Obra reunida

Jane Bowles wrote a single, perfect novel, Two Serious Ladies, a play, In the Gazebo, and the stories collected in Simple Pleasures; a body of work whose influence on literature has been far greater than one might expect given its brevity. Yet it was enough to forge an avant-garde and free style, a dazzling combination of concise prose and agile, feverish dialogue, possessing a blend of childlike integrity, surreal candor, and nimble precision. Set in New York and Panama, Two Serious Ladies tells the intertwined story of the eccentric Christina Goering and the insatiable Frieda Copperfield. The novel, writes Luna Miguel, “leads us to question our own often hypocritical judgments about infidelity, sexual orientation, and class conflict. Bowles not only speaks of sin, but also of the sinners. And isn’t that unveiling the very purpose of all good literature?” In the Gazebo premiered on Broadway in 1953 and reflects Bowles's complex relationship with his own mother. Tennessee Williams considered it not only the most original play he had ever read, "but also the most unusual, the funniest, and one of the most moving. One of those rare pieces that don't test the theater, but rather test the theater itself." As for the six stories and one "puppet scene" that make up Simple Pleasures, the title story and the one called "Camp Cataract" are particularly noteworthy.