My Sister's Hand in Mine: An Expanded Edition of the Collected Works

Jane Bowles is still an unfortunately neglected writer despite Tennessee Williams' statement that she is our finest American prose fiction writer. He wrote that in the early 70s, and it is still true today. She manages to surprise and fascinate and perplex and amuse in nearly every sentence. She is the kind of original our university writing courses and the 'searching for a hit' publishing industry are stifling.

Incredible book. Jane Bowles has the unique characteristic of amusing and depressing us at the same time. Two serious ladies and her short fiction(Camp Catarat and Plain Pleasures are masterpieces) are unique. Her play is funny but she is not as good as in her narrative. What you will find in this book is a complete diferent way of understanding live, you will encounter an original brain that expreses itself with the most personal sentences you will ever read. Jane stands alone in the whole literary tradition. Surrounded by her terror, obsessions and complete understanding of human heart what Bowles achieves is the perfect expression of human essence.

The only bad thing about this collection is that Bowles' collected work is so limited. The writing is experimental, intriguing and engaging. Her language is so fresh. The different genres show her reach as an artist. You only wish that she had been more prolific. She will be read for years to come.

While the entire collection is notable, I have to say that "Two Serious Women" seems to me to be the real masterpiece here. I read it ten or so years ago for the first time and liked it but found it rather dark. I re-read it a few years ago and liked it much more than I had the first time, finding it hillarious, albeit darkly. I was happily surprised all over again by the unpredictable behavior of the characters. Unlike many novels, this one is almost immediately engaging, with its portrait of the young Christina Goering's religion-obsessed childhood games. Jane Bowles is often lumped in with her husband; but her writing, though less voluminous, is more unique, more inventive. This is writing well worth repeated reading.

Jane Bowles' prose is strange and beautiful. It's never quite clear why her characters act the way they do, but they leave such haunting impressions that her novel and stories beg to be read a second time. My Sister's Hand in Mine is a great companion piece to Paul Bowles' The Sheltering Sky, which shares the split cold/emotional nature of Jane's work, and also themes of Americans abroad. Jane's novel Two Serious Ladies, which opens this collection, is a stunner. A wonderful writer; I wish she'd written more.