One can see immediately the appeal of Maugham's The Razor's Edge. There is much humor through the "arch-snob" Elliot, who I like to see as a Frasier or Niles kind of character. We have a rich spiritual and philosophical discourse through Larry's search for meaning, social mores of the US and French characters, and Maugham's self-insertion into the text for much appreciated commentary and order. Like Greene's The End of the Affair, Maugham's presence within the text makes it more relatable and seemingly "real" to the reader. One cannot help but feel that one is on this journey of Maugham, who also traveled to India and modeled some of the characters and experiences on his own time there. Indeed, Naipaul alludes to this in great later novel, Half a Life, which inspired me to read Maugham. And in contrast to what I was led to believe about this novel's impact on the Beats and the generation of the 1960s, which it certainly hints at, Maugham avoids the romanticized or extremely problematic exoticized Western exploitation of "India" as the fount of spiritual redemption or force.
In fact, Maugham's character, the narrator, is never quite sure if Larry did indeed achieve union with the Absolute (Illumination), and the "mystical Orient" did not answer all of his questions. Does the novel reinforce cultural stereotypes? Yes, but not to the absurd degree future writers accomplished. Since India itself does not become an important part of the novel until much later in the text, I read it as a particularly clever and witty critique of Western society in the interwar years, especially the American obsession with growth and their belief in an infallible future of greatness. The obsession with success, status, and, excess, in the US, London, France, and Germany appears to drive the novel, yet one cannot help but feel that the author's conclusion is a call for a form of tolerance or coexistence of individualized expressions of a "successful life," perhaps a match to the ambiguity surrounding Larry's alleged union with the Absolute.
In fact, Maugham's character, the narrator, is never quite sure if Larry did indeed achieve union with the Absolute (Illumination), and the "mystical Orient" did not answer all of his questions. Does the novel reinforce cultural stereotypes? Yes, but not to the absurd degree future writers accomplished. Since India itself does not become an important part of the novel until much later in the text, I read it as a particularly clever and witty critique of Western society in the interwar years, especially the American obsession with growth and their belief in an infallible future of greatness. The obsession with success, status, and, excess, in the US, London, France, and Germany appears to drive the novel, yet one cannot help but feel that the author's conclusion is a call for a form of tolerance or coexistence of individualized expressions of a "successful life," perhaps a match to the ambiguity surrounding Larry's alleged union with the Absolute.
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