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Every Friday, at 11:00 am, on the library’s YouTube Channel and Facebook Page, the library will stream a brand new recording of local thespian, Joseph Coté reading aloud selections from a wide variety of fascinating and entertaining books of fiction and non-fiction.
For April 12, Coté will read aloud from Paul Bowles’ novel The Sheltering Sky.
The Modern Library’s 100 Best Books of the Century
Summary: A landmark of twentieth-century literature. Paul Bowles examines the ways in which Americans’ incomprehension of alien cultures leads to the ultimate destruction of those cultures.
Port and Kit Moresby, an American couple of independent means, have been traveling aimlessly for 12 years. By the time they reach Morocco, they have become disaffected and alienated. They take up with a series of unreliable rootless wanderers.
On a trip to the interior, Port contracts typhoid fever—out of apathy he has neglected to be vaccinated—and dies. Kit has an affair with an Arab and joins his household, but their relationship soon falls apart. Kit is found and returned to Oran. She is teetering on the brink of insanity and finds an opportunity to disappear into the crowded bazaar.
The Sheltering Sky, first novel by Paul Bowles, published in 1948. Considered a model of existential fiction, it sold well and was a critical success. The novel was described by the author as “an adventure story in which the adventures take place on two planes simultaneously: in the actual desert, and in the inner desert of the spirit.” Bowles’ cool, detached prose contrasts with the increasingly violent and irrational events of the novel.
Click the links to find the library’s YouTube Channel and Facebook Page.
Thoughts to share? Book ideas to suggest?
Contact Joseph at friday-explorations@usa.net