Downfall in the desert

• Book: The Sheltering Sky
• Location: North Africa
• Author: Paul Bowles

Review Author: Vasha

We are introduced to two people who each love the other but are completely emotionally out of reach and out of phase. After a rare moment of near unity, in which they put different interpretations on viewing a sunset together, “It made [Kit] sad to realize that in spite of their so often having the same reactions, the same feelings, they never would reach the same conclusions, because their respective aims in life were almost diametrically opposed.”

These two fragile characters rashly take themselves into a land, and among people, they can’t cope with. Disaster is inevitable, and makes for gripping reading. The land about them is seen chiefly as a mirror for their mental frailties.

Back to book