Books Left: 97
Days Left: 687
Current Book: The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles

I don’t always read the Preface. This time I decided to read the preface, because I’d never heard of The Sheltering Sky before and I thought it would be beneficial to The Displaced English Major project for me to do so. It was also short. It also gave away an important plot detail that happens halfway thought the novel. Since I was spoiled by the Preface, I decided it wasn’t fair for me to have to read the author’s huge spoiler but not any of you:

The male protagonist dies halfway through the book.

Now that the giant spoiler is out of the way, let me express something else: I absolutely without a doubt am in love with this book. I am not halfway through yet (so I have not yet reached the point in which Port, the male protagonist, dies–just in case you missed that bit above in bold text) so I suppose it could be possible for the ending to dissuade me from continuing to love it so much. This is what originally happened with Special Topics in Calamity Physics, but eventually I decided I still liked the book despite the conclusion.

I doubt this will happen here, as in Special Topics I was drawn in by the plot while I like The Sheltering Sky for other reasons:

1. The setting. Children are often encouraged to read because books are like doorways to far away settings. Case in point:

This can be true for adults as well. The Sheltering Sky takes place in North Africa, which the author Paul Bowles spent a great deal of time exploring. I’ve always had a fascination with deserts and these places (particularly Morocco, although the book does not take place there specifically) and the other day while cold and irritated waiting for a metro train to arrive, I thought, “Forget this. I’m going to escape to the desert.” And so I did.

2. Paul Bowles’s characters are fascinating. I find Kit, the female protagonist, to be particularly well developed. She views the world as a series of omens, and is continually trying to counteract them in some way. But at the same time, she values logic and reason and sees her husband (the ticking time bomb of death, Port) as the human personification of these attributes. Their relationship is so fascinating. They both practice infidelity. But they do love each other and despite insisting on separate rooms in each hotel you can see them grow closer as the book gains momentum. However, they want this closeness for different reasons. I am still trying to figure out why they do not sleep in the same bed together. This boggles me.

3. More than anything else, I love this book because Paul Bowles has a way with words that is exeedingly rare. Allow a few examples to speak from themselves, starting with this one from the first chapter, which describes Port right after he just woke up in his hotel room:

He yawned: there was no air in the room. Later he would climb down from the high bed and fling the window open, and at that moment he would remember his dream. For although he could not recall a detail of it, he knew he had dreamed. On the other side of the window would be air, the roofs, the town, the sea.

This next brief excerpt explores Kit’s thoughts as she and Port have a similar reaction to the sunset while on a bike ride:

She did not answer. It made her 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.

This last piece I’m not going to provide a frame of reference for. I’m already spoiling you enough just by including it here:

She could no longer think, nor were there any more images in her head. She was aware only of the softness of the woolen bathrobe next to her skin, and then the nearness and warmth of a being that did not frighten her. The rain beat against the window panes.

I often read very quickly. I take in whole chunks at once, skipping forward on a page and then running my eyes back to see how the characters got to that point a few paragraphs before. Very rarely does a book come along that forces me to read every word individually and savor it like a rich velvety dessert. I fear this book may be spoiling me and that nothing else on the list will be quite this good.