The Art of Flight (2006) is both a memoir and a travelogue. Mexican author and diplomat, Sergio Pitol (1933-2018) documents the places he has been, the culture he has seen, and his remembrances of his life along the way: ‘Memory works with the same oblique and rebellious logic as dreams. It rummages in dark holes and extracts visions that, unlike those of dreams, are almost always pleasant.’
Pitol writes in anecdotal form: ‘Lately, I have been very aware that I have a past. Not only because I have reached an age when the greater part of the journey has been travelled, but also because I now know fragments of my childhood that until recently were off-limits to me. I can now distinguish the various stages of my life with sufficient clarity.’
He writes of vision—and losing his glasses, so he is mostly short-sighted during his travels—but not short-minded. He compares cities to paintings and famous art, and tells of the bookshops he visited, and the books he read in those cities. There are some interesting insights about bookshops and books, such as his chapter ‘Two Weeks with Thomas Mann.’
He writes of sight—and the concerts he has attended, such as those of Rubinstein, Callas, and the legendary Josephine Baker.
He writes of the physical—and the walks around neighbourhoods, while walking and talking with friends.
He writes about writing.
He begins in Trieste in mid-October 1961 and skips quickly to 1965 in Warsaw. In the late 1970s he is the cultural attache to the Mexican embassy in Moscow. In 1992, he is in Rome, where he buys a house in rural Italy—with a cherry orchard. During his last six years abroad, he is in Prague. In between various countries, he is in his home country, writing about Mexico City—and the political situation of the times.
In some cities, he is a visitor, a traveller, but in others, he is a resident—for months or for years.
This book is incredible in terms of the extent to which the author reads and it often becomes more of a booklogue than a travelogue—but I find that delightful. Museums, art galleries, theatre; this is truly a cultural journey.
MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of: Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).
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