Carmen Via: Journey in the Songlines of Italy [Paperback]

What an incredible labor of love and a fantastic story! Carmen Via is a tour de force work that took me simultaneously through the author's life in vivid flash back sequences, and through the rich and multi-layered Italian history in a forward motion as well. Populated with fantastical and charming characters, including an actual person named Carmen Via, the story is not a solitary note. It reminds me of Gregorian Chant - many voices interweaving, mingling and parting, rising and falling like waves incoming, but always flowing into a harmonious yet completely complex whole. So many levels, so dense with observations and myth, with human frailty and great feats of daring - a refreshing look at our western heritage that is quite massive and yet detailed in its view.

The margin references that grace the edges of many pages, great chunks of classics like the Odyssey, tie into the story in ways that are serendipitous and a bit surreal. A huge web of intricate facts and memories - of places known and unknown, of poetry and history, of universal feelings and bloodlines running deep, of magic and comets falling through us, and of songs - songs we hear, sung by the earth, the trees, the hills and valleys and by the very ghosts who live with us. All of this magic conspires together with deft wordsmithing and acute perceptions to create the Map of Imagination. Deep sensitivity to the grace of history, and the role of devilish activity throughout, recalled the nature of place and its power to form and inform the daily behavior of its inhabitants. Once on a trip to Sedona, Arizona the guide took us into the desert hills where the magnetic fields are so intense that you can feel the humming in the air pierce your body and thrum your bones. The earth does sing, and we mortals do respond.

What an incredible gift to all who read it - a classical, but personal look at our reality. I even found myself nodding in agreement when the author spoke of the damage being done by the speed of life and modern media. Our daughter did not have television in her life for the first 14 years and she marvels at the strange commonality of thought it breeds, and the void of imagination and the creative processes. Unfortunately, many do not have a good grounding in mythology and the classics, and lack these essential cultural reference points. The author reminds us of the bountiful heritage that is the foundation supporting Italy and the whole of the western world.

Carmen Via was so much more than I had heard, and overwhelming in its scope to read and comprehend. The kind of book that should be savored. Carmen Via is a veritable 20 course meal, paired with gorgeous wines, and more, for the curious and courageous reader. The photographs, in black and white by Rolf Horn, are evocative of the magic within and compliment the language with strong visuals. This book is literally, an engraved invitation to visit Italy, and a delight to read.

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