My Quest for Beauty

This is a fascinating book of no fixed category -- psychology? essay? memoir? artistic critique? Well, it's a little of all of them. And while it is somewhat meandering, a bit disheveled & ramshackle, that doesn't have to be a bad thing. The effect is that of a curious, searching, eager gaze as it moves across a landscape, stopping every so often at a particularly compelling image or idea & expounding on it. Don't let "expounding" make you wary, though. Like all of Rollo May's books, it raises & discusses Big Questions in a very readable way. He has the rare gift of being able to convey complex & rich concepts in a direct, easy-to-understand manner without ever dumbing it down. And in these pages, he delves into the nature of & the need for Beauty. I think this idea is all the more pressing these days. Popular culture has never seemed so crass, so materialistic, so geared towards the lowest common denominator ... one that apparently goes lower & lower with each new day. All the more reason to be reminded that Beauty is not only precious, it's vital. And it's not just for some stereotypical elite in an overpriced tower, but for everyone. What makes this especially moving is the personal touch. May discusses his own life, his own attempts at creating Beauty, including samples of his drawings & paintings. Thus he takes the same risks he asks us to take in creating art to nourish the soul. This is no pedantic lecture delivered from on high, uninformed by any experience, but one aspiring artist speaking to others as fellow human beings, all on the same journey. Most highly recommended!

This is not technically May's best work, but it may be one of his most powerful. He writes of beauty as "ultimate concern" to use Tillich's term, and tells of how his own discovery--or really, rediscovery--of beauty literally saved his life from the devouring jaws of depression. This is the most personally revealing of May's many books, including some of his perceptive sketches and watercolors. Despite the somewhat fragmented, discontinuous quality of the chapters, this book is fascinating and its effect on me was profound: shortly after finishing it, I found myself more highly attuned to and appreciative of the beauty all around us everyday, sustaining beauty we tend to lose sight of in our busy lives. Thank you, Rollo May, for the priceless reminder.