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This collection of strikingly original and unsettling short
stories combine bizarre characterization, sardonic wit and
mastery of style.
Although Jane Bowles’s output was small, it was of dazzlingly
brilliant quality. These stories provide a fascinating companion
to her novel Two Serious Ladies and revolve around
conflict, exploring people’s hidden lives and experience
of sin and salvation. She writes so that we may eavesdrop
on the conversations and meetings between characters, and
creates a collection that is both troubling and funny.
‘Strange wit, thorny insights
. . . one of the really original prose-stylists.’ -
Truman Capote
‘One of the finest modern writers of fiction in any
language.’ - John Ashbery, New York Times
‘In the best of Jane Bowles’ fiction her waspish
style is not only illuminating but bizarrely entertaining
and leaves no doubt of her originality. In Plain Pleasures she
appears at her best . . . the stories show that she was
a master of the form.’ - Spectator
‘Clear prose, stark and unadorned . . . stories carved
out on the far edge of sanity.’ - Guardian
JANE BOWLES was born in New York in 1917. In 1938 she
married the writer and composer Paul Bowles and travelled
with him to Europe, Central America, Mexico and Sri Lanka,
before settling in Tangier, Morocco in 1947. In addition to
Two Serious Ladies, Bowles published the short story
collection Plain Pleasures and a play In the Summer
House, which was performed on Broadway. Jane Bowles died
in Málaga in 1973. Her work has been translated into
many languages, securing her an international reputation. |
