Pilgrim of the Void – Travels in South-East Asia and the North Pacific –

“The book begins in the floating world of Hong Kong, between West and East, moves from there into the South China Sea, to Macao and Taiwan, and thereafter 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 simple ‘travel-book’. And White’s way is superbly written, in the prose of a poet who is out to unite intensity with clarity.

Pilgrim of the Void continues the publication of the work of a writer, thinker and traveller who, in order to follow his own paths and open up new space, was long absent from the established scene. White has spoken of his mental continent as Euramerasia. Travels in the Drifting Dawn went through Europe, The Blue Road was White’s vision of America. This new book completes the Euramerasian pilgrimage.”