Scan barcode
maa_pix's review against another edition
3.0
Merton is a gifted writer, and his descriptions of growing up in Europe are interesting. Much less interesting are his spiritual/religious judgments of others. These judgments seem to break down along the following lines:
If you're a bad person, and are not Catholic, the reason you're bad is because you're not Catholic.
If you're a bad person, and are Catholic, the reason you're bad is because you're not Catholic enough.
If you're a good person, and are not Catholic, the reason you're good is because you hang around with so many Catholics.
If you're a good person, and are Catholic, the reason you're good is obvious.
I didn't expect anything but a pro-Catholic stance from Merton--he was a Catholic monk, after all--but some of his takes border on religious bigotry. In one passage he praises the prayer-work of a group of monks, stating outright that the reason the United States is a successful nation is because this small group of cloistered guys in upstate New York prays on a daily basis. And he means this not in some abstract "it takes all kinds to make the world go round" way, he means it literally. The monks pray, God hears their prayers and responds, and that's why our country is blessed. No other reason. Then, not two pages later, he has the gall to criticize someone else's religious practices as "obviously silly."
I would have found this book more enlightening if Merton had turned his perceptive talents on those aspects of Catholicism that are "obviously silly" and then described how in spite of them he was able to grow in his faith.
If you're a bad person, and are not Catholic, the reason you're bad is because you're not Catholic.
If you're a bad person, and are Catholic, the reason you're bad is because you're not Catholic enough.
If you're a good person, and are not Catholic, the reason you're good is because you hang around with so many Catholics.
If you're a good person, and are Catholic, the reason you're good is obvious.
I didn't expect anything but a pro-Catholic stance from Merton--he was a Catholic monk, after all--but some of his takes border on religious bigotry. In one passage he praises the prayer-work of a group of monks, stating outright that the reason the United States is a successful nation is because this small group of cloistered guys in upstate New York prays on a daily basis. And he means this not in some abstract "it takes all kinds to make the world go round" way, he means it literally. The monks pray, God hears their prayers and responds, and that's why our country is blessed. No other reason. Then, not two pages later, he has the gall to criticize someone else's religious practices as "obviously silly."
I would have found this book more enlightening if Merton had turned his perceptive talents on those aspects of Catholicism that are "obviously silly" and then described how in spite of them he was able to grow in his faith.
chaosmavin's review against another edition
4.0
One of the times I saw the Dalai Lama speak he said "One should always be the religion of their culture...they should seek to know of all faiths but you must be from where you are from." I'm paraphrasing but you get the idea. I being an X Catholic or as one of my friends says "I'm a cultural Catholic"...really struggle with. I am Italian and was raised in a Roman Catholic church but at a young aged struggled with what felt to me very hypocritical teachings. I have recently discovered Merton and this is the first book I have read. I do not think I would ever return to the catholic church (Only God knows that) but I find in Merton's teaching that which would have and does resinate with me quite deeply.
This book is really about his journey to finding God and in it there are many wise incites and teachings but it ends very much in his first years as a monk and was written just five years into his service. I think it is intended and reads more like a biography then spiritual text, but is still rich in spiritual incite. I will be curious to read some of his later writings now.
I was particularly moved to tears by his poem about his brother below and am saving it here so I can find it again:
Sweet brother, if I do not sleep
My eyes are flowers for your tomb;
And if I cannot eat my bread,
My fasts shall live like willows where you died.
If in the heat I find no water for my thirst,
My thirst shall turn to springs for you, poor traveller.
Where, in what desolate and smokey country,
Lies your poor body, lost and dead?
And in what landscape of disaster
Has your unhappy spirit lost its road?
Come, in my labor find a resting place
And in my sorrows lay your head,
Or rather take my life and blood
And buy yourself a better bed–
Or take my breath and take my death
And buy yourself a better rest.
When all the men of war are shot
And flags have fallen into dust,
Your cross and mine shall tell men still
Christ died on each, for both of us.
For in the wreckage of your April Christ lies slain,
And Christ weeps in the ruins of my spring:
The money of Whose tears shall fall
Into your weak and friendless hand,
And buy you back to your own land:
The silence of Whose tears shall fall
Like bells upon your alien tomb.
Hear them and come: they call you home.
This book is really about his journey to finding God and in it there are many wise incites and teachings but it ends very much in his first years as a monk and was written just five years into his service. I think it is intended and reads more like a biography then spiritual text, but is still rich in spiritual incite. I will be curious to read some of his later writings now.
I was particularly moved to tears by his poem about his brother below and am saving it here so I can find it again:
Sweet brother, if I do not sleep
My eyes are flowers for your tomb;
And if I cannot eat my bread,
My fasts shall live like willows where you died.
If in the heat I find no water for my thirst,
My thirst shall turn to springs for you, poor traveller.
Where, in what desolate and smokey country,
Lies your poor body, lost and dead?
And in what landscape of disaster
Has your unhappy spirit lost its road?
Come, in my labor find a resting place
And in my sorrows lay your head,
Or rather take my life and blood
And buy yourself a better bed–
Or take my breath and take my death
And buy yourself a better rest.
When all the men of war are shot
And flags have fallen into dust,
Your cross and mine shall tell men still
Christ died on each, for both of us.
For in the wreckage of your April Christ lies slain,
And Christ weeps in the ruins of my spring:
The money of Whose tears shall fall
Into your weak and friendless hand,
And buy you back to your own land:
The silence of Whose tears shall fall
Like bells upon your alien tomb.
Hear them and come: they call you home.
kanejim57's review against another edition
4.0
An interesting and fascinating self-portrait of a man who describes a life lived by so many and a change that so few make. Deep and rich, this book was a challenge to read and yet kept me reading. One does not have to be a Catholic to understand the journey Merton describes in this book.
lisahopevierra's review against another edition
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
vorpalblad's review against another edition
4.0
Halfway through this and am pretty excited to listen to his recorded lectures. From what I've read his views modified during his lifetime and this is an interesting and somewhat intense reading of his early conversion to Catholicism.
ogreart's review against another edition
3.0
I had been intending to read/listen to this for years. Finally got it done. I think maybe I built it up more in my head. It was fine, but the reading was dry and monotone. I guess I just expected more.
glendonrfrank's review against another edition
4.0
For no shortage of reasons, I find myself bewildered by a lot of the reviews here. Perhaps first and foremost, because the universal opinion seems to be that the first half is "slow" and it's in the second half where it "gets good." For the life of me, I can't fathom this, because both times that I have read this I found everything with his childhood and his time in university to be incredible, lifelike, and an engaging reflection of daily life slowly invaded by the divine. Every brief moment where art stirs his desire is filled with excitement as Merton takes the quiet steps to his transformation. But once he has his actual conversion I find the rest of the autobiography loses its sense of wonder and thrill. Of course, there is still a deal of "action" for the back third of the book, but without the "through a glass darkly" quality it feels more and more like a diatribe on various facets of the Catholic church. Which is all well and good, I just can't see how anyone could find it more interesting than the gorgeous tapestries he paints of himself in his youth, reaching out but never quite grasping.
My second umbrage - and maybe this is just me wishing Goodreads was more like Letterboxd - but I don't see a lot of engagement with the rich themes Merton weaves throughout this. Honestly, more than I'm interested in his spiritual transformation, I'm engaged with his incredible prose and the way he builds up a series of memorable vignettes into clear motifs that he begins tying off one by one in the book's conclusion. Most notable is that of his brother; the first scene that truly grabbed me in Seven Story Mountain is one of Merton's childhood, where he reflects on the way he emotionally wounded his younger brother John Paul, who took the sibling suffering in a sort of Christ-lie, open-handed fashion. In reflection, much of the book is about the relationship between the two Mertons, and the final chapter is largely focused on their full and proper reconciliation. This final chapter also features the resolution of Merton's life with his college friends, and the epilogue concludes his wrestling between his life as a writer and teacher - one often used to inflate himself - and his new life spiritual contemplative. As someone most fascinated by the way that art influenced Merton's journey, this resolution is probably the most interesting to me, especially given the way it paves the path for the great deal of other works that Merton would go on to write.
My final quibble - and this really is just a quibble - is the amount of one or two-star reviews who approached a spiritual autobiography and were upset at how spiritual it was? Like, yes, Merton is super Catholic and he was super Catholic in the 20th Century in the the USA, he is going to be speaking in fairly exclusionary terms. And it's perfectly okay to be uncomfortable with that, it's certainly an ongoing issue in Western Christianity broadly and I definitely think Merton falls short on a few points (note the final pages where he speaks glowingly of the monastery's unequivocal acceptance... for men) but to approach a book like this and essentially one-star it for its core premise is a strange move to me.
Anyways, I'm already beginning to write like Merton so I probably ought to close this overlong review but it strikes me reading this book that, more than just tracking one man's journey, a good autobiography is in some ways a reflection of its time. Even if you disagree with Merton's conclusions, I think Seven Storey Mountain is fascinating in the way it depicts 20th Century America, gripped in the fated sense that war was on the horizon yet unable to fully turn to grasp the peace it so desperately craves. The story of America and the story of Merton are one and the same, except that Merton's surrendering of self spares him from the horrors of war and brings him to the resolve of solitude that he has always somehow craved.
My second umbrage - and maybe this is just me wishing Goodreads was more like Letterboxd - but I don't see a lot of engagement with the rich themes Merton weaves throughout this. Honestly, more than I'm interested in his spiritual transformation, I'm engaged with his incredible prose and the way he builds up a series of memorable vignettes into clear motifs that he begins tying off one by one in the book's conclusion. Most notable is that of his brother; the first scene that truly grabbed me in Seven Story Mountain is one of Merton's childhood, where he reflects on the way he emotionally wounded his younger brother John Paul, who took the sibling suffering in a sort of Christ-lie, open-handed fashion. In reflection, much of the book is about the relationship between the two Mertons, and the final chapter is largely focused on their full and proper reconciliation. This final chapter also features the resolution of Merton's life with his college friends, and the epilogue concludes his wrestling between his life as a writer and teacher - one often used to inflate himself - and his new life spiritual contemplative. As someone most fascinated by the way that art influenced Merton's journey, this resolution is probably the most interesting to me, especially given the way it paves the path for the great deal of other works that Merton would go on to write.
My final quibble - and this really is just a quibble - is the amount of one or two-star reviews who approached a spiritual autobiography and were upset at how spiritual it was? Like, yes, Merton is super Catholic and he was super Catholic in the 20th Century in the the USA, he is going to be speaking in fairly exclusionary terms. And it's perfectly okay to be uncomfortable with that, it's certainly an ongoing issue in Western Christianity broadly and I definitely think Merton falls short on a few points (note the final pages where he speaks glowingly of the monastery's unequivocal acceptance... for men) but to approach a book like this and essentially one-star it for its core premise is a strange move to me.
Anyways, I'm already beginning to write like Merton so I probably ought to close this overlong review but it strikes me reading this book that, more than just tracking one man's journey, a good autobiography is in some ways a reflection of its time. Even if you disagree with Merton's conclusions, I think Seven Storey Mountain is fascinating in the way it depicts 20th Century America, gripped in the fated sense that war was on the horizon yet unable to fully turn to grasp the peace it so desperately craves. The story of America and the story of Merton are one and the same, except that Merton's surrendering of self spares him from the horrors of war and brings him to the resolve of solitude that he has always somehow craved.
marjonmarie's review against another edition
5.0
Incredible! Truly an amazing memoir of Thomas Merton’s life from birth until be became a monk. How he stumbled into his faith and fell in love with the Catholic Church. Beautifully written! Will read again.