The Spider's House

A Novel

By: Paul Bowles

Narrated by: Cheryl Smith, Raphael Corkhill

Originally published in 1955, Paul Bowles’s remarkable novel set in Fez, Morocco, during the last days of the French colonial empire, is an expansive piece of writing—vintage Bowles

The dilemma of the outsider in an alien society, and the gap in understanding between cultures, recurrent themes of Paul Bowles’s writings, are dramatized with brutal honesty in this novel set in Fez, Morocco, during that country’s 1954 nationalist uprising. Totally relevant to today’s political situation in the Middle East and elsewhere, richly descriptive of its setting, and uncompromising in its characterizations, The Spider’s House is perhaps Bowles’s best, most beautifully subtle novel.

Excellent conveyance of geography and culture

Though fairly long and sometimes slow moving, The Spider's House provides an excellent sense of Morocco as a place.
That is why I read/listened to it.
I will read/listen to more by this author.
The reader also did a great job with the characters in this novel.

Not my favorite writing style

I disliked this book’s characters, story and ending. I liked the readers and performers. I wanted to read the book because I am going to Fez. It provided some insights.