First published 1981
Millicent Dillon reconstructs the life of Jane Bowles, the fiction writer Tennessee Williams declared the most important in modern American letters. Dillon traces Bowles through her unconventional marriage to composer Paul Bowles, her struggles with alcoholism and writer's block, and her years in Morocco where she wrote her acclaimed novel Two Serious Ladies and various short stories. The biography examines how Bowles created fiction that John Ashbery called consistently surprising, the mark of great art. Dillon shows how Bowles navigated her sexuality, her creative process, and her complicated relationships while producing a small but influential body of work. The book reveals the personal costs behind Bowles's unique literary voice and her position among mid-century American writers.
Genres: biography, literary-fiction, american-fiction, 20th-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: unconventional-relationship, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Morocco
Period: Mid-Century
464 pages · Hardcover · Holt Rinehart & Winston
Content warnings: addiction, alcohol-abuse