2007 books

[peteryoung]

22) Paul Bowles, Points in Time, 1982
A curious series of vignettes of both historical and modern Moroccan life, some based on true events that illustrate Islam's troubled interactions with Christianity and Judaism. Paul Bowles' spare, dry style makes an impression, and he was able to delineate his stories with some sufficiently arid language that renders a harsh and discomfiting picture of the times and locations. This is the first Bowles I've read (the obvious next choice being his much more famous earlier novel The Sheltering Sky), but even on the strength of this collection it's easy to see how his own long experience of Morocco led him to being regarded as such a highly valued writer.