REVIEW OF
Windblown Clouds
by
Kathleen Raine

In
Thomas Shor’s narrative the absorbing writing is the least of
his gifts: he creates the imaginative adventure of his life as he
lives it. He plunges into the story almost by accident, leaving a
steamer bound for Athens by mistake at Corfu. But in Thomas Shor’s
life there are no mistakes, only opportunities, and before long we
find him sharing the life of the last surviving monk at a monastery
high on Mount Pantokrator, his meals of chick peas, garlic and olive
oil, his toils, and the dense fogs and storms of the highest mountain
on Corfu. The old monk wants him to become his successor, but life
runs on, leading perhaps inevitably to the Indian sub-continent.
Thomas Shor’s life is a continual unfolding
of those inner and outer worlds which his sense of wonder discovers
continually. His story reminds us that we are, or could be, travelers
in a world of marvels, of love, and encounters with men and women themselves
on pilgrimages of the imagination. Did not the Emperor Haroun al-Rashid
for a thousand and one nights hear in the city of Baghdad endless stories
that make up the one story of the world? Once involved in Thomas Shor’s
adventure of life, one hopes only for more.
Kathleen Raine (D.Litt.,
Cambridge; Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, France;
Comander of the British Empire; Winner—Queen's Gold Medal
for Poetry, England, etc.)

Read
Excerpts of Windblown Clouds
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