Roads to Santiago: A Modern Day Pilgrimage through Spain - Softcover

Nooteboom, Cees

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0156011581 ISBN 13: 9780156011587

Publisher: Thomson Learning, 2000

Synopsis

Paperback. Pub Date: 2000 Pages: 368 Publisher: Mariner Books Roads to Santiago is an evocative Travelogue through the sights. Sounds And smells of a little known Spain-its architecture art history. Landscapes. Villages and People . And as much as it is the story of his travels. it is an elegant and detailed chronicle of Cees Nooteboom's thirty-five-year love affair with his adopted second country. He presents a world not visible to the casual tourist. by invoking the great spirits of Spain's past-El Cid. Cervantes. Alfonso the Chaste and Alfonso the Wise. the ill-fated Hapsburgs. and Velazquez. Be it a discussion of his trip to the magnificent Prado Museum or his visit to the shrine of the Black Madonna of Guadalupe. Nooteboom writes with the depth and intelligence of an historian. the avado of an adventurer. and the passion of a poet. Reminiscent of Robert Hughes's Barcelo...

About this title

Review:

In recent years, Dutch writer Cees Nooteboom has developed a reputation as a major European author and, in this magical evocation of 1,000 years of Spanish history, this is shown to be more than critical hyperbole. Through his erudition and graceful writing, Nooteboom has produced the definitive work on one of the most over- worked literary pilgrimages of our times, the journey to Santiago de Compostela.

The book is never a straightforward journey, but instead distils Nooteboom's lifelong fascination for Spain through some remarkable meditations on life, art, history and religion. There is scarcely a page which is not thought-provoking. The passages on Velazquez and Seville-based artist Zurbarán are wonderful, as are the author's meditations on the paradoxes and discords within Spain, his thoughts on the effects of the barren plains on the Spanish soul and his ruminations on the history of conquest and loss which the country has undergone. Most remarkable of all is Nooteboom's ability to convey the sense that, though time has progressed, it is people, attitudes and customs which have stayed still: "Sometimes it is as if Spain is out to preserve the past for the rest of Europe."

Roads to Santiago is a book which everyone with more than passing interest in Spain ought to read. --Toby Green

Review:

"Invites the reader to share the excitement, experiences, even food, that the author has encountered while weaving his way through [Spain] slowly and deliciously . . . Mr. Nooteboom lingers in out-of-the-way places most tourists miss."-The New York Times Book Review
"Nooteboom plunges fervently into the fabric of Spain itself."-San Francisco Chronicle

About this edition

• Publisher: Thomson Learning
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0156011581
• ISBN 13: 9780156011587
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 368