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Article: `The Stories of Paul Bowles,' by Paul Bowles; Ecco/HarperCollins.(The Seattle Times)
- Article from:
- Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service
- Article date:
- December 5, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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"For most Europeans and Americans," an elderly American writes from Morocco in the mid-1980s, "the word terrorist is unqualifiedly pejorative; while to the people here, it suggests a patriot. Thus, actions some consider criminal and contemptible are to others heroic. How can the two ever see eye to eye?"
Those lines serve as a casual aside in Paul Bowles' wry tale, "In Absentia." But to any reader coming across them in the closing months of 2001, they jump out with a chilly force. And perhaps they're not so casual.
Bowles, who died at 88 in 1999, spent his entire writing career navigating the tricky junctures between Western and developing cultures, ...