Of Human Bondage

For a month or so I have slowly been reading Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage. I started just reading a little a night. I had read this before in my teens or twenties, but do not remember much of it from then, and probably didn't get it.

I loved this book. Reading it slowly works well, as it's an in-depth coming of age story, starting with the death of Phillip's mother when he was around 8, and ending when he is 30. He is introspective and isolated in his childhood, largely unhappy and friendless, and has a club foot which separates him from his peers and others. It is a source of shame but also provides an opportunity for him to see the people around him from a unique, at times painful, perspective.

There is an unrequited masochistic love story that is central to the plot, but to me Of Human Bondage is more about someone who thinks and feels deeply exploring different ways of living in the world, and his meditations on love, art, human nature, suffering, religion, etc were not dry and pretentious, but earnest and heart-wrenching.

Unfortunately the ending was rushed and I thought a bit too pat. I was disappointed. Also, I would have liked to continue to read about Philip. I wish Maugham had pulled a "Rabbit" a la John Updike.