Let it come down - BookWyrm

292 pages

English language

Published 1980 by Black Sparrow Press.

ISBN:: 978-0-87685-480-8
OCLC Number:: 6863305

(1 review)

Let It Come Down, with its title from Macbeth, tells the story of Dyar, a New York bank clerk who throws up his secure, humdrum job to find a reality abroad with which to identify himself, and his macabre experiences in the inferno of Tangiers as he gives in to his darkest impulses. Rich in descriptions of the corruption and decadence of the International Zone in the last days before Moroccan independence, Bowles's second novel is an alternately comic and horrific account of a descent into nihilism.

3 editions

Ojārs Kapteinis reviewed Let it come down by Paul Bowles

Grifting in the Shadows

4 stars

As changes with the second Trump presidency are coming, I wanted to read a book about a place that no longer exists (Tangier International Zone), as it feels like the same might happen with the American empire. It was a place where people grifted each other, played shadowy games, and trusted nobody because they knew that those around them were just like them — frauds. So, it’s no surprise that the protagonist went mad while committing acts of grifting, as he was constantly running schemes in his head about how others might grift him.

The ironic part is that the protagonist mistook his madness for clear and rational thinking. I think there are parallels with present-day Americans because those grifters who have just gained power are also in the same mindset.