From the best-selling novelist and memoirist- a deeply personal view of her discovery of the celebrated modern monk and thinker through his writings.
MARY GORDON is a novelist, essayist, memoirist, literary critic, and the McIntosh Professor of English at Barnard College. She is the author of many books, including Final Payments, Circling My Mother, Reading Jesus, The Shadow Man, and The Company of Women. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Award, an O Henry Award, and an Academy Award for Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In March 2008, Governor Eliot Spitzer named Mary Gordon the official New York State Author and gave her the Edith Wharton Citation of Merit for Fiction. She was inducted as a member of the inaugural class of the New York Writers Hall of Fame in 2010.
“Ardent, heartfelt, headlong: with these words Mary Gordon lovingly
penetrates to the core of Thomas Merton’s ongoing importance, but
the same words apply to her achievement. Gordon is the ideal reader
of Merton, matching his intelligence, irony, and authentic feel for
the world beyond words. Her book brings his books back to life, and
belongs with them from now on.”—James Carroll, author of
Constantine’s Sword and The Cloister
“Only a writer as talented as Mary Gordon could have written about
a writer as talented as Thomas Merton. I've read dozens of books
about my hero, the Trappist monk Thomas Merton, and suspected that
I couldn't learn much that was new. Mary Gordon's fascinating new
book proved me wrong. She opens up an essential side of
Merton's life--his life as a writer--in a way that helps me
understand him an entirely new, and entirely surprising,
light."—James Martin, SJ, author of Jesus: A Pilgrimage and
Becoming Who You Are
“Brilliant, incisive.... intelligent, moving.”—Publishers Weekly
(starred review)
“Merton devotees and those wishing to learn more about him will
appreciate this detailed look at his accomplishments and
struggles.”—Library Journal
“.... An ideal introduction to Merton for literary
readers.”—Booklist
“[Mary Gordon] brings to this book on Merton what he himself often
offered others: the frank convictions of a practiced teacher, the
certainty of an established critic, and the sympathy of a
successful writer who is equally aware of
struggle.”—America
“If Merton is to remain a living voice, it is from such honest
and steadfast devotion as Mary Gordon’s On Thomas Merton.”—New
York Journal of Books
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