Two Serious Ladies (Penguin Modern Classics)

This novel, which has been hailed as a landmark in twentieth-century American literature, is the story of two staid but very different women going to pieces as they pursue their own eccentric paths to freedom, and the story follows their decline into debauchery. Christina Goering, a wealthy spinster in pursuit of sainthood ends up as a high-class call-girl, and Frieda Copperfield, abandons her dull husband for the love of a prostitute while travelling in Central America. The book is compelling and thought-provoking, and Bowles's original prose style makes it an experience to read.