BOOK REVIEW : The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham

❗❗❗This review may contain spoilers ❗❗❗



I felt that no words could describe what I felt about this book but, here I am writing a book review that tells you exactly what I think about this book.

Being a highly acclaimed book, I was overjoyed when I began reading it ( aside from the fact that I was desperate to read a book since I had not read anything for the past few months). This book is subtle but also eventful. The characters are portrayed beautifully. Each character is shown as they grow and mature and how their thoughts and opinions change, how they understand the society around them and how they handle their own relationships. This book takes the reader through many sharp turns and slow roads but it will always, always leave you satisfied. Maybe you might even keep on thinking about it for weeks later on (trust me, you will).

 This book tells us the story of Larry Darrell, an American pilot traumatized by his experiences in World War I, who sets off in search of some transcendent meaning in his life. This book also describes the personalities of different people through the portrayal of the characters in this novel. 

For example, the character of Isabel Bradley, a beautiful and lovable girl who was formerly engaged to Larry. Isabel finds social acceptance important much like her uncle(Elliot Templeton)and is not ashamed of the fact that she wants to live an eventful life filled with parties and social gatherings.

Another example would be, the character of Larry Darrell, the main protagonist, who is a young, quiet but noteworthy man who doesn't want to do what most people expect men his age to do. He doesn't want to marry young and have children, he wants to loaf around, travel to new places and find the answers to unanswered questions.

 These lines of the book tell the reader about the ending of the stories of the characters, is given below.

"But as I was finishing this book, uneasily conscious that I must leave my reader in the air and seeing no way to avoid it, I looked back with my mind's eye on my long narrative to see if there was any way in which I could devise a more satisfactory ending; and to my intense surprise, it dawned upon me that without in the least intending to I had written nothing more or less than a success story. For all the persons with whom I have been concerned got what they wanted: Elliot social eminence, Isabel an assured position backed by a substantial fortune in an active and cultured community, Gray a steady and lucrative job, with an office to go from nine till six every day; Suzanne Rouvier security; Sophie death; and Larry happiness."

This book leaves you satisfied, wandering, surprised and with a heavy heart with the end of the story of the characters.

The author truly has written a success story.

I fear that words have failed to describe how much I adore this novel. The Razor's Edge is an epitome of literature, and I recommend it to whoever has fallen in love with the world of books.

~Ananya Singhal

  20|3|2020