• Title: To The River
• Author: Olivia Laing
• Genre/Subject: History
• Publisher: Canongate
• Publication Date: 2011
• Start date: 11/13/24
• Finish date: 11/18/24

Review:

I am haunted by waters. Thus begins this extraordinary book. I don’t use the word extraordinary lightly here, I mean this is a really extraordinary, exceptional, puzzlingly beautiful book.

This was Olivia Laing’s debut, way back in 2011 but it has aged beautifully. The book begins with the author describing her recent breakup with her partner Matthew and her plan to get away and walk the length of the Ouse (pronounced like Ooze) River, in Southeast England. Great I thought, a chick book, another depressing account of some dodgy female off to find herself. Well I thought wrong, not 100% wrong, but I was wrong and this was, as I stated an extraordinary book.

To begin at the beginning, literally the journey begins at the point where the Ouse comes bubbling out of the English ground and then we follow the author as she walks the length of the river right out to the sea. Significantly, the Ouse is the river where Virginia Woolf drowned herself in 1941 and this is a thread that runs throughout the book, like a river.

Laing is obviously very well read and this is reflected throughout with the river tying together various different threads from literature and history. From Odysseus to the Archbishop of Canterbury each thread is expertly worked into the narrative as it relates to the Ouse and to the history of the region. History resides in landscapes. Cities, farms, railroad embankments, all are built on layer upon layer of history. And the ghosts of history never really leave the places they love.

In fact, the book explores the places where history and archaeology intersect in the story of Gideon Mantell and his Iguanodon, or the legacy of the Roman occupation in Britain which is still very much in evidence today. Layers built upon layers built upon still other layers. As a Canadian I find it fascinating how close to the surface this history can often be found. It is to this day not unusual for a little English geezer to find Roman artifacts when digging his back garden, or a Saxon burial site when planting wheat on a farm.

By turns erudite, lyrical, exultant and melancholy, To the River ticked a lot of boxes for me. I love history, check. I love poetry, check. I am concerned about climate change and disappearing wetlands, check. It speaks to me on many levels and I really loved the experience of reading it. I chose that phrase “the experience of reading” on purpose. It felt less like reading a travel diary and more like being invited along for the journey.

I highly recommend this book and I look forward to reading more from this talented author. It’s not going to get the 5 stars, it was close but not quite there and that’s not taking anything away from an extraordinary book.