First published 1998
Millicent Dillon arrives in Tangier in 1977 to write about Jane Bowles, the deceased wife of composer and writer Paul Bowles. She returns fifteen years later to work with Paul himself on his biography. In his crowded, book filled apartment, Dillon watches visitors drawn to the aging artist's magnetic presence. Bowles speaks of his harsh childhood and his sorrow over Jane's prolonged illness. He talks about exile, dreams, and madness. Yet he remains both generous and deceptive with Dillon, charming but evasive. As their sessions continue, Dillon finds herself questioning her role as biographer and the nature of truth in storytelling. Her own thoughts and concerns emerge alongside the details of Bowles's daily routines, his failing health, and his relationships. The portrait she creates becomes inseparable from her process of creating it. The book reveals both subject and biographer, exploring how lives become stories and stories become truth.
Genres: biography, literary-fiction, 20th-century, 21st-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: unreliable-narrator
Setting: Tangier
Period: 1977, 1990s
340 pages · Hardcover · University of California Press