My Sister's Hand in Mine: The Collected Works of Jane Bowles

by Jane Bowles, Truman Capote (Introduction), Joy Williams (Preface by)

Though she wrote only one novella, one short play, and fewer than a dozen short stories over a roughly twenty-year span from the early 1940s to the mid-1960s, Jane Bowles has long been regarded by critics as one of the premier stylists of her generation. Enlivened at unexpected moments by sexual exploration, mysticism, and flashes of wit alternately dry and hilarious, her prose is spare and honed, her stories filled with subtly sly characterizations of men and, mostly, women, dissatisfied not so much with the downward spiral of their fortunes as with the hollowness of their neat little lives. Whether focused on the separate emergences of Miss Goering and Mrs. Copperfield from their affluent, airless lives in New York and Panama into a less defined but intense sexual and social maelstrom in the novella Two Serious Ladies , or on the doomed efforts of the neighbors Mr. Drake and Mrs. Perry to form a connection out of their very different loneliness in "Plain Pleasures," or on the bittersweet cultural collision of an American wife and a peasant woman in Morocco in "Everything Is Nice," Jane Bowles creates whole worlds out of the unexpressed longings of individuals, adrift in their own lives, whether residing in their childhood homes or in faraway lands that are somehow both stranger and more familiar than what they left behind.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, Plays, Queer, Womens, Literature, American

496 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1966

About the author

Born Jane Sydney Auer, Jane Bowles's total body of work consists of one novel, one play, and six short stories. Yet John Ashbery said of her: "It is to be hoped that she will be recognized for what she is: one of the finest modern writers of fiction in any language." Tennessee Williams called her the most underrated writer of fiction in American literature. During her lifetime and since her death in 1973, she has been considered a writer's writer, little known to the general public but with a loyal following of intensely devoted readers.

She was born in New York City on February 22, 1917, the daughter of Sidney Auer and Claire Stajer Auer. Her childhood was spent in Woodmere, Long Island. On her father's death in 1930, Jane and her mother moved back to Manhattan. As an adolescent she developed tuberculosis of the knee. Her mother took her to a sanatorium in Leysin, Switzerland, where she was put in traction for many months. During this time she developed an intense love of literature and an equally intense series of obsessions and fears. Upon her return to New York she began to experiment with writing a novel and with sexual adventures with men and women, though primarily with women.

In 1937 she met Paul Bowles, and in the following year they were married and set off for a honeymoon in Central America, which was to be, in part, the locale of her novel Two Serious Ladies. The Bowleses went on to Paris, where she started writing and at the same time visited lesbian bars. The marriage remained a sexual marriage for about a year and a half, but after that Jane and Paul lived separate sexual lives. After returning to New York in 1938, the Bowleses went on to Mexico, where Jane continued to work on her novel and also met Helvetia Perkins, who was to become her lover.

Two Serious Ladies was published in 1943. The reviews were mostly uncomprehending. Soon, Paul, who had been involved in the editing of Two Serious Ladies, began to write short stories, which were immediately published with great distinction. Jane, having published a few short stories, began to work on a novel, but ran up against a serious writer's block.

In 1947 Paul went to Morocco to work on The Sheltering Sky. Jane followed him there the following year. She continued to struggle to work, and published several short stories, including her masterpiece, "Camp Cataract," and began to work seriously on her play In the Summer House. In Tangier, where the Bowleses resided, Jane fell in love with a Moroccan peasant woman.

In the Summer House was performed on Broadway in 1953 to mixed reviews. Jane returned to Tangier and continued to try to write a novel, but her attention was primarily devoted to her love affair with Cherifa, the Moroccan woman, to affairs with other women and also to a social life in which she did a considerable amount of drinking.

In 1957 she suffered a serious stroke, which affected her sight and her capacity to imagine. Nevertheless, notebook after notebook attests to her still continuing struggle to try to write. Her condition worsened, and after hospitalizations in England, New York and Málaga, Spain, she was confined in the Clinica de Los Angeles in Málaga, where she died in 1973.

Yet it should be noted that despite this tragic story, her personality captivated many people. She was brilliant and witty, always doing and saying the unexpected thing. She was in every way as surprising as her work, one moment mystical, the next moment hilariously funny.

Copyright © 2003, by Millicent Dillon

Reviews

[Sketchbook · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stylized off-tilt comedy. Makes you feel - cx, makes me feel - uncomfortable. Like sitting next to a beautiful crazy on a train or plane :

"Want some candy ?"
"No, thank you."
"I don't have any candy, but I will take my clothes off."

You can't move away becos there are no other seats.

Jane Bowles is lauded x Pinter, Ten Williams, Capote. And there's excess wonderfulnessy. What I find interesting is how she influenced Messrs. Edwards Albee and Gorey.

Jane and Libby Holman were great friends. Libby funded her cuckoo play, "In the Summer House" (1953), about mother love, domination, jealousy.

Don't let any cumm job by John Ashbery intimidate you. One knows she's good without Ashbery. Pub 1943, "Two Serious Ladies," now a cult fav, got lackluster revs. It's a pervo's absurdist dream. Annoying and funny.

I believe her Moroccan maid-lover poisoned her, but then, this is all part of the Jane Bowles legend.

[Nathanimal · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book so much I'm starting over with a pencil.

[Alika]

I appreciate Jane Bowles taking risks and going off the beaten path with her wacky characters. To be fair, I only read the novel "Two Serious Ladies" and the story "Camp Cataract" from this collection. Both are similar in style (very dialog-heavy with little internal reflections) and subject matter (peculiar women who don't particularly like men and attach themselves to other women/strangers in odd ways). With the novel, it occurred to me that perhaps Bowles decided to write a book where the characters say and do the opposite of what "normal" or conventional women of that time would do. That is, approach and befriend many strangers who possess traits usually seen as undesirable (a stout man living with his parents, a prostitute, a deadbeat guy with no job or passion, a man who ignores her completely). There are a lot of cases when the characters say "yes" when you expect them to say "no way in hell!" which I find interesting. I like reading fiction that is on the strange side, but after awhile, I got a little tired of these unsympathetic characters and in the case of the novel, I didn't see much of a story arc. The short story felt a bit more well-rounded and complete to me and definitely had an ending. Perhaps, over time, this book will grow on me and I'll go back and read the rest of her work.

[Jimmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The moment when they might have felt tenderness had passed, and secretly they both rejoiced"

A novel, a play, and a handful of short stories. So funny, so sad. I really loved her novel, which I reviewed separately on here. Her stories were good too. I really liked "Going to Massachusetts" and "A Stick of Green Candy". I wasn't crazy about the play, though it was pretty good.

I just read some of the other reviews on here and this description made me laugh: 'There are a lot of cases when the characters say "yes" when you expect them to say "no way in hell!"'

[Meg Tuite · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you haven't read Jane Bowles, especially "Two Serious Ladies," than you are missing out on some of the best dialogue EVER! It's hilarious and I've read it a few times and it never loses its power! I hope anyone who reads this would consider buying a copy of her collection which is exceptional!

[Walter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Her original sin was being a singular voice. As she commits the biggest sin you can as an artist: she treats the “immoral” in regards to social convention as being normal; which it is, was, and always will be; and writes about life and people, their heart, their mind, and their dreams, as it is, but as it can’t be; but not with the eye of cynic, but with the eye of a poet that has a brain. People say they like writers who “don’t judge”. People say lots of things that are nonsense. As by their presentation, still to this day, “immoral” things are treated and presented as being “edgy” or illicit; thus by the presentation passing judgment, at least, emotionally.


She saw people as human, maybe... that is the biggest sin of all.

Go Jane!

[Max Nemtsov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Пьеса "В беседке" - вечные игрища в еврейские дочки-матери, как, надо думать, и было у самой Джейн с ее мамашей; меня вовсе не удивляет ее неуспех на театре, она довольно-таки разваливается на изложения персонажами точек зрения, а жизни в ней не очень много. Хотя, возможно, театр просто уже вообще никак и ничем меня не прельщает. Как детская литература.
Рассказы же, как и у Пола, великолепны каждый по-своему. Как подглядывать за чужой жизнью в разных местах мира, где обычно нет западного человека и/или его цивилизации.

[Chaserrrr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Discovering Jane Bowles is one of the best things to happen to me as a reader. I first read "Two Serious Ladies" after John Waters glowing recommendation in his book "Role Models" and finding out that Tennesse Williams considered it his favourite novel for a time. I devoured it in one sitting and for awhile every book I read after seemed so simply structured and the characters within were such predictable bores. I needed more!! But what to do? "Two Serious Ladies" was her only novel.
I eventually became aware of this collection of her works and was thoroughly pleased with it's contents. It includes "Two Serious Ladies", as well as her only play "In The Summerhouse"; which almost out Tennessees Tennessee Williams and, although it seems like it would be hell to try and stage, is a great read full of rich and fascinating female leads. It also includes 7 short stories that are little treats so good you can't help but go back and savour their sparse yet wonderous flavors. My personal favorites are "Everything Is Nice", "Camp Cataract", and "A Little Stick of Green Candy". The rest of the collection consists of passages of stories that were never completed taken from her notebooks. This is one of my most beloved and cherished collections. Highly recommended for fans of Joy Williams and Miranda July.

[Patrone · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m completely smitten by these carcrash people and very sad that this is it.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jane Bowles' work is so complex, and so enjoyable to me. Especially since I read in her biography how she struggled with every single word she wrote. It was nice to revisit this book.

[David Gallin-Parisi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Puzzling, stories about serious characters. Serious, meaning the characters' enjoyment flows from some place, some wish, or some spiritual-searching that I cannot locate. Deeply interested and involved, addressing grave and earnest states, the women in these stories choose paths toward uncertainty and unpredictable desires. Nomadic is another descriptor for Bowles' writing, never staying in one place too long. I want to give this a lower rating, but feel compelled to go back to Bowle's writing when she so finely captures a feeling of maladjustment, focused boredom, and hope for something, anything to happen differently. The atmosphere reminds me of contemporary social networks, wandering aimlessly, hoping for a sort of completeness by making connections with people. Then emptiness. I started Two Serious Ladies and felt baffled. I read the short stories Plain Pleasures, Everything is Nice, and Camp Cataract. I may come back to this later.

[Robert Vaughan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jane Bowles is one of the most entertaining writers in the American canon. And she was the wife of Paul Bowles, who shot to fame with The Sheltering Sky. Still, her own short stories, plays, and strange pieces have so much merit. They also lived as ex-pats in Morocco, and both had relationships outside of their marriage with same sexes. Okay, maybe that is too much information? But how much of our outside life informs our writing? In this case, Jane shines through much of her confirming illnesses, and all the rest. I adore this collection, and re-reading it for the third time this summer made me giddy, and still underlining phrases, dialogue that does not exist anymore, and so much else. I also recommend reading A Little Original Sin, the biography of Jane Bowles by Millicent Dillon. What a life! What a writer.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Joy Williams writes the intro to this collection, and I can see why she reveres Bowles. The biting humor is similar, the sense of alienation, the way weird shit just happens to the protagonists. Both authors' plots are compilations of madcap episodes which, if they do add up, do so in a way that I sure as hell can't fully comprehend.

I only read Two Serious Ladies so far (which is why I bought the collected works in the first place), and I admire the risks Bowles took, but I got antsy two thirds of the way through. I wanted a sense of something happening, and I never got it, though I reckon that if Jane Bowles were alive to give a shit, she probably wouldn't. But still.

[Simon A. Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

This fell just short of 5 stars for me. It was a supremely enjoyable read. I tend to love writers who bring a lot of buoyancy and playfulness to their prose. The fact that Bowles took herself very seriously, makes these stories all the more sincere and inspired. "Two Serious Ladies" carries this collection, but there are definitely some hidden gems and you'd do well to pick this one up and give it a shot. If you are at all familiar with Joy Williams, she writes the introduction and states her respect for Jane, and it is obvious in her writing. So if you like Williams, you will probably enjoy this whimsical book also.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an extraordinary book. Jane Bowles is an original, singular, distinctive writer. Although one wishes there were more, it is a pleasure to have everything she wrote in one volume. Like the work it contains, this single volume is a treasure.

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

A sui generis prose stylist that plunges you into a world where the rules are all made up by the writer a la Walser, Vian, or Bruno Shultz. But like them it reflects anxieties of our "real" world.

[Tobias · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Two Serious Ladies" and "Camp Cataract" are pretty stunning, and the whole thing falls into the "like nothing I've read before" category.

[Christopher Iacono · Rating 5 out of 5]

This fantastic compilation includes Bowles’s only novel Two Serious Ladies; the play In the Summer House, which, in my opinion, needs an off-Broadway revival; the short story collection Plain Pleasures; and some unfinished works. The first three are definitely worth the price of admission, but the works-in-progress are just as fascinating (“Going to Massachusetts” will not be leaving my head anytime soon).

Most of the characters in these works are trying to break through social, religious, or familial barriers in order to find happiness on their own terms. A socialite becomes attached to a prostitute. The owner of a boarding house marries a wealthy man to escape a tragedy that’s haunted her most of her life. A Nazarene missionary explores the world of the Muslims. A woman fakes a mental illness to escape her suffocating sister.

While these stories are dramatic, they’re also funny at times. Two Serious Ladies begins with a young girl “absolving” the sins of one of her sister’s friends by improvising a baptism at a nearby stream. The first act of In the Summer House contains a disastrous picnic where spaghetti falls on a woman’s head. And in “A Guatemalan Idyll,” a traveler starts his vacation feeling miserable: “Having completed all his work, he had for some reason decided to stay on another week, perhaps because he had always heard that a vacation in a foreign country was a desirable thing.”

While Bowles gets into the heads of these characters, their thoughts frequently spill out into the real world, even though their ideas can be quite unconventional. They live out their dreams and fantasies without considering the damage they do to themselves or others. And they don’t have conversations: they talk to themselves while others are around. And, in the case of “A Quarreling Pair,” a puppet show becomes a substitute for two sisters attempting to communicate with each other. While these results can occasionally be disorienting, Bowles manages, through her witty and sensitive writing, to always keep the reader engaged.

Overall, I highly recommend this book. If I had one complaint, it would be the same one Truman Capote had in the introduction:

“The volume in hand constitutes her entire shelf, so to say. And grateful as we are to have it, one could wish that there was more.“

[Brett · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, I like her husband's writing much better than hers. The quote from Tennessee Williams on the back about being the "formost" woman in American Letters is a slam on so many other gifted writers I can't even count them all...clearly he drank. Her short stories were better than that first thing attempt at a Novella or whatever it was good grief I had no idea what was going on there. Bunch of American losers stumbling around the caribean and central america with a bunch of their losers doing basically zero of use to anyone. complete waste of paper.

[Emilie Vangilder]

This collection left me nonplussed. I found it completely impenetrable. I understood nothing of the motivation of any of the characters or anything that was said or done by them. I think the author might have been shooting for sly social commentary in an unconventional manner, but I am not at all clear about even that! I very much admire the work of the author’s husband, Paul Bowles, and I guess I expected something based on that, which is wrong and unworthy of me. But I really didn’t like this book. Can’t believe I actually finished it.

[Jordan DiDomenico · Rating 5 out of 5]

"This isn't the regular air from up here that I'm breathing," she said to herself. "It's the air from down there. It's a trick I can do."
She felt her blood tingle as it always did whenever she scored a victory, and she needed to score several of them in the course of each day. This time she was defeating the older woman.

Her writing really captures the sensation of neurotic thinking, of constantly playing made-up games in your head to which you ascribe dire importance. Insightful, stressful and funny.

[Robert Morgan Fisher · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know it's good to include everything in a collected works, but I personally have no interest in anyone's plays. The stories are quite good, however, especially the fragments in the back of the book. There are, IMHO, far too many stories revolving around redundant bickering and conversations involving a set of characters living together. Notable for the implications of fluid sexuality both male and female. An underrated writer who languished in her famous writer/husband's shadow and way ahead of her time.

[Kion You · Rating 5 out of 5]

All of her characters are so beautifully odd....especially in Two Serious Ladies...like being in a noir film, a western, a victorian novel, 21st century realism, all at the same time...and then all the characters speak as if they have no filter, or if their filter is believing that their own vision is singular and at odds with everyone else. There's no simple logic to any of them, which is perhaps why Bowles is so praised.

[Ashlyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

To be honest I think that a lot of this went over my head. I did like it though...!
It was very avant-garde in a good way, for me two serious ladies was a silly wacky good time.
I also really liked camp cataract because of Beryl and Harriet's relationship as friends I thought that it was sweet.
Overall though there were a lot of characters and stories that kind of made me feel miserable and uncomfortable, the writing definitely had that feeling to it for sure.

[Derick · Rating 5 out of 5]

"well, perhaps my maneuvers do seem a little strange, but i have thought for a long time now that often, so very often, heroes who believe themselves to be monsters because they are so far removed from other men turn around much later and see really monstrous acts being committed in the name of something mediocre."

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the first novel the best but liked pretty much everything. I liked the straightforward descriptions of sex and feelings between the characters, especially the women in Panama. I loved Mrs. Quill and learning about her during her trip to the fancy hotel. I loved Panchita teaching swimming.

[John McNulty · Rating 3 out of 5]

wonderfully insightfuul writing about woman's choices in the early twentieth century. Through her novels, plays and short stories, Bowles writes stories that unceremeniously paint human portraits of fully rounded female characters.

[Dana Jerman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I'm attracted to this volume because it contains everything that Jane wrote, but also thru reading (fragments first) I've found I don't really like her style. I mean, the syntax is fun and playful/strange and accessible and everything. She has something to offer, certainly, especially when you can tell that she is taking some part of herself and making a character(s) out of it (The Quarreling Pair). Maybe the characters are just a bit insufferable (Going To Massachusetts), or completely uninvestigated (The Iron Table).
Anyway there is something attractively frustrating about it. A Stick of Green Candy was my favorite, tho. Complete and vivid.

[Kris Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazingly written, Jane Bowles is a revelation to read. Her characters are uniquely her own, her voice one of a kind.

[Jonathan yates · Rating 5 out of 5]

reviewing this book is completely useless, it's just the best thing ever, best ever!
read it already