Living with wisdom : a life of Thomas Merton /

For someone who knows a little about Thomas Merton and wishes to know more, this book is the ideal introduction. The narrative flows easily and lucidly, sticking to essentials, not getting lost in details; and the author's own judgments and interpretations do not enter in. (This last could be a merit or a deficiency, depending on how one views the function of a biographer.) These are abundant quotations: nearly 300 in the text itself and another 100 italicized on the book's wide margins, where photographs are also found, about 100 in all. Poetry and theology do not play a large role in this account of the inner and outer conflicts of Merton's life. The reader familiar with the literature by and about Merton will find little new here, with the possible exception of the chapter "Pastor to Peacemakers," which gives a clear account of the violence Merton found in the antiwar movement. Although Jim Forest was associated with Merton in this phase of his life, the treatment is not personal. Merton's relationship with his second abbot, Dom James Fox, seems a bit less fractious here than in some biographers' accounts. Forest has tried to let Merton speak for himself, on the whole, and let pictures do the rest. The most complete biography remains Michael Mott's The Seven Mountains of Thomas Merton (CH, Apr'85).-W. C. Buchanan, emeritus, Grand Valley State University

Numerous readers discovered Merton through his hefty autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain (HBJ, 1948). Forest is one of them. In this considerably shorter volume, Forest introduces the many facets of the 20th-century Trappist monk whose life included not only the physical work, worship, and contemplation of a monastic community, but prolific writing as well (a partial list of Merton's works is two pages long). Forest lucidly chronicles Merton's life, illuminating it with the events that shaped it and the insights that emanated from it. Although his esteem for Merton and his contributions to the peace movement are apparent, he treats Merton's weaknesses frankly. As a result of Forest's clarity and conciseness, his work is an excellent choice for general religion collections.-- Cynthia Widmer, Downingtown, Pa. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.