A tawdry place of salvation

In this first critical study of the work of Jane Bowles, Jennie Skerl presents eleven essays, which, she explains, "pay attention to the works, not the biography or the myth, in order to understand and appreciate [Bowles's] brilliant oeuvre.".

Through these essays - which deal with Bowles's published as well as her unpublished work - Skerl seeks to generate serious critical attention to an important but neglected female experimental writer of the mid-twentieth century and to celebrate her originality, power, and craft.

Based in disciplines that range from feminist criticism to Middle Eastern studies, from queer theory to the Beat Generation, and from postmodernism to Victorianism, the essayists naturally approach Bowles's fiction and drama from a wide variety of critical perspectives. All of these essays are unpublished and written for this volume.