Davis is a powerful, penetrating and immensely knowledgeable writer ... Madgalena...is very personal. Its three sections...promise a smooth linear ride downriver, but the text is full of mysterious eddies and crosscurrents ... 'living narratives' are the heart of a book whose final purpose is to 'celebrate the true wonder of a country that has long been overlooked and misunderstood.' Passages of description catch the evanescent flavour of towns along the way ... Magdalena is steeped in a physical sense of Colombia: the landscapes, the disreputable backstreets, the irrepressibly resilient people. This eclectic log-book of life on the river puts one in mind of Ryszard Kapuściński’s idea of travel writing as 'authenticated by its being lived'—'you have experienced this event on your own skin, and it is this experience, this feeling along the surface of your skin, which gives your story its coherence.'
... it would be a gross understatement to call this book a river journey. It is far more than that. Magdalena is a devotee’s pilgrimage ... Like the very nature of the journey itself, the narrative swings back and forth and side to side, allowing the serendipity of the moment to fill in the adventure with compelling human interest stories and representative anecdotes, and of course histories. Davis is a tireless raconteur ... He writes in a style and from a perspective that is both haunting and self-deprecating. A word of warning: Davis does not spare his readers from the abject truth. There are stories about pogroms of native populations, slaughter of innocent townspeople, horrific environmental devastation, catastrophic natural disasters, and more. The history both near and far of Colombia is often heart-wrenching and violent ... There are still many wonders to behold ... a vivid portrait of his hopes and fears for the region.
The author vividly recounts the various civil wars and regional conflicts Colombia has suffered since its independence from Spain in 1810 ... Gabriel García Márquez did not believe, at the time of his death in 2014, that the Magdalena would ever be restored. Mr. Davis’s book makes a compelling case otherwise. If a country’s spirit can be renewed through the grace and resilience of its people, he argues, so too can its river.
There are maps in the book—and you will need them. It’s tricky at times to know where you are. His central point, however, is easy to grasp—the Magdalena is Colombia ... The book is a rallying cry to save the Magdalena from the destructive effects of industrialisation, but it also aims to reset our impressions of the country as a whole ... I won’t forget Wade’s account of the men Davis meets who, despite all the dangers—the guerillas forbade people from claiming bodies—retrieved countless bloated corpses from the river so they could be buried properly. It’s hard to read and all still so immediate ... At times Davis’s lyricism goes too far ... His passion for Colombia is better expressed in the depth of information he delivers—and the poetic way in which he captures its extraordinary landscape.
Davis's...florid appreciation of the land and people can on occasion tip over into purpled gush. He describes earlier plant-hunters, dazzled by local abundance, as 'prostrate before the gates of awe.' Intermittently, he assumes that pose himself. Still, no traveller would deny the 'warmth and decency' he celebrates everywhere along his route. Colombia really is easy to love ... Davis suffuses his reportage with a visionary tinge. But his subject more than warrants it. He tells of an indigenous savant who advises lovers of the Magdalena to 'Know its moods . . . recognise its power, yield to its strength, and be thankful for its bounty.' His torrential book achieves all that.
...this timely book explores one of the few dividends to emerge from such a terrible conflict ... Wade Davis is well placed to write what he describes as a love letter to Colombia ... This book is the culmination of a lifetime’s work in the country and is suffused with a love and knowledge that only such long acquaintance can bring. His hope is that the new ecological spirit abroad in Colombia may lead to a cleansing of the river Magdalena itself.
If ever there was a ballad composed in the fullness of a lifelong affair, it is Magdalena ... Davis’s approach engages readers with the country’s rich prehistory and turbulent history in repeated touches. Like an oil painter, he lays down a first reference to a historical figure or a dramatic episode, then returns, often several times, adding depth and nuance ... Davis’s candid and searingly ambivalent treatment sheds light on this little-known fact: Bolivar 'was perhaps the only major revolutionary hero who was fundamentally informed by natural history' ... By means of vivid depictions of scientists like Vargas at work, Davis breathes light and life into science itself. He illuminates not just the reciprocal influence between home-grown Colombian scholars and their European counterparts, but also the rich terrain where modern science meets indigenous ways of apprehending the natural world.
In this deeply inquisitive, dazzlingly fluent scientific, cultural, and spiritual investigation, Davis illuminates the natural and human history of Río Magdalena ... Always with a discerning eye to the symbolic and metaphorical, Davis tells the river’s saga of fecundity and horror through the lives of remarkable individuals past and present.
Shifting seamlessly from travelog to history to nature writing, Davis weaves together a fascinating story of the geographical and cultural diversity of the Rio Magdalena, a diversity that characterizes the spirit of Colombia. Recommended for those who enjoy good writing, and all interested in a new perspective on personal narratives.
Davis stocks his lively narrative with piquant characters, dramatic historical set pieces, and lyrical nature writing ... The result is a rich, fascinating study of how nature and a people shape each other.
Davis is a natural, engaging storyteller, and while he makes his way through Colombia’s history ... the book is also an affecting account of on-the-ground exploration. The author skillfully weaves in accounts by academics, who have studied the vicissitudes of the river, and by the people who have lived and toiled along its shores ... An elegant narrative masterfully combining fine reporting and a moving personal journey.
