Rumi: A Spiritual Biography (Lives & Legacies (Crossroad)) [Hardcover]

Wines's biography of Rumi is rich with good storytelling and marvelous irony and, like Strachey, with just a little touch of sardonic wit. How else to approach the incredible legends and hagiographers of Rumi? But her approach is never disrespectful or irreverent. While critical of the hagiographic trend of Rumi's contemporaries, as well as most future historians, Wines does not simply and tediously recount these legends but, while wading through such ushers in a fresh and bold imagining of this great poet with a critical contemporary eye. Ultimately Rumi comes to life on the pages of this short literary biography like he never has before.

Wines humanizes Rumi. In short, Wines shows how Rumi's work responds to an increasing need many of us have for an instinctive and mystical response to life, and for a more joyful daily exiistence. She shows us how Rumi's very broad appeal--even to those who are not particularly interested in spiritual writings or even poetry--derives from his very genuine cosmopolitan nature and character. Like Rumi's own work there is little sentimentality for its own sake in the author's examination of her subject, which very convincinly sheds light on Rumi's contemporary relevance and dazzling creative appeal and our mystic identification with this great humanist. And she shows us how Rumi's meditations on love and the chaotic nature of poetry and life, along with the extraordinary social, cutural and politically tumultuous times (not unlike our own)of his life resonate with the modern reader and transcend medieval times to our own present day.

Leslie Wines captures Rumi with a vibrancy and immediacey I've yet to see. I am a great admirer of the Penguin Lives series. A large part of the tremendous success of Penguin Lives is its nack for hitching up just the right author and subject; absolute compatibility, simpatico between subject and writer. So too with this series with Leslie Wines and Rumi.

So why am I giving this a 3?

1. The paper on which the book is printed is cheap crap. Obviously this isn't the author's fault, but it might affect whether you want to purchase it.

2. The events described in the book constitute a biography but don't emphasize what we know of Rumi's interiority, spirituality, creativity, or mysticism, so I wasn't clear on why the title refers to a "spiritual biography."

3. Some of the grammatical errors surprised me, particularly the ongoing misuse of commas. Because the author is advertised as a seasoned journalist, perhaps the editor tweaked her writing. Unfortunate.

4. I rapidly grew tired of the continual references to a mistrust of obviously legendary accounts of Rumi's life. I don't need to be told, for example, that a famous miracle attributed to Rumi is "questionable." As a reader, I can be trusted to decide this for myself.

Despite these shortcomings, I found the book readable and informative. I recommend it as a useful intro to the life of Rumi.