Pilgrim of the Void

This book begins in the floating world of Hong Kong, between West and East, from there into the South China Sea, to Macao and Taiwan, and thereafter to Thailand, before going still further, to Japan, with a journey from Tokyo up through the northern provinces to Hokkaido. It is, then, a book of travels. But if White has all his senses open as he moves from place to place, from territory to territory, travelling with him does not stop at the geographical level. It is, in a very strong sense, autobiographical, that is, it concerns a life process, involving mind as well as body. So that this “pilgrimage of the void” becomes, but with no heaviness, a kind of initiation into a way of life. Which is why White prefers to speak of “way-book” rather than of simple “travel-book”. And White’s way is written in the prose of a poet who is out to unite intensity with clarity.