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The Razor's Edge, by Somerset Maugham: The guru described in Maugham's novel is a compound of Ramana Maharshi and others, but the descriptions are fanciful and the events unreal. The ashram is greatly exaggerated and the young American rishee has not yet existed on earth. Maugham is a newcomer to these things, anyway, and cannot get even a quarter of an inch below appearances, while often soaking in clouds of self-deception. Nevertheless he has come out of agnosticism to this higher standpoint; it is good to know that he wrote this novel instead of concentrating exclusively on sex, as in his other stories.

-- Notebooks Category 14: The Arts in Culture > Chapter 4 : Reflections On Specific Arts > # 63