THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 28, 1996 TAG: 9604260719
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J3 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Book Review
SOURCE: NAN EDGERTON
LENGTH: Short : 42 lines
Journey to the Land of the Flies and Other Travels, a compilation of essays by Aldo Buzzi previously published in Italy and recently translated into English, is a disjointed and idiosyncratic collection of ruminations on literature, history, food and culture. Buzzi quotes a painter from Cervantes' Don Quixote who, when asked what he is painting answers: ``What comes out.'' Such stream-of-consciousness thinking is Buzzi's guiding principle.
Buzzi jumbles literary allusions, time periods, recipes and historical and fictional characters into a hodgepodge of images and ideas disguised as a travel book (complete with extensive footnotes). The technique is only occasionally effective. Buzzi leaves readers uninvolved in most of these tales, hopeful that something more substantial will ``come out'' of this odd mixture of random ingredients.
Buzzi travels to Moscow, Djakarta, London, Milan, Italy, and Sicily, but geography is just his excuse to pontificate about literature and culture. During a train trip from Milan to Gorgonzola, Italy, home of the famous blue-veined cheese, he critiques James Joyce's use of interior monologue (while relying heavily on the technique himself), and declares that Gorgonzola is not worth a visit because many 17th and 18th century structures have been destroyed.
Why, then, go to Gorgonzola? Surely not for cheese or architecture. In the end, Buzzi is more interested in his own voice than in the fascinating places he visits, leading readers on an aimless and dissatisfying journey. by CNB