Pure Act: The Uncommon Life of Robert Lax by Michael N. McGregor (review)

Michael N. McGregor, who spent considerable time with Robert Lax, has composed a captivating study of this poet and journal keeper's pilgrimage through life. Pure Act reads as a kind of travelogue that traces and comments upon Lax's early life in Olean, New York, time he spent in such places as Hollywood, California and Marseilles and Paris, France, and his years residing on the Greek islands of Kalymnos and Patmos. McGregor concludes his work with details concerning Lax's return to Olean, New York, where he lived out his final days.

Lax, born a Jew, eventually became a Catholic and viewed his conversion to Christianity as the best way he could be a good Jew. McGregor describes Lax as a wanderer, a person patient with waiting, and one who viewed existence as a miracle and life as an ongoing conversation with God. As McGregor notes, in his early adult years Lax struggled with how to reconcile the desire to follow where his artistic talents were leading him with his need for financial stability. Eventually, he chose to live as simply as possible as an artist and trusted that God would provide for his everyday needs.

McGregor employs a variety of themes to weave together his fascinating treatment of Lax's life and artistic legacy. One such theme is Lax's relationship with Thomas Merton. Both studied at Columbia University where they each contributed to the University's magazine, Jester. It was the editor of this publication who introduced the two men to each other. Regarding his initial encounter with Merton, Lax commented, " . . . there was no question in my mind that we were friends from that moment on" (16). During their university years, Merton and Lax spent some summer time together writing and relaxing at a cottage in Olean.

Lax and Merton were friends whose "playful, earnest, intelligent, and often silly" (18) correspondence spanned thirty years. Both men were drawn to a life of prayer and solitude and each lived it out in a distinct way. Merton opted for monastic life at the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky, where he took up residence in a hermitage on the monastery property during the final years of his life. Lax lived in multiple locations throughout his lifetime and eventually moved to the island of Patmos where, for most of the last two decades of his life, he settled into a simple, yet comfortable home which provided the solitude he desired as well as a cozy space for entertaining friends.

There is no question that the friendship between Lax and Merton ran very deep, even though, after their university years, the geographical distance between the two allowed them to enjoy only infrequent visits. After Merton's tragic accidental death in Thailand, Lax wrote, "A Poem to Thomas Merton" in which he described his longtime friend as a "singular star."

Another theme in McGregor's lengthy, albeit intriguing, saga is Lax's attraction to and sheer delight in circus life. As McGregor notes in his book, Lax's fascination with the circus began during his youth when his father Siggie took his son with him to enjoy the circus whenever it came to Olean. Later in life, Lax accompanied a Columbia University friend to interview the Cristianis, a circus family. Soon after the interview, Lax joined the Cristianis and kept a journal of his observations as the troupe travelled from place to place in western Canada. Eventually, this material was published in Circus of the Sun, Lax's initial publication which is a beautifully rendered, condensed poetic treatise that captures the spirituality of circus life. Of note, as McGregor indicates, Thomas Merton was the biggest fan of this book.

A further theme in McGregor's Pure Act is Lax's propensity for travel. According to McGregor, Lax's many sojourns reflected his inner restlessness and a search for his true self expressed in outer movement from place to...