Road To Joy: The Letters Of Thomas Merton To New And Old Friends

Rating:
Summary: 4.6 stars: Not bad at all
Review: Am inclined to think that this is the only selection of Merton letters that you will ever need. It presents Merton at his warmest, his most enjoyable, his most gregarious, his most humble. Loyal to old friends and a willing correspondent with new friends, the Merton we find in "The Road to Joy" contrasts happily with both the austere champion of contemplative solitude and the dour progressive who often bristled under abbatial authority.

We have here letters to his Columbia professor/mentor Mark Van Doren, and the ever-whimsical wordplay-concoctions to his chum Robert Lax. We have encouraging letters to a high-schooler in San Francisco, Suzanne Butorovich -- these, quite possibly Merton's most charming examples of epistolary writing. We have letters to his New Zealand "Aunt Kit," and letters to other family members upon learning of her drowning after a ferryboat sinking. We have letters of pastoral counsel, one to an anguished homosexual; and we have letters thanking fans for their kind words, one in which Merton seems pleasantly surprised to be told that C S Lewis liked some of his books! There is a letter to a Massachusetts high-schooler proferring the asked-for help on a term paper. And there are letters about the events of the day, at the monastery and in the world at large. A flavour of some naive sixties hippiedom in a few places, but no matter.

All manner of thing in this collection; surely, Merton at his gladdest and most endearing. And even if we often tire of Merton after ten or more years of reading him, we can return to these letters and be reminded of what first drew us to this most compelling figure.

Rating:
Summary: 4.6 stars: Not bad at all
Review: Am inclined to think that this is the only selection of Merton letters that you will ever need. It presents Merton at his warmest, his most enjoyable, his most gregarious, his most humble. Loyal to old friends and a willing correspondent with new friends, the Merton we find in "The Road to Joy" contrasts happily with both the austere champion of contemplative solitude and the dour progressive who often bristled under abbatial authority.

We have here letters to his Columbia professor/mentor Mark Van Doren, and the ever-whimsical wordplay-concoctions to his chum Robert Lax. We have encouraging letters to a high-schooler in San Francisco, Suzanne Butorovich -- these, quite possibly Merton's most charming examples of epistolary writing. We have letters to his New Zealand "Aunt Kit," and letters to other family members upon learning of her drowning after a ferryboat sinking. We have letters of pastoral counsel, one to an anguished homosexual; and we have letters thanking fans for their kind words, one in which Merton seems pleasantly surprised to be told that C S Lewis liked some of his books! There is a letter to a Massachusetts high-schooler proferring the asked-for help on a term paper. And there are letters about the events of the day, at the monastery and in the world at large. A flavour of some naive sixties hippiedom in a few places, but no matter.

All manner of thing in this collection; surely, Merton at his gladdest and most endearing. And even if we often tire of Merton after ten or more years of reading him, we can return to these letters and be reminded of what first drew us to this most compelling figure.