Face Talk Hand Talk Body Talk
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Best for readers who...
Good fit if you want...
- You follow Thomas Merton’s contemplative essays on silence and gesture.
- You enjoy reflective, aphoristic meditations about face, hand, and body as spiritual language.
Maybe skip if...
- You want systematic theology or tightly argumed academic prose.
- You prefer plot-driven narratives instead of essayistic spiritual reflection.
- You need the newest edition, freshest examples, or the most current framing.
Summary
This 1966 collection by Thomas Merton assembles essays and reflections that treat faces, hands, and posture as gateways to spiritual attention and ethical encounter; the pieces range from brief aphorisms to longer contemplative sketches across 360 pages.
Edition on file: 1966 • Bantam Dell Pub Group • 360 pages • ISBN 9780385010184.
Why this book now
Revisit Merton’s embodied attention in Face Talk Hand Talk Body Talk for perspective on presence, solitude, and how ordinary gestures shape spiritual life in a distracted age.
Reader guide
Quick signals that help you decide faster.
Reading commitment
Steady Needs some room
At ~360 pages, this Bantam Dell edition rewards slow reading—dip into individual essays or read straight through in several focused sittings over a week or two.
What stands out here
This Bantam Dell Pub Group paperback preserves Merton’s mid-1960s voice and essay sequence, making the original contemplative tone and aphoristic fragments easily accessible.
Best way to approach it
Approach Face Talk Hand Talk Body Talk as a book of meditative fragments—pause after passages, re-read striking sentences, and reflect on how Merton links physical gesture to interior attention.
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The clearest thing here is a reading experience that should show its character pretty quickly once you start. Taken together, it reads like a mid-length read that should balance momentum with detail. It also has the feel of a backlist title rather than a brand-new release.
Book overview built from edition details and related-book context.