Isolarion

Description

Can you be a pilgrim without leaving your life behind? Howdoes it feel to approach everyday places with the same reverence as grandcathedrals? And how are we changed by even the smallest of journeys? JamesAttlee asks these questions and more in his thoughtful, streetwise, andpersonal account of a pilgrimage to a place he thought he already knew: theCowley Road in Oxford, right outside his door. Attlee’s Cowley has little to do with the dreaming spiresof his city. Leaving tourism and student life aside, Attlee instead presents avital and delightfully motley collection of places, people, languages, andcultures. From a sojourn in a sensory-deprivation tank to a furtive visit to anunmarked pornography emporium, from halal shops to Brazilian art dealers toreggae clubs to quiet churchyards, Attlee celebrates the appealing andhomegrown eclecticism that so often comes under attack from predatorydevelopers. Drawing inspiration from sources ranging from RobertBurton’s The Anatomy of Melancholy tocontemporary art, Isolarion is atonce a charming road movie, a battle cry raised against creepinghomogenisation, and a love song to the gloriously messy real life of the cityhe calls home.