The Spider’s House: A Novel by Paul Bowles (EPUB)

Description

Originally published in 1955, Paul Bowles’s remarkable novel set in Fez, Morocco, during the last days of the French colonial empire, is an expansive piece of writing—vintage BowlesThe dilemma of the outsider in an alien society, and the gap in understanding between cultures, recurrent themes of Paul Bowles’s writings, are dramatized with brutal honesty in this novel set in Fez, Morocco, during that country’s 1954 nationalist uprising. Totally relevant to today’s political situation in the Middle East and elsewhere, richly descriptive of its setting, and uncompromising in its characterizations, The Spider’s House is perhaps Bowles’s best, most beautifully subtle novel.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Eerily prescient in its depiction of Islamic populations wishing to establish sovereign Islamic governments and free themselves from tyranny in North Africa and the Middle East, this 1955 novel should have been a wake-up call to the western world half a century ago when it was written. Paul Bowles (1910 – 1999), an American expatriate author, was an eyewitness to the uprisings which occurred in Morocco in 1954 after the French deposed the much-loved Sultan Mohammed V. The tumult that developed in Fez and the many factions that evolved within the local population will strike a familiar chord among contemporary readers who are now seeing the same issues being addressed by residents of many other countries in the region, with the same kind of attendant violence provoking the same perplexity among western powers.When John Stenham, an American author in his late thirties, an old hand in Morocco, leaves the home of a friend in Fez, his friend insists that he take a protector along with him that night as he travels back home to the Medina. No sooner does he arrive back at the hotel where he lives, however, than he receives a phone call from Alain Moss, also living at the hotel, who must see him immediately. It is 1:20 a.m. The focus of the novel then shifts abruptly to that of Amar, a fourteen-year-old boy brought up in a poor, strictly traditional Moslem household. As Amar, a naïf, moves around the city, unimpeded, talking to his boss, his family, and his young friends, the reader discovers through his eyes the many factions at work in this fraught time in Moroccan history.His father, like many others, wants the Sultan back on the throne and hints at promoting jihad against unbelievers. The brother of a friend, arrested for bringing grenades into Fez from Spanish Morocco, is a member of Istiklal (meaning “Freedom”), a group of young men who plan oust the French and all other foreigners by violence. A group of young intellectuals has entered the country to promote Marxist/Leninist ideals, and the French themselves have enlisted groups of Berbers to undermine the effects of the jihadists. The Mokhazni, a group of Arab locals who work with the French, spy on their own people, and uphold French values.In Part II, the author reintroduces Stenham and Moss, and also introduces Mme. Veyron, the former Polly Burroughs, an adventure-seeking American who has escaped her French husband to travel abroad. She and Stenham connect, and it is their “adventures” which broaden the picture of what is happening in Fez and the immediate surroundings, though it is their inevitable connection with the more appealing character of Amar that gives the full picture. Stenham and Polly Burroughs are flat characters and do not come alive anywhere nearly as much as Amar, but the overall depiction of life in Morocco is compelling. Many philosophical digressions serve to explain some of the mysteries of Islam for western readers. And when Amar prays to Allah that Allah “might help them discover new refinements in the matter of causing pain and despair, might show them the way to the imposing of hitherto undreamed of humiliation,” the reader begins to understand some of the current issues there, and in other parts of that area. A novel to fascinate anyone interested in the current issues rending North Africa and the Middle East, The Spider’s Web is an especially enlightening novel. Mary Whipple

⭐If you’ve ever been an expat in a non-Western culture, the conversations between and the inner musings of the Western characters in The Spider’s House will ring 100% true. Like Stenham (the principal American character), I spent several years in a foreign country learning what I could of the culture and language, and, like Stenham, I would become territorial when a greener expat proffered this or that theory about our adopted country — I was dismissive of anyone who claimed to know anything without learning the language first. Like Stenham and Polly (the other American), I would have lengthy, involved conversations with other expats in expat pubs and cafes (and even longer, more intense discussions with myself when I was alone or on one form of transportation or another) about what our adopted country was or wasn’t or how it should or shouldn’t be. Sometimes in these conversations I was Stenham, inveighing against the missionaries who thought “these people” needed Jesus or X or Y, and sometimes I was what I’d imagine Polly would sound like today with talk of democracy and human rights. And like Stenham, I unwittingly spurned friendship not lightly proffered because I was too stuck in my selfish little monad world.The Spider’s House has the whole experience of being a foreigner, but it is much more than that — I’ve just chosen to focus on that particular angle. It complements the foreigner experience with the perspective of a young native boy which shows us just how wrong our little foreigner theories can be.Bowles avoids the trap of making value judgements on the thoughts and actions of his characters (except maybe implicitly at the end) — they judge each other harshly enough. Bowles takes us deep into the skulls of the characters where we see some of their ugliest thoughts, but he never pulls back and uses his omniscient narrator voice to condemn them. The characters simply are who they are and think the way they think, contradictions and all. The Spider’s House isn’t interested in resolving either these internal contradictions or those between the characters. They are just a natural consequence of living in a planet as large and diverse as ours.So whether you’re an ex-expat looking to relive your salad days, a current expat, a casual tourist, or stuck at home and looking to experience some vicarious culture shock — not the tip of the iceberg “they call it a royale with cheese because they use the metric system,” culture shock, the real stuff, the stuff that makes you realize just how big the iceberg is in relation to what little you can see, the stuff that makes you look at every interaction you’ve had in that country up to that point in a completely different light — you should check this book out.

⭐A good book to read at the time of terrorist attacks in Tunisia and Yemen. I ordered it after a recent trip to Morocco and found it incredibly relevant to the current situation in the region. The book is set in Fes, during the 1954 movement for the liberation of Morocco from the French rule. It really helps understand people in the Middle east and North Africa, including the origins of the anti-American sentiment among the Arabs. From the first page Bowles creates an atmosphere of suspense as the unrest begins to boil in Fes and simmers throughout Morocco. The central character is an illiterate, but devout Muslim, with strong intuition about people. We watch the historic developments through his eyes, his views contrasted with those of two American visitors. Bowles spent much of his life in Tangiers and understood Moroccans more than many of his contemporaries.The Spider’s House is generally well written, and has interesting characters, but the plot meanders somewhat in places.Overall, I think this is more of a classic than Bowles’s more famous book The Sheltering Sky, in the sense that it is less likely to become obsolete.Higly recommended.

⭐Like it

⭐The author carries off a good sense of time and place. It held my attention throughout. But the ending? A complete nothing! Kind of a “men live by their xxxx, after all”. It seemed Bowles just go tired of writing the book, so he went with the convention that so called good guys really don’t value character over a pretty face. Very disappointing.

⭐For anyone who has ever been to Fez in Morocco it will be completely enthralling. The descriptive details of the city are extraordinary. As a novel it reads very well indeed. As an insight into the very troubled period leading to independence from French rule it is devastatingly informative. One has a greater understanding of the causality leading to many of the problems we are seeing today. Highly recommended.

⭐this is a great fiction book, although the plot relates to real historical events in Morocco. Fine, handy format of the Penguin book

⭐Reading this you will feel like you have been too Morroco at the time of their conflict. The character and life of Amar is a pure delight to read.

⭐It’s PB’s story telling abilities that really make his books worth reading rather than the stories themselves, not that they are bad but just that the way the story is delivered is so amazing. PB writes with a unique style that is on the one had journalistic and on the other disturbingly voyeuristic. He gets insides his characters heads in such a way that one is almost embarrassed to discover all the ‘dirty laundry’ laid out and on display.Sorry I’m hopeless at this sort of thing. I find PB’s works spellbinding and disturbing… and utterly addictive and brilliant so I’m a little biased!

⭐A poweful book. Recommended.

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