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Maybe someday
49
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
21/100Critics
77/100Scholars
Author:
Jordan Salama
Publisher:
Catapult
Date:
November 16, 2021
Jordan Salama tells the story of the RÃo Magdalena, nearly one thousand miles long, the heart of Colombia. This is Gabriel GarcÃa Márquez's territoryârumor has it Macondo was partly inspired by the port town of Mompoxâas much as that of the Middle Eastern immigrants who run fabric stores by its banks. Following the river from its source high in the Andes to its mouth on the Caribbean coast, journeying by boat, bus, and improvised motobalinera, Salama writes of the lives of those he meets. Among them are a canoe builder, biologists who study invasive hippopotamuses, a Queens transplant managing a failing hotel, a jeweler practicing the art of silver filigree, and a traveling librarian whose donkeys, Alfa and Beto, haul books to rural children.
What The Reviewers Say
One of the most moving descriptions is of the town of Puerto Berrío where 'people go to the cemetery to visit the tombs of people they have never met'.
The encounters are brief: Salama travels quickly, rarely spending more than a few days in each place. The result is a series of vignettes of everyday life along the river, described with great energy and warmth. The book’s most moving and memorable scenes, however, come when Salama stays somewhere long enough to form friendships—to slot into the rhythms of riverside existence.
In his debut travelogue, Salama tells the stories of the people who live along the Magdalena. Throughout each chapter, he shows how Colombia is continuing to struggle with the ongoing impact of its half-century of war and the environmental fallout of industrialization.
A mesmerizing travelogue.
