THE WISHING TREE: Christopher Isherwood on Mystical Religion

Novelist (A Single Man), playwright (I Am a Camera), and author of the stories on which the musical/film Cabaret was based, Isherwood is also famed as a student of Vedantic (Hindu) philosophy; his My Guru and His Disciple is a classic of spiritual literature. Here is a fascinating collection of articles Isherwood wrote for the house organ of, and books published by, the Vedantic Society of Southern California--personal, reflective, moving essays on ""How I Came to Vedanta,"" the great guru Ramakrishna, ""What Vedanta Means to Me,"" etc. that gently nudge the reader towards an understanding of Eastern thought. As lean and elegant as Isherwood's better-known work, these pieces bristle with provocation (in ""The Writer and Vedanta"": "". . .of all characters, the saint is the most interesting. He is the most interesting because he is the most flexible. . ."").