The White Road: Journey into an Obsession
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.85 (938 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 1250097320 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 416 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2016-06-16 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Edmund de Waal is one of the world’s leading ceramic artists, and his porcelain is held in many major international collections. His bestselling memoir, The Hare with Amber Eyes, was shortlisted for numerous prizes and won the Costa Biography Award and the RSL Ondaatje Prize.
From his studio in London, he begins by travelling to three “white hills”sites in China, Germany, and England that are key to porcelain’s creation. But his search eventually leads him around the globe and reveals more than a history of cups and figurines; rather, he is forced to confront some of the darkest moments of twentieth-century history.Part memoir, part history, part detective story, The White Road chronicles a global obsession with alchemy, art, wealth, craft, and purity.. An extraordinary blend of narrative history
"The history of porcelain, as told in The White Road, is a constantly surprising, sometimes absolutely staggering, coming together of art, craft and commerce, politics and religion, national identity, larger-than-life characters and wild, sometimes ruinous obsession A terrific book. If you read it, you’ll never look at porcelain the same way again." Geoff Nicholson, Los Angeles Times "The White Road is a unique book by a unique person. He can see a vase and not only imagine the kind of room it once inhabited but the type of woman who might have brushed her fingertips across its lip It’s de Waal’s own obsessionthe man counts pots when he can’t sleep at nightthat infuses the narrative with a true sense of the hunt He is wonderfully m
A Welcome Detour from Chaos Readers of "The Hare with Amber Eyes" have complained that this book isn't the page turner "Hare" was. I agree. But I found its pursuit of the history of porcelain, de Waal's meditations on the material, the people surrounding it, and his own journey of discovery, a lovely balm for troubled times. My reaction is idiosyncratic, I know, but I recommend going along on this journey as a welcome detour from so much that's repellent in the world right now.. David P. Chandler said A luminous, pleasing, slightly obsessive book. A luminous, pleasing, slightly obsessive book about the history of porcelain, de Waal's life as as a potter and his travels to China, Dresden, Devonshire, North Carolina and (disturbingly) Nazi Germany to explore and illuminate key moments in the history of porcelain. Since his teen age years de Waal has has been enchanted by its translucent whiteness, elegance and fragility. He has made thousands of elegant objects with it, Like his earller book The Hare with the Amber Eyes, The White Road straddles, transcends (or defies) genre boundaries. Highly recommended,. I. B. Wood said I loved it - you may not.. This book captured me in the first few pages. It is about porcelain clay and as an amateur pottery I use this type of clay to make amateurish pots on my wheel. But, it is not exactly about the use of porcelain clay and resulting pieces of functional or art ware. It is also about white, about the history of regions where clay and the search for perfect white played an important role, about the people involved in this history, about the author and his search for the essence of porcelain, about the author and his evolution as a potter and artist, and about the aut