Monday, March 20, 2017

The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham

The novel The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham (1944). I'd meant to read this book for many years. I first heard about the story through the 1984 film starring Bill Murray. And I later learned of the novel and of the earlier movie version from 1946 starring Tyrone Power. Interestingly enough, both version depart a bit from the general story of the novel. But that seems to be common place in screen plays.

The novel tells 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. The story begins through the eyes of Larry's friends and acquaintances as they witness his personality change after the War. His rejection of conventional life and search for meaningful experience allows him to thrive while the more materialistic characters suffer reversals through the stock market crash. While Darrell is the main focus of the author, he also describes well the lives of other main characters. I don't consider this a spoiler, but I would say, in the words of the author, that the novel is a "success story" in that all of the main characters achieved in their own way, the goals their lives were striving for, whether consciously or unconsciously.

I should add some trivia about the 1984 film adaptation starring Bill Murray. When Murray acquired the rights to the story and told Columbia Pictures he wanted to remake the movie, they told him it would not make money and they wanted Murray to first do a movie that would make them a profit. Agreeing to this, Murray starred in the 1984 movie "Ghostbusters," and another movie franchise was born.

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