Tantalus and the Pelican: Exploring Monastic Spirituality Today by Nicholas BuxtonMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I stumbled upon this book in Google Reads, drawn by the sub-title (of course), but intrigued by the title itself. I'm not quite sure what I expected, but this proved rather a different story from that. It didn't help that I had completely forgotten who the author was and was only reminded about a third of the way in that he had participated in the Monastery reality show in 2005, which had been an influence on my interest in monasticism so evident in my reviews.
The book is part autobiography in which Buxton tells of his spiritual searching, first in Eastern monasticism and eventually in Benedictine monasticism. He, of course, explains his experience on the Monastery, which was interesting because he always came off as the most centred of the bunch. He weaves in monastic teaching sensitively and maintains an amused detachment about his own foibles. The result is an insightful, but not too heavy narrative which manages to teach a surprising amount of wisdom.
This book really is a wonderful book and is interesting not only to former views of the Monastery, but to those interested in monastic wisdom.
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