7 hours ago
2
Jane Bowles, wife of Paul Bowles (author of A Sheltering Sky) was as Gore Vidal put it, “famous among those who were famous” and a muse within their literary circle in 1960’s Tangier (the likes of Tennessee Williams, William S. Burroughs, Susan Sontag, Truman Capote, etc.) Tennessee Williams is quoted saying J. Bowles was “the most important writer of prose fiction in modern American letters.” When you look up J. Bowles, you very shortly find a comparison to and the sentiment that despite his wider fame, Paul was the less talented of the two; that his style was a mimic of Jane’s; that her talent did not translate to a prolific body of work because of her alcoholism and perfectionism. Perhaps all or some of that is true, who’s to say. That’s the context for this review.
A Sheltering Sky was a better book. I wish that wasn’t my opinion and I found Jane to have a literary spark that Paul could only cheaply manage to replicate. I wish that I had read Two Serious Ladies and it broke Jane out of the easy comparison to Paul (their writing does have very similar settings, style, and subjects, but then again, they shared a lot of the same experiences.) But it didn’t, and I found Two Serious Ladies to be narrow and dull. I am glad that I researched and read about Jane Bowles prior to reading Two Serious Ladies, because it added depth and context that the story needs. It falls, for me, into that specific category of mid-century writings that coyly flirt with profoundness, but, at the end of the night, go home with an oblique statement about The Female Experience.
(Source for quotes and a great profile: https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-madness-of-queen-jane)
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