of identity that occours among
the first group. His most famous
book, The Sheltering Sky, filmed
by Bertolucci, is the story of
expatriates Port and Kit; after
Port dies at a remote fort in the
Sahara, the lost Kit is retrieved
by a handsome Tuareg prince,
Belquassim, and gets lost further
still.
Less well known but even more
suspenseful is The Spider's
House, a long, subtle evocation
of Fez during the 1954 nationalist
uprising, seen through the eyes
of Amar, a young Arab boy and
John Stenham, a disillusioned
journalist, an ex-Communist
with a romantic love for the
traditional Muslim way of life,
and abhorrence both of French
Colonialism and the neo-Marxist
nationalists. The pages of The
Spider's House, published
January 1st, 1955, are perfumed
with nostalgia for a world which
Bowles knew would be undone
as quickly as he could write the
words which memorialize it.
HYLAND
Harper Perennial
ISBN-10 0061137030
