Vox Clamatis in Deserto

The Sheltering Sky - Paul Bowles
Another in my growing list of existentialist fiction, this is one of (if not the ONE) great desert book of all time. The desolation and regurgitant colonialism (or Hybridities That Gesture Towards Moments of Post-Colonial Erasure) that are represented here have literally no equal; though arguments could be made that Greene and Naipaul had equally interesting things to say, or imply at least, about the imperial urge. Bowles who lived in Tangier, Morocco until his death (Nov. 18, 1999) was enamored with what most others consider vast wastelands. He believed (or at least stated to an interviewer that I have since forgotten) that you were only whole when you were near absolutes and the desert, especially the Sahara, was an absolute par excellance. The story itself is one of displaced, or perhaps misplaced, Europeans and their futile attempts to come to terms with the Sahara and it's peoples, as well as with one another. The ensueing madness when exposed to the seeming infinity held within the vast and empty desert makes for entertaining and revealing reading. This book is not for the light of heart or mind though - it deals with some very Camus-esque (another lover of deserts) ideas and some very Kafka-esque endings. Caveat Emptor.
Rating: A
Related Works:
The Sahara Unveiled - William Langeweische
The Stranger - Albert Camus