MSW misunderstands the authors use of "total" and it shows through the full paragraph that he gave to criticize it. 

Go to Jesus, and listen to Him. From St Luke's Gospel: "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself"

Total self-gift, until our last breath. 

In other words, putting our freedom to its greatest good and use. 

I think MSW often tries to over-intellectualize matters.

We are just children. God knows this.   MSW doesn't.

He doesn't quite 'have' C&L, or the essence of the interior life with God.

It's a "total" love affair with God.   Lively, torrid, very close.  Striving unity...an infinite magnet and a teeny tiny magnet, rushing to each other, with us always always always beginning again each morning and hour.