Frescoes

Jo-Anne Mary Benson, the former book review columnist for Ottawa Parent
magazine, is an Ottawa-based freelance editor and writer.

Liliane Welch, an award-winning author of 15 collections of poetry and
two volumes of literary criticism, combines her love of travel with her
love of literature in this unusual travel book.

Initially, one may be distracted by her florid writing style,
exemplified by this description of Echternach: “A medieval townlet,
near the German border, Echternach draws me on a quiet Saturday
afternoon to the restored scriptorium beneath its 12th-century basilica,
St. Willibrord’s sermons a distant echo still, the monks’
illuminated texts an homage to the God they adored, their magnificent
letters the start of the divine’s flight.” However, persistence
leads one to the realization that Welch’s words are meant to be
savored before being digested.

The most enjoyable and readable accounts are those of climbing journeys
on such peaks as Matterhorn, the Eiger, and the Piz Badile. Featured in
the author’s other “peregrinations” (frequently in Europe) are the
paintings of Giovanni Giacometti, the area in which philosopher
Nietzsche resided, Chagall’s windows, Erich Auerbach’s Mimesis, and
Rilke’s poems.

Frescoes is recommended for travel buffs who are not put off by florid
writing.