NONFICTION - July 31, 1994 - Los Angeles Times


NONFICTION - July 31, 1994 - Los Angeles Times

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BREAKFAST AT THE VICTORY: The Mysticism of Ordinary Experience by James Carse. (HarperCollins: $21 ; 232 pp.) These are a series of gracefully written essays on the varieties of mystical


experience. They almost always begin with the small and immediate, and end with the enormous yet intimate. They are very specific to the life and experience of James Carse, director of


religious studies at New York University since 1966, so from time to time one feels forgotten, left behind, but they succeed in teaching a kind of vision and appreciation for the otherwise


regular and humdrum. In several, Carse’s recently deceased and much beloved wife Alice plays a role, usually that of teacher, and in fact, one senses that it is the sheer pain of loss that


has taught Carse to look over his shoulder or down at the street.