Travels: Collected Writings, 1950-1993 Review

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(More customer reviews)This book has been available in the U.K. for over a year, with a different publisher and different cover.
In this volume there are 39 travel pieces by the writer Paul Bowles published between 1950 and 1993. Forteen appeared in the magazine "Holiday" and five in "The Nation". Eight were collected previously in "Their Heads Are Green And Their Hands Are Blue"(1963) and another eleven in Spanish in "Dias y Viajes" (Seix Barral 1993). Six come from essays written in other's books. More than half of these pieces are about North Africa, where he lived and four about Ceylon (Sri Lanka) where he bought a small island. Pre-war France, Spain and India have two essays each.
There are two summaries of his life, one by the author himself and the other by Daniel Halpern. The introduction is by Paul Theroux and would be forgettable were it not for its errors and idiocies.
Those familiar with Bowles writings will not be disappointed, for his attention to his surroundings, intense interest in other cultures, and the art of how to communicate with the reader are delightful.
Why 1993 was chosen as a cut-off date I cannot say. I know of at least one essay written later that might have been included here. He died in 1999.


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Inmore than forty essays and articles that range from Paris to Ceylon, Thailand to Kenya, and, of course, Morocco, the great twen-tieth-century American writer encapsulates his long and full life, and sheds light on his brilliant fiction. Whether he's recalling the cold-water artists' flats of Paris's Left Bank or the sun-worshipping eccentrics of Tangier, Paul Bowles imbues every piece with a deep intelligence and the acute perspective of his rich experience of the world. Woven throughout are photographs from the renowned author's private archive, which place him, his wife, the writer Jane Bowles, and their many friends and compatriots in the landscapes his essays bring so vividly to life.

With an introduction by Paul Theroux and a chronology by Daniel Halpern

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