"The Razor’s Edge is a book by W. Somerset Maugham published in 1944. Its epigraph reads, "The sharp edge of a razor is difficult to pass over; thus the wise say the path to Salvation is hard," taken from a verse in the Katha-Upanishad."
I had to look up epigraph - Wikipedia explains:
"Not to be confused with epitaph."
"Not to be confused with epigram."
"Not to be confused with epithet."
"In literature, an epigraph is a phrase, quotation, or poem that is set at the beginning of a document or component. The epigraph may serve as a preface, as a summary, as a counter-example, or to link the work to a wider literary canon, either to invite comparison or to enlist a conventional context."
I also looked up Katha-Upanishad. Not sure what that all said exactly, I am just thinking: well, okay, it is a Buddhist/Hindu/Persian thing.
I have to admit I was nervous about reading this book. It was the title that threw me. I was a little cautious about what they might be doing with all those razors. The razor reference is purely the Buddhist/Hindu/Persian thing (above). There is no torture involved. I say that with a smile, because I was picturing POW camps and barbed wire from the title, and it is not at all that type of book.
Wikipedia continues: "Maugham begins by characterising his story as not really a novel but a thinly veiled true account. He includes himself as a minor character, a writer who drifts in and out of the lives of the major players."
That little paragraph sums up this book perfectly.
It is written from the viewpoint of a narrator who has intermittent contact with the rest of the loosely related characters over the span of many years. The narrator is himself an author.
I read The Razor's Edge shortly after reading The Bridge of San Luis Rey. Both of these books center around a group of interwoven characters. It was interesting to compare the styles.
I have had similar accidental reading themes when I happened on a few Black History month type books or I fell into several books about groups of boys in a short time span.
I enjoyed this book (The Razor's Edge) very much.
I had one thing I was expecting (the stock market crash and the great depression) but other than that, I was just sort of following along with the story of these people's lives with no idea where the story might go.
And the book does not dwell on the Great Depression, most of the story actually takes place in Europe. The Great Depression happens in the book too, but only as part of the plot line for the characters.
The audio version of this book was eleven hours. I was interested for the whole eleven hours. I was actually having "driveway moments" as I had to stop listening to go do other things. It held my attention well enough that I could have listened straight thru on a long drive. It was well written and entertaining.
From Maugham's observations of the main characters (assuming they were based on people he knew in real life), my guess is they would have been able to read his book and take his version of themselves in stride. I think they would have nodded graciously to his perceptions, whether or not they were flattering, and whether or not they agreed.
This is (about) the third book I have read where SparkNotes were not available. I hate that. I have come to really enjoy looking over the Context section in detail. Sometimes I use the Character Notes to see if I missed anything. Sometimes I look through the Themes, Motifs and Symbols section if I noticed reoccurrences, but did not fully understand them.
I almost always read SparkNotes after I am finished with the book. On books like this, with no SparkNotes available, I am not able to find a replacement, on line, for what SparkNotes adds to my process with each classic book. Especially for the titles that are from the list of books discussed in the past by my book groups, no discussion and no SparkNotes is a sad combination.
If you remember, I used SparkNotes for the first few chapters of Bleakhouse (to get me started). I really learned to just keep going with that book, which set me up for success with other books which start slowly or authors who feel they have to do a lot set up before they start the actual story.
The oldest and I were talking about all of this last week.
He was impressed I use SparkNotes.
I explained to him how if it is on my list, unless it is something like Sophie's Choice where it will sink me, I just push through to read the book. Except for Winesburg Ohio, I have been very glad I percervered with each book. Some of the harder books required a bit more thinking/work. But I have felt richer with each one. I really (appear to) need this intellectual outlet in my life.
And, funny as it sounds, this gives me a lot of conversation with my own kids and their friends. Titles come up and the kids will either have read the book or will have heard of the book or it will on their 'to read' list. Sometimes they will mention a related classic which is not on my list. The most recent example is One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967) by Garcia Marquez.
Wikipedia writes: One Hundred Years of Solitude (Spanish: Cien años de soledad, 1967), by Gabriel García Márquez, is a novel that tells the multi-generational story of the Buendía family, whose patriarch, José Arcadio Buendía, founds the town of Macondo, the metaphoric Colombia. The non-linear story is narrated via different time frames, a technique derived from the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges (as in The Garden of Forking Paths). The widely acclaimed book, considered by many to be the author's masterpiece, was first published in Spanish in 1967, and subsequently has been translated into thirty-seven languages and has sold more than 20 million copies.[1][2] The magical realist style and thematic substance of One Hundred Years of Solitude established it as an important, representative novel of the literary Latin American Boom of the 1960s and 1970s,[3] that was stylistically influenced by Modernism (European and North American), and the Cuban Vanguardia (Vanguard) literary movement.
I read this book in college and (actually) complained to the professor that of all the books out there, he had chosen this one. I was in the habit of reading fluff books (I think, looking back) and I am not sure I was mature enough in my reading for that book, even though I had read A LOT by the time I got to college.
One of middle's friends is reading 100 Years for high school this year. I think it was on her (lengthy) summer reading list. The conversation put it back in my mind and I have added to my list of books to suggest for my long standing group.
We will see how I do with it this time. I honestly don't remember anything other than complaining to my professor, who was too polite to suggest why I might not have thought it was worth our class time.
Part of my problem in reading One Hundred Years, long ago, is I probably was not experienced with translations. There is a difference between reading a book in its native language and reading one that has been translated (almost always by someone other than the author).
