, revealing a country composed of primarycolors and brilliant shifts of light. A word of caution: openMorocco in a weak moment, and you could find yourself on thephone to your travel agent before the book is even half-read. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Elegant and Exotic
This book will be viewed by photographers and art lovers as a magnificent picture book, by travelers as a journey into the grace of Morocco, by architects as a model for design.This book made a trip to Moroccoinevitable, and served as a reminder of the beauty of the country. ... Read more

Product Description

A striking collection of stories, poems, letters, travel essays, journal entries, excerpts from three novels, and more—including the complete text of The Sheltering Sky—from one of the most revered authors of the twentieth century

Customer Reviews (2)

misleading
A good selection but the back cover erroneously says that the book contains "the complete text of The Sheltering Sky". In fact there is only a 60 page excerpt.

one of those
One of those collections that cuts up larger works. ... Read more