Product Description

Using a combination of poetry and prose, this volume is both autobiographical and autogeographical, it presents an anthology of vignettes portraying the life and landscape of the author's self-imposed exile on the Breton shore.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1227807 in Books
• Published on: 2000-10-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 243 pages

The Sunday Times
It seems we are looking for a new prophet. It could be that White is the very man

The Scotsman
An intellectual nomad of genius

Le Figaro Litteraire, Paris
Kenneth White lifts the mind from so much stale discourse and raises intelligence to a rare level

Customer Reviews

A delight - Kenneth White's best book
I have been reading Kenneth White off and on for more than a decade, mainly the essays, because his diagnosis of the spiritual ills of modern life is so acute. Nonetheless, I have found his previous works too often irritating, mainly due to excessive pretentiousness and self-advertisement. With this latest book, White seems to have put all this behind him, and attained a charming, mellow, even self-deprecating style.

White�s big subject is still there (the alienation of modern man) and so are the big ideas and wide-ranging erudition. But instead of arguing, as in previous books, in terms of public philosophical and poetic solutions; White seems to be showing us his individual practical response to the situation. In particular, how he has created a meaningful life in partnership with his wife, based around a cottage in Brittany. This is done deftly, honestly, and with considerable humour.

The book was mildly flawed by ending with some chapters on traveling in Britain and Ireland, which disrupted its unity and were marked by a return of the earlier and less likable style.

But my main feeling is one of hope that White may go on to write more works in this vein - a prospect I anticipate with considerable pleasure.