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Summary: A Deeply Disturbing Exploration of Interiority and the World
Review: Shortly after Paul Bowles arrived in Morocco in July, 1947, he began writing "The Sheltering Sky" in the stuffy air of a claustrophobic hotel room in Fez. "The first page had to be part of the airless little hotel room where I was lying." From this inauspicious, but atmospheric, beginning, Bowles created one of the most profound works of Twentieth Century American literature, a deeply disturbing exploration of interiority and the world, of the relationship between mind and culture."The Sheltering Sky" tells the story of three Americans traveling in the Sahara following the Second World War. Port and Kit Moresby, husband and wife, and their friend, Tunner, are "travelers," not "tourists," as Port says early in the narrative. "The difference is partly one of time . . . Whereas the tourist generally hurries back home at the end of a few weeks or months, the traveler, belonging no more to one place than to the next, moves slowly, over periods of years, from one part of the earth to another." Like travelers, Port, Kit and Tunner seem to have little in the way of an itinerary, their days languourously slipping by, one day into the next, without purpose, marked only by a palpable psychic discomfort. But there is another important difference between the tourist and the traveler. As Port relates, "the former accepts his own civilization without question; not so the traveler, who compares it with the others, and rejects those elements he finds not to his liking." In doing this, however, the traveler runs the risk, if the degree of cultural separation is too great, if the foreign culture is too extreme, that he will become completely untethered from reality. As Bowles once said in a 1981 Paris Review interview: "Everyone is isolated from everyone else. The concept of society is like a cushion to protect us from the knowledge of that isolation. A fiction that serves as an anaesthetic." It is, ultimately, the removal of this anaesthetic, the removal of societal and cultural moorings, which drives the narrative of "The Sheltering Sky"and determines the fate of Port and Kit and Tunner. One does not survive; another will never be the same again. Disturbances of the interior landscape, the landscape of the psyche, become the catalyst of this psychologically discomforting novel. And this stunning mingling of interior landscape with the landscape of the Sahara-the sands, the sky, the maze-like passages of the cities, the alien culture-brilliantly unfies and completes the narrative of "The Sheltering Sky", marking it as a profound and compelling work of genius.
Rating:
Summary: Disturbing but beautiful.
Review: I spent two days consumed by this book. It is magical, spiritual, depressing, and enlightening. It is relatively simple story of three Americans, and the physical and psychological trauma that befalls them. The ending rather shocked me, and ended on a painful note, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. If you are willing, able, and have the time, let this book take you on its journey.
Rating: 
Summary: dry,not quaking
Review: what an experience! well worth the time to read.forget the movie..some parts are unbelievable; but thats bowles..this is a great book to start you on the path to becoming a "beat"-nik..the heat..the sand..what a lifestyle! wouldn't it be interesting if you could just travel for months, years,decades, at a time and still remember what you are running away from? you can run, but you can't hide.history, time and place are always a part of your present..bowles is one cool dead dude..try other works by him as you listen to loreena mckennitt and think about going to work tomorrow..ENJOY!
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Summary: A Story of the Fragility of Life
Review: The book begins in a rundown hotel on the Mediterranean coast of North Africa. Port Moresby, an American and a self defined "traveler" as opposed to tourist, experiences a prophetic and metaphorical dream. Port has traveled to North Africa with his wife Kit and friend Tunner to experience new adventures and try to reestablish the emotional bond between himself and Kit. Finding themselves in a harsh and hostile environment, the trio must battle not only their situation but also conflicts within themselves. As the story draws to a close, one does not survive and one emerges forever changed by the brutal desert. The third, who did not venture into the Sahara, remains unchanged. The author has done an excellent job creating a Saharan setting throughout the book. Descriptions are rich and vivid. The story is both dramatic and suspenseful. My complaint of the story, however, is that I thought far too little was done with the Lyles, a supposed mother-son duo engulfed in suspicion. Had these characters been allowed to develop and their motives made more clear, I believe that it could have become a very interesting sub-plot. This book is an enjoyable and entertaining read about people in search of themselves and seeking to reconnect. Their journeys and struggles will remain etched in my memory for many years to come.
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Summary: Polished To Perfection
Review: In Paul Bowles' The Sheltering Sky, three still-young Americans travel to the post WWII North African desert in search of themselves and new experiences. Port and Kit Moresby, in the tenth year of marriage, have become both sexually and emotionally estranged, and Port hopes their sojourn into the desert will bring them closer together and restore the love they once shared. Kit, not so keen on either the desert or Port, has nevertheless agreed to Port's wishes, albeit reluctantly. The third person in their party, their friend, George Tunner, accompanies them more on a whim than anything else. Seeking the exotic, the trio really doesn't know what to do with it when they find it. The sun is too bright, the labyrinth of city streets too dark, the excess of sensual delights a surfeit that imprisons rather than frees. Becoming more and more dissatisfied with both themselves and with those around them, they decide to leave the restrictiveness of the city behind and venture farther south, into the wild, harsh, dazzling beauty of the Sahara. They meet the Lyles, ostensibly mother and son, who claim to be writing a travel book but whose real business appears to be far more sinister, much like the duo's own obsessive Freudian tangles. Port, who at first, found himself drawn inexorably to the beauty and remoteness of the Sahara, soon becomes violently ill and dies, and Kit, grateful to be rescued by a passing, enigmatic Arab, finds that things are not always as they seem. Her rescuer becomes her imprisoner, and as the sun grows ever brighter, the shadows grow deeper. The bizarre eventually becomes so real that Kit gradually and terrifyingly loses what fragile grip on reality she once possessed. Although The Sheltering Sky may, on the surface, seem like a lurid and melodramatic tale, it is anything but. A masterpiece of understatement, plot is always secondary to theme in Bowles' writing; the real changes take place in the minds of the characters who must face an immensity of experience they cannot even hope to understand much less prepare themselves for. The indifference of nature and the unforgiving quality of the desert also play a huge part in this story. The book could be a metaphor for the meaninglessness of most 20th century relationships. Port and Kit's journey into the heart of the Sahara mirrors our own journey into the depths of the soul and we either come back altered forever (Kit) or we don't come back at all (Port). It is significant that Tunner, more superficial in both his outlook and psychological makeup, fails to make the journey into the depths of the desert and, as such, he remains untouched by it. He emerges essentially the same as he was when the story began. The Sheltering Sky could have been a character study, but Bowles wisely eschews this venue. Although we gain flashes of insight into each character, we really don't get to know them in-depth. An existential novel, the characters in The Sheltering Sky are more symbolic than fully-formed, fleshed-out people. In a highly thematic book, however, this is exactly as it should be, and Bowles never fails to manipulate his characters with anything less than sheer perfection. The inner emptiness of the characters is emphasized by the incompleteness of their emotional experiences. Every time Port or Kit seem to be on the verge of discovering a deeper connection, to themselves or to each other, Bowles pulls the chair out from under the reader. The scene that best typifies this lack of depth is Kit's as she spends her final moments with Port following his death: "Softly she laid her cheek on the pillow and stroked his hair. No tears flowed, it was a silent leave-taking. A strangely intense buzzing in front of her made her open her eyes. She watched fascinated while two flies made their brief, frantic love on his lower lip." Although The Sheltering Sky is, for the most part, written in beautifully understated prose (the vivid place descriptions are the exception), there is nothing subtle about its message. And, while one emerges from this strange and complex novel as if from a dream, a little reflection makes it clear that our dreams can so easily become our nightmares. The real setting of The Sheltering Sky is not the vast, uncharted Sahara, but the vast, uncharted reaches of the modern soul. Like Bowles' characters, we won't find the journey to the depths an easy one, but if we are going to do more than live on the periphery of life we should, however, find the journey necessary. Polished to perfection in every way, The Sheltering Sky is the strangest, and most strangely familiar, book I've read in a long, long time.
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Summary: Cool oblivion
Review: THE SHELTERING SKY invites you to drown yourself much like good music...a blissful suicide. If you romanticize "the abyss" and get a kick out of the dissolution of the ego, then do not hesitate to read this novel. And to maximize the experience, choose an appropriate setting: an empty beach, maybe some secluded spot in Montana, the desert (of course)...anywhere vast will do so that when you look up from the page, your head full, the environment surrounding you will swallow your state of mind and throw you for a whirl. Enjoy.
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Summary: It Has Everything
Review: The Sheltering Sky is a book that has everything--passion, love, disillusionment, pathos--you name and it's there. I hate to use the word, "masterpiece," but in this case, it applies. Bowles has done a perfect job in showing us the psychological depths of people who are deeply in love, yet lose their connections to and need for each other. The power of their plight is only reinforced by the unrelenting bleakness of the vast Sahara. It is a dark and often depressing book but one that is more than satisfying and memorable.
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Summary: Desolation never seemed so inviting
Review: I was inspired to read this book by the Police song "Tea in the Sahara," which is based on a tale told in "The Sheltering Sky." This book is gorgeously bleak, and Paul Bowles showed us all how desolate and lonely life really is and how little we know about ourselves, other people, and different cultures (even our own). This isn't a book that can be described in a brief synopsis; this is a book that must be absorbed from cover to cover. I found this book so enchanting and compelling, I couldn't put it down until I finished.
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Summary: Well-written but confusing
Review: The Sheltering Sky was an interesting novel with well-written descriptions that transport the reader to the vast desert of North Africa. Bowles also offers great psychological insight into the characters' personalities; however, I found the last section abrupt and somewhat confusing. After reading the description on the back of the book, I expected to see a gradual change in the characters, which was present, but most of the changes in Kit (one of the three main characters) seem to occur suddenly when there are about 60 pages left to read. I'm not sure that I got everything out of reading this novel that I was supposed to, but I will say that the three main characters were very interesting, and the mother and son who kept turning up everywhere were amusing. I would recommend this novel, but not if you are looking for a quick and/or easy read.
Rating: 
Summary: Not a book to forget
Review: I consumed The Sheltering Sky in one day. It was interesting and I had the time. The end left me very depressed and disturbed. I do not like being depressed and so my first impression was that I did not like this book. Then I read other reviews and decided that a book that can depress you is pretty powerful. On the whole, I got the impression that the Moresby's were procrastinating their life and merely subsisting. Bowles exposes their weaknesses in all areas, Kit's especially. Both the Moresby's lose their sanity at the end, if not more than that. I would give this book four stars except that it didn't give me the desire to read it again. Some passages were very hard to discern and some details seemed unnecessary. As I said before,a very disturbing read.
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