Rating: 
Summary: Nice!
Review: Having read the book and then seen the movie.I have to say the book is by far better.The writer does his best to make you feel like you're in the desert.And sure feels like it.You'll be immobilized from your sofa and virtually sun-burned.
Rating: 
Summary: The Best Book Ever
Review: I give out copies of this book on halloween. The Sheltering Sky is beautiful.
Rating:
Summary: One of the finest American books of the 20th century
Review: Someone gave me the book to read and I sort of read it on a whim not having any clue what it was about or who Paul Bowles is. Since that time this book has ignited a passion in me for Morocco and the Saraha desert as well as Paul Bowles' short stories that I have never know about anything else. I like what Gore Vidal had to say about the book "...Bowles has glimpsed what lies back of our sheltering sky...an endless flux of stars so like those atoms which make us up that in our apprehension of this terrible infinity, we experience not only horror but likeness." It is not an easy book to read and unless you are willing to spend time digging through the layers you probably will not find it that rewarding. The book challenges you in much the same way the desert challenges Kit and Port. It is not a product of the American pop culture meant to be consumed. I have not found a novel since where the desert itself is such an important protagonist. I truly found a new vigor and understanding for life upon completing this novel after experiencing what Kit and Port go through.
Rating: 
Summary: I love Jane Bowles
Review: As I read more and more into the life of Jane Bowles, I thought I would benifit from reading some of her husband's work. It enrages me to think that he became the famous one, for he lacks all the wit and charm of his wife's writing. The only thing I feel I got out of this book was a small biographical view of his feelings for his wife (Kate/Jane, come on folks, it obvious). I you really are a fan of Paul, I recomend reading ' A Little Orginal Sin' the biography of Jane Bowles, just for a further understanding of him. A person always plays them self up, it is in through around him that was see who he truly was. He was a good man, but his story is not everything.
Rating:
Summary: hard work to get through
Review: I really wanted to like the novel, but it seemed that I struggled to see the point and understand the characters. Bowles, I believe, did a good job at bringing the reader into the heads of the characters. But the plot just drones on and on. I made a great effort to like the book, and I understand how the book became so well known, but it left me empty.
Rating:
Summary: A beautiful but disturbing tale of travel into the Sahara.
Review: This book is reminiscent of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. The characters are presumably smart, independent travelers, but they are not equiped to go into the desert. With each hardship, pieces of their lives and identities peel away. They are searching and hungering in a land where sheep fat is the main course. Bowles creates shocking and vulgar circumstances through imagery inspired by the shifting sands and unforgiving sun. His brilliant pacing seems to move the characers along like the cycles of an addict-from daze to frenzy. The writing is clean and honest, to the point of being edgy. Despite it all, Bowles is optimistic. Unlike Conrad's characters, these characters still have options. It is a pleasure to read a book of this caliber, I savored every page.
Rating: 
Summary: Major Motion Picture
Review: Yes, a major motion picture, Mr. Albany. In fact, the movie was made a few years ago, and also stars John Malkovich. IMHO, it wasn't a very good film, but I read the book first, and it was a very good book. My humble opinion: skip the movie, READ THE BOOK. It's good and touching and scary and sad and thrilling.
Rating:
Summary: A major motion picture??? You're kidding, right?
Review: For a man who has spent decades living in Morocco, Paul Bowles does a poor job of bringing the Sahara Desert to life in his novel, The Sheltering Sky. After reading the book, I was honestly surprised to find that he lived in and around the Sahara for so many years. I had already forgiven this shortcoming of the author as a valiant attempt by a non-African when I was disappointed to find that the opposite was the case. Bowles' limited powers of description are not a result of his life experience. The Sheltering Sky lacks structure and character development, is rambling and at times supremely boring, and leaves many loose ends dangling in the desert wind. Many of the decisions made by the characters in the book leave the reader baffled because Bowles gives a minimum of background information on them. While this may be called Bowles' "style" by some, it is more likely that the true culprit is amateurism. This is the kind of book that you finish in hopes of a fantastic ending with a few plot twists, but Bowles disappoints and leaves you feeling as empty as the desert landscape. He really misses the opportunity to bring back some of the characters he loses along the way. I am amazed that there are plans to make a major motion picture out of this book. The Sahara Desert will surely provide a boring visual complement to an already boring story. Though there are some cheap sex scenes in the story (which will likely be over-dramatized for public interest) the movie will, and should, flop.
Rating:
Summary: Read the book and you are inevitably hooked
Review: One of the most neglected masters of words this century has seen, Paul Bowles takes the reader on a journey to North Africa during the post war years. But what seems to be a fairly ordinary story at first develops into something absolutely special and unique. The main characters are Kit and Port Moresby who set out from America to travel through Africa accompanied by a "friend" called Tunner. It is not only a journey into another world but also a story about life in general, about love, existing and self-realization. To say more about the plot would be sacrilege
What adds to the value of the novel is the language the author uses which is apt, clever and stylistically witty.
If you read this book you will become instantly hooked on Paul Bowles' work. And there is certainly more where this novel came from
Rating:
Summary: An amazing book
Review: Bowles takes the reader into the deep desert and psyche of his characters. From the first incredible page, his images and characters are rendered in flawless prose. One of the most poignant, memorable books I've read. ]
Highly recommended.
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