While reading this book, I'm embarrassed that I forgot so much about Merton's life, and completely forgot about the unsettling "crucifixion incident" at Cambridge, where, according to Mott, Merton was Jesus in a mock crucifixion, and might even have carried a scare on the palm of his hand as a souvenir -- Yikes! Also amazed that the book kind of skips over his conversion to Catholicism also, a very cursory glance at that part of his life . Still, it's worth the read, I'm not even up to when Merton enters the Trappists yet.