Steven Godin's Reviews > The Razor's Edge

Tracing the intimate lives of representative British and American upper class, The Razor's Edge, set in Chicago, largely in Paris, and also India, was one of the first Western novels to explore non-Western solutions to society’s ills. Larry Darrell maybe seen as the protagonist, but Maugham, who is himself a character in the book, only focuses on Larry occasionally and provides little insight to this man, who, early on, declares he simply wants to loaf until it becomes clear to him what he wants out of life. I would even go as far as to say he is completely overshadowed by the other characters: Maugham as the partially-omniscient narrator, clearly more interested in other people's relationships than his own, the rich Chicago matron Bradley, the sharp-witted daughter Isabel, the old financier Maturin, and his dull-witted son Gray. Yet it's Larry who remained strongest in my mind after the closing pages. Whilst parts of the novel, especially in Paris, had me thinking of Fitzgerald and Hemingway, in terms of the drinks flowing, the cocktail parties, the restaurants and the scintillating conversations, Maugham's novel I found to be much deeper, and far more profound.

The novel opens with Maugham admitting his apprehension at writing a novel that doesn't have a clear ending, but regardless what readers read into that, in the end, The Razor's Edge delivers a compelling and thoroughly engaging narrative.
Larry, who is a sensitive, intelligent young man refuses to conform to the prevailing social norms of America after the Great War, and instead of wedding a rich, pretty Chicago girl, he starts a vagabond quest searching for answers to questions about man, God, and the meaning of life. This would first involve travelling to Paris, which would eventually lead to stops in Germany, Spain and more importantly, India. With the latter destination finally answering some of his questions through the teachings of Eastern spiritual men, in particular an influential holy man Larry discovers who is clearly Ramana Maharshi, as described by Maugham (he himself visited Ramana's ashram on a journey to India in 1938).
His former fiancée, Isabel, marries Gray for financial security rather than love, and still holds Larry close to her heart, but is completely baffled by the way he chooses to now, with little money, live his life. They would meet up again, but as completely different people.
Long conversations that drive the novel's narrative is clearly one of Maugham's greatest assets here, and with his elitist friend Elliott, the opportunistic French artist Suzanne Rouvier, and tragic addict Sophie, with whom Larry would fall in love, Maugham gives the lesser characters that drop in and out of the novel important roles that do in fact shape the story.

Unsurprising to me, The Razor's Edge became one of the biggest-selling books of Maugham's career, and I doubt I'd read a better one. I only wish I got to read at least fifty pages at a time, as reading in smaller chunks, which ultimately I had to, it was difficult to find a suitable place to stop, sometimes making it a bummer to pick up again right in the middle of a conversation. It's a novel that would fully benefit being read with the least amount of breaks possible. Other than that, The Razor's Edge was one of the best novels I've read in 2019. Off the top of my head, I can't think of anything negative to say, so it's two big thumbs up to Maugham!