The Razor's Edge

Heather Paul is a new Canadian Writer. She tells the story of Serena Palmer, a visual artist in her 20s trying to find self and centre in the Fictive Canadian town of Mariposa (yes, a homage to Stephen Leacock’s creation). When you first meet her something has happened to her and she is on an operating table having what seems to be an out of body experience. That’s the mystery. What happened? The story of that takes on a spiralling form and we circle around her time working at the MNC, an institute for extreme autism, her work as a waitress at The Queen’s Tavern, her journey through Australia, and a trip by car across the Canadian west into, you guessed it, bear country. So what happened at the MNC? At The Queens? What did she find in Australia? And how does she wind up in Emerge. If you think it’s a grizzly story, your wrong. It’s a delightful comedy with a hell of a serious core in it. Heather Paul seems to be a metaphysical writer, a new breed of narrative so far as I can tell. She has her finger on the pulse of the New Age contemporary world, and her non-linear history gives you, the reader, many aha moments. However, there is a secret to be found hidden in the metaphysical style on her poetic narrative through symbolism coming just at the right moment of crisis and climax. It’s impressive, and it’s new. I think, Heather Paul has created a new Canadian classic. Not a duplicate of any other writer I have read, and not your run-of-the-mill story-telling either. It’s great. Don’t expect to finish this one in a day. You won’t. It took me three weeks and I enjoyed every minute of it. It’s crazy!

I decided to read Somerset Maugham’s The Razor’s Edge as a companion piece to a just released novel by new author, Heather Paul, Safety in Bear Country. At the centre of both books there is a reference to Maharishi Ramana, and so I linked the two novels as companion pieces. Maugham had reputedly visited the Hindu saint in his lifetime and transcribed his impressiin in the Edge. What a rare experience and treat to be given this literary master’s interpretation of the enlightened experience of the spiritual master that everybody talks about in New Age circles today. Razor’s Edge is in my mind a more accessible novel than Maugham’s Of Human Bondage which I am currently reading. His writing voice is the epitome of every great British actor's voice coming out of the 1950s. Think Herbert Marshall and you’ve nailed it. Anyway, Maugham is surprisingly modern in terms of his sensibility. If you haven’t read it, put it on your list. And put Safety in Bear Country on your list. It will blow you away.

“I have never begun a novel with more misgivings.” These are the words that W. Somerset Maugham begins his 1943 book The Razor's Edge. I have never read Maugham but I've always had a deep fascination with the “Lost Generation” between the world wars. I am fascinated by the idea of societies is existential crisis grappling with ultimate meaning. Different authors have tried to capture that feeling in different ways but each one tries to understand the ways in which humans can come to understand their place in the world in a time of such rapid changes and profound traumas.

Each character in The Razor's Edge is well-drawn and the author has a way of capturing moments in time, creating conversations that can say much in a short time. For the most part, I believe having the author as the explicit narrator of the text was a brilliant device. It is fascinating to see the Maugham of the novel pulling apart his characters and forcing them to answer difficult questions. The conceit is sometimes take to the point of incredulity. Does the author really need to account for how he came to understand what happened? But for the most part, there are some wonderful narrative possibilities. For example, how much of what he is writing really happened or is only drawn from his imagination?

My biggest complaint is that the novel often feels like a group characters in search of a narrative. I do not know much about the genesis of the book but I felt as if Maugham had a series of brilliant characters and the vague idea of the kind of story he wanted to tell and the book came together in the way that it was meant to do. I can see why many people would be turned off by its narrative but I would urge you to simply enjoy the characters and let them speak to you. Another small complaint is that I wonder how well Maugham captures the American spirit in his characters – but this could be my nationality getting in the way of my objective clarity. There were times I felt like his American characters were too American and often devolved into stereotypes but I will admit that this could have been precisely his aim.

I greatly enjoyed this book. I found myself highlighting passages or putting the book down to stop and think. There are times that I wonder whether I am merely an impressionable twenty-something who is himself seeking meaning and my place in the world. But what Maugham shows through his characters is that this quest takes many forms and happens over the course of one's life. There is something deep in side of me that calls me to take the type of journey that Larry, the novel's protagonist, decides to take in search of God. But for my part, I find myself aspiring more to the calling of the author who can tell such stories of the human condition with the deep affection that Maugham tells this story. I do not think the novel is meant to represent anything other than what it is – the story of some individual's quest for ultimate meaning in their lives.