FFB: Lost Horizon -- James Hilton

I'd never read Lost Horizon or seen any of the movies based on it, but when I read Michael Dirda's comments on the book in the Wall Street Journal, I figured it was time I did.  The essay is behind a paywall, but here's how it begins:  "Now and again, a novel seems to achieve a kind of perfection, a faultless balance in its tone, structure and style. Think of Ford Madox Ford’s 'The Good Soldier,' F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 'The Great Gatsby,' Vladimir Nabokov’s 'Lolita.' It may seem sacrilege, but I would add to any such list of 20th-century masterpieces James Hilton’s "'Lost Horizon.'”  I think you'll agree that he puts the novel into some pretty heady company, so I checked my local library's holdings, and was a little surprised to find that they had a copy.  It hadn't been weeded from the shelves, although it's been there so long that it has a cardholder pasted in front.

The problem with reading a book like this when you're my age is that even if you've never read it before or seen the movies, you know what it's about.  You've heard of it all your life because it was so famous at one time, even though it wasn't a success on its original publication.  There's not likely to be a lot of suspense involved in the reading.  

It also turns out that almost nothing happens in the novel.  There's a prologue that is mostly a conversation between three old school chums, followed by an airplane hijacking.  What follows after the plane sets down and the four passengers are rescued is mostly a series of conversations and ruminations.  That didn't matter to me, however, because there are secrets and a well-developed plot, the conversations and ruminations were interesting, and the idea of Shangri-La is as appealing as ever to me, although not to one of the characters in the novel.  

To me, that was the weakest part of the book, not that that the character didn't like the idea of Shangri-La but that the protagonist, Conway, has such an affection for a querulous and complaining young man.  There's nothing in the book to make him attractive in the least (or not to me, anyway). Aside from that, this short novel kept me entertained all the way.  I'm glad I finally got around to reading it.

[SPOILER ALERT]:  What's the secret of Shangri-La?  When Conway says, "Perhaps the exhaustion of the passions is the beginning of wisdom . . . ."  The lama replies, "That also, my son, is the doctrine of Shangri-La."[END OF SPOILER ALERT]