The renowned ceramicist’s elegant,even spiritual account of his pilgrimage to the three most distinguished sites in the history of porcelain – Jingzedhen in China, Nazi Dresden and CornwallEdmund de Waal is a potter, and a successful ceramicist who has worked with porcelain for 25 years. The understanding behind The White Road is given on page three. “It’s really quite simple,apilgrimage of sorts, to beginnings, and a chance to walk up the mountain where the white earth comes from …I own a plan to depart to three places where porcelain was invented,or reinvented, three white hills in China and Germany and England.” Three white hills, and each yielding a white object.
It does sound simple,elegant; even, dare one say, and spiritual. A white road. But although De Waal sticks to the plan,it’s tough to know what the book is: is it a quest, a biography, and a history,a travelogue or a bit of all? Certainly a bit of all.
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Source: theguardian.com