Unfinished Journey Twenty Years Later

The great violinist, teacher, conductor and humanitarian published a memoir in 1977, but that edition is long out of print, and this is an expanded version, with several new chapters covering the intervening years. They have not, on the whole, been years in which anything major has happened in Menuhin's life. He continues, at 80, to zoom around the world from bases in Switzerland and London, supervising his school for young violinists and the Live Music Now concerts, ever active on behalf of a hundred causes, including most notably UNESCO and Amnesty International, playing and conducting a bit less than he once did but showing no real signs of slowing down. The new chapters, unfortunately, which discourse on musical, educational and personal matters as well as something Menuhin describes as ""Views and Causes,"" are written rather more flatly than the often engaging and delightful account of his earlier life. For the last 20 years, during which he became a member of Britain's House of Lords, Menuhin offers more a dutiful account of a continuingly admirable life, with moments of gentle resignation about the intractability of human nature, than any fresh revelation. His account of how yoga and a natural diet have transformed his life expands considerably on the earlier work, however, and there are more fulsome tributes than are perhaps necessary to his beloved wife, Diana. Still, it is good to have the book back in print, and the personal prayer with which it now ends is genuinely uplifting. Photos not seen by PW. (May)