Magris’ account has thus itself become part of the history he described. This time, though, the map stopped me short.Ĭzechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and the Soviet Union no longer exist as single nations, and East and West Germany have become a single nation once again. While some time had passed since its initial publication in 1986, and the breaking up of Eastern Europe was already underway, Magris’ account still had the aspect of having been written in the present. I was eager to find out what its first chapter, “A Question of Gutters,” was about. When I read Danube the first time, I glanced at the book’s map of the Danube and the countries that bordered it, but didn’t linger. Only recently did I finally take it down from the shelf where I'd deposited some years ago to read it once again. I persevered, nonetheless, and the book has since traveled with me from New York City to the Hudson Valley, where it has called out from time to time to be reread. Magris was unequivocal: he described the Breg, claimed to be the Danube's source, as “a flowing bronze ribbon, brown and shining.” Lovely though his description was, this was not my Danube, but something else.
I leapt on it eagerly, only to be told-on the second page, no less-that the river wasn’t blue. Some years ago, I came across the book Danube, by Claudio Magris.
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