Although best known in his own day as a playwright, Maugham has survived the test of time as a novelist. In any case, he is a master storyteller with a gift for vivid characterization. In The Razor's Edge, Maugham takes on the inevitably hit-or-miss topic of man's search for spirituality, but his skilled narration and dry wit yield an engrossing book that is finally amusing and thought-provoking.

Kim Colwell