Book Review
The Po : An Elegy for Italy ’ s Longest River , by Tobias Jones ( 2022 ). Apollo Books £ 25 .
I read in the summer this recently published work by Tobias Jones . It is a wonderful book , tracing his journey from the delta on the Adriatic Sea to the source of the river Po in the Alps . Its sub-title , An Elegy for Italy ’ s Longest River , indicates that it is more than a travelogue . Rather , it is a lament for the natural world laid waste by human folly and greed . Not only do the chapters reveal the beauties of a landscape , often mysterious and magical but now marred by pollution , but also the troubled history of a region ( mostly Lombardia ) comprising the present regions of Veneto , Lombardy and Piedmont with the adjoining Emilia-Romagna .
It reads like a journal on a pilgrimage by a devotee of Italian culture who is an acute observer of the natural environment , who understands human foibles and a deep appreciation of the way that history and events as well as the personalities of the peoples of the regions have been shaped by the river both as a provider of life and as a natural barrier to be overcome . From the ‘ sullen flatness ’ of the delta and the Lombard swamps to the ‘ immense plump valleys ’ of the foothills of the Alps , Jones brings to life the landscape across which he journeys , reading as he goes from the deep wells of Italian literature and the accounts of colourful characters from Medieval and Renaissance history of the rich variety of cities bordering its banks . Then he takes us into the painful episodes of more recent conflicts , engendered by the deep political divisions in Italian society explored more in his book The Dark Heart of Italy .
The last chapter , ‘ The Stone King ’, marks the last stage of his journey as he leaves the plains where the castles , towers and churches are built mostly of brick , and enters the foothills of the Cottian Alps where the buildings are mostly of rock and stone . For Jones , the material of the environment is symbolic of the need for refuge from the forces of the plains for the movements driven to the margins . So the story of the Waldensians shaped by the harsh landscape is retold as the survivors of centuries of Catholic oppression reclaim the Valli Valdesi as ‘ our little Canaan ’, a promised land beyond the desert experienced by the wandering peoples . This and other chapters are wonderfully evocative , engendering a warmer understanding of the particularity both of the regional identities uncovered and the sense of otherness under threat from the desires to unify and remove such differences .
This is a must-read book . One wishes that we , too , could travel the route with such a well-informed and observant writer . But the book will take you to these places by the power of the pen !
Rev . Tim Macquiban
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