Books: Also Current: May 29, 1964

(2 of 2)

Paul Bowles has solved two great problems that still nag at the more old-fashioned novelist—the invention of a story and the creation of character. In this book, the character writes the story. He is Driss ben Hamed Charhadi, a North African Arab whose language is Moghrebi (an Arabic dialect), and who has been shepherd, baker's deliveryman, carpenter and kif salesman. With the encouragement of Bowles and the help of a tape recorder, Charhadi narrated the life of a fatherless child growing up in the boondocks of French Morocco. A horrible life it is—on the move, short of food, rarely with a job, and always subject to thievery, peonage, and random homosexual attack. "It sounds very fine in Moghrebi," Bowles told his talkative protege, "but I can't tell you anything until I've changed it into English." Probably shouldn't have tried.