A Book of Migrations: Some Passages in Ireland by Rebecca Solnit
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Rebecca Solnit’s “A Book of Migrations” is a collection of essays that loosely trace her travels in Western Ireland. This collection was originally published in 1998, by Verso. It was released in a new edition in 2011. I was gifted this book by my good friend James Gilmore, photographer extraordinaire and conflicted Irishman. You can check out his extraordinary work here:

http://www.jamesgilmore.net/

There are seventeen essays in this book, the sum total of which do not in any way make up a travel book. This is not a guide to wandering the Emerald Isle, nor is it meant to be. The tagline on my edition is from the New York Times: “A brilliant meditation on travel.” Perhaps. It is true that the essays are brilliant; written in a prose that dances very close to poetry. But a meditation on travel? No, I think this is a tagline, like any other; meant to lure the undecided reader. Perhaps a more truthful tagline would read: “A brilliant rumination on what it means to be a traveler.”

I use the word rumination with clear purpose. I found myself chewing on each of Ms. Solnit’s essays. Days after I had finished one, I would still be pleasantly digesting the contents. These essays deal with very large issues, each somehow scaled down to human size. Invasion, colonization, emigration, integral parts of understanding Ireland, and all mulled over whilst walking a wet Irish roadway.

The Author deftly explores what it is to be sedentary, attached to the smallest imaginable plot of land. She contrasts this with the life of the nomad, of the traveler. What does it mean to be a traveler? What does it mean to be a tourist? Ms. Solnit delves into the notion that by the mere act of arrival, travelers change the place where they set their feet. This is an ongoing conversation amongst travelers that I know; a conversation that I have long participated in. I appreciated Ms. Solnit’s thoughts and insights.

This is a book about Ireland, surely, although most certainly not a detailed itinerary of travel. The essays are a series of microcosms. The reader will be rewarded with glimmering sketches of the land; rock walls in the rain, turf springing underfoot. Behind these glimpses of wet stone and green grass are the bedrock of Ireland: History, literature, language, and story. This book deals with the idea of place, the experience of belonging or not belonging. Theses essays are a slow pause to think about place itself, rather than any one specific location.

Progressing through the essays, one finds the subtle links, the threads of themes running beneath the surface of the preceding essay, or perhaps the one before that. The reader should be prepared for the journey, complete with at least a passing knowledge of the history, culture, and literature of Ireland. Or, plunge right in and keep Google Search close at hand. I say this more as a preparatory caution. The Author weaves the cloth of her essays with references to Swift and Joyce, Cromwell and Parnell. There is much here to chew on, to ruminate.

I highly recommend this book, though with the cautions stated above. This is not a light read, nor a quick blog entry to be skimmed over coffee. Ms. Solnit writes heady, poetic prose; prose that is rife with ideas, insights, and questions. It is very much worth the time invested, and pays dividends long after the last essay is completed.

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