Abstract
In his article "Bowles's Up Above the World as Beatnik Murder Mystery" Greg Bevan discusses Paul Bowles's fourth and final novel, which at the time of its publication was met with mixed reactions from reviewers and its creator alike, and has seen relatively scanty critical attention in the years since. Gena Dagel Caponi perceives in the novel a reflection of Bowles's struggle for control, during the time of its writing, in the face of his wife Jane's terminal illness. Building on this insight, the current essay notes the same tension in the writings of the Beats—a movement with which Bowles has been loosely associated, and one that both attracted and repelled him—and argues for Up Above the World as not only a personal meditation on struggle, but also a broader statement of Bowles's ambivalence toward the Beat Generation.
Recommended Citation
Bevan, Greg.
"Bowles's Up Above the World as Beatnik Murder Mystery."
CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture
18.5
(2016):
<https://doi.org/10.7771/1481-4374.2930>
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