The Sheltering Sky

I don’t think I totally got this one, and I’m happy to admit that the problem is probably more with me as a reader than with the book itself.

There’s clearly a lot going on here around existential dread, alienation, imperialism, and racism, but I had a hard time figuring out how all of those pieces were meant to fit together. I also never really understood Port and Kit’s relationship.

Port seems to have no redeeming qualities. He spends so much time in his own head thinking about existence and searching for some deeper meaning in life, but I did not have much sympathy for him because he seems to have almost no respect for either his wife or the people whose countries he is traveling through. He’s adamant about being a “traveler” rather than a tourist, yet he seems to have very little actual interest in the cultures around him. The scene near the beginning of the book where he is accosted by a local and ended up at some sort of brothel had me wondering, is this really happening?

Once Kit is on her own, things get even wilder. I guess the idea is that, for a while, she becomes so broken that giving up control is easier than continuing to bear the weight of her own agency and personhood. And by the very end, she is so disconnected from herself and from reality that her identity disappears completely, both mentally and physically. But we went on a real bizarre journey to get there.

I should also mention that Mrs. Lyle and Eric Lyle are amazing characters. Every time Mrs. Lyle opened her mouth, I knew I was in for a treat. And then there’s Tunner, who seems to be the only “normal” character grounding the book, just a regular horny, dumb, carefree dude.

There are individual passages that I thought were great. The long conversation Port and Kit have about life in chapter 12 is excellent, and Port’s final scene is also incredibly memorable. I just never felt like all of the pieces clicked together for me as a whole in the way I think they were supposed to.

Book author: Paul Bowles