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35th out of 766 books
—
1,210 voters
In Patagonia
An exhilarating look at a place that still retains the exotic mystery of a far-off, unseen land, Bruce Chatwin’s exquisite account of his journey through Patagonia teems with evocative descriptions, remarkable bits of history, and unforgettable anecdotes. Fueled by an unmistakable lust for life and adventure and a singular gift for storytelling, Chatwin treks through “the...more
Paperback, 240 pages
Published
March 25th 2003
by Penguin Classics
(first published 1977)
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This is the third time I have read this classic by the late Bruce Chatwin. While purporting to be an episodic treatment of various past and present individuals who have been drawn into the orbit of Patagonia, it is quite as fictional as it is nonfiction. Although Chatwin has no great love for the literal truth, his transformations of people and events are fascinating.
It is very much like the old joke about the patient who tells his therapist some made up stories, to which the therapist says, "Th...more
It is very much like the old joke about the patient who tells his therapist some made up stories, to which the therapist says, "Th...more
The truly fine-grained books are always impossible to review or describe. Even dragged-out praise leaves most of the best things unnoted. Certainly this is true in the case of In Patagonia, one of those unclassifiable mandarin anatomies whose summarized “action” but barely suggests the innumerable felicities of perception that make the book. A copy of In Our Time packed in his rucksack, Chatwin busses from Buenos Aires into Patagonia, tramps around, meets people and collects their stories--much...more
Written in 1977 after a trip taken in 1974 to Patagonia, this book is considered among the best travel books written. But its not actually about Patagonia, its more about the creation of the idea of Patagonia by the people who live there (either because they were born there or because they had an idea of the place). For instance, the story of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid is told through the folk lore of grandchildren of the people who thought they saw them or met them or were their victims...more
This was published in 1977, and as I read it, I couldn't help but think of Edward Said's Orientalism, published a year later. I admit to fantasizing about Said clobbering Chatwin over the head with a large rock. But not before Said had given him some choice words that could not be reduced to faux-Hemingway dialogue. As in the Songlines, you have a traveler who is more obsessed with traveling than the places he travels to, or the people he meets. There are so many vignettes in this, some with fab...more
Bruce Chatwin died of AIDS early in 1989. Almost 50 at the time of his death, he came to literary life and fame relatively late. It is part of his legend that he announced his departure from the (London) Sunday Times in 1975 with a short telegram: “Gone to Patagonia for six months.” In Patagonia is, I assume, his first book, and it is quite an excellent traveler’s tale. Chatwin was a keen observer with a dry (but not precious) wit and a well-developed sense of the absurd.[return][return]His curi...more
Most of humanity dwells in densely developed and productive parts of the globe. Beyond those are the empty and arid deserts, and also the sparsely settled fringes of population, where life can be challenging, towns are modest and roads are few. In Australia, that is "the outback." In the United States, one such large chunk is Alaska, and Russia has Siberia; but for Argentina (and for Chile, not covered here) it is Patagonia, the southern end of the American continent--windy, icy, arid steppes a...more
What makes a classic travel book? First, there is a destination that is geographically distant or philosophically exotic for most readers. In other words, this is a place that will change you.
Next, there is a Sancho-Panza-like attention to quirky, fascinating detail that anchors the narrative in reality. Meaning this is a story about the world we all live in, not just a world some author and his readers wish to live in.
Then, there is a Don-Quixote-like quest aspect to the journey. This indicates...more
Next, there is a Sancho-Panza-like attention to quirky, fascinating detail that anchors the narrative in reality. Meaning this is a story about the world we all live in, not just a world some author and his readers wish to live in.
Then, there is a Don-Quixote-like quest aspect to the journey. This indicates...more
A difficult book to analyze. The writing style seems simple - composed mainly of short statements - yet the author's eye picks out the oddest details. These details, together with a wide literary knowledge, well-researched history, myth and legend and encounters with strange and sometimes wonderful characters along the way, add up to an unusual read that gives one a peculiar and almost mystical feel for the country.
The story begins with a glass-fronted cabinet in his grandmother's dining room a...more
The story begins with a glass-fronted cabinet in his grandmother's dining room a...more
Patagonia is that stretch of land at the southern tip of South America, the major part of which is Argentina and the rest, Chile. In the 501 Must Read Books list this is included as a travel book. I think this is a bit off. The title gives a hint. It's "In Patagonia." The preposition "in" makes a lot of difference. Bruce Chatwin did not make a lot of description of the various places he had been in Patagonia when he started travelling there in 1974. At least not as much as the people--both livin...more
"In Patagonia" is a fever dream of an adventure story in which the author drifts from town to town in one of the most remote regions of the world. He writes a short portrait of each person he meets, capturing a moment in time that becomes emblematic of the scene; this photographic writing makes each adventure feel like a slideshow rather than a movie. Interspersed with the short descriptions of those he meets are snippets of local lore and legend, which end up being the most interesting part of...more
This is one of those books I've tried to read many times, and perhaps the moment wasn't right. It's funny. I find that I can see ways I've changed by how receptive I am to a particular book at a particular moment...In any case I went back to it this time after my son spent some time in Argentina, and then I visited him there. He wanted to make it to Patagonia, but didn't have the time, nor did I, but being that much closer reminded me of the existence of that book, which I recently picked up aga...more
I read in one of the earlier reviews of this book, how this individual had attempted several times to start this novel without success. Finally, coming from a different place and mood, they started, finished and thoroughly enjoyed their reading experience.
Perhaps that has been my issue; and the primary reason why I have not rated or viewed this work of Bruce Chatwin’s as the exceptional or fascinating novel portrayed by most reviewers or critics before me.
I’m currently in a mood for Adventure...more
Perhaps that has been my issue; and the primary reason why I have not rated or viewed this work of Bruce Chatwin’s as the exceptional or fascinating novel portrayed by most reviewers or critics before me.
I’m currently in a mood for Adventure...more
A wonderfully readable book; it reminded me of Anne Fadiman and her personal essays, in that it is a book in which a theme of travel or of Patagonia, or of a chunk of ancient animal skin become a springboard theme with which to explore anecdotes of history or interview striking people - and all the people he meets seem to be striking, one way or another. While reading, I felt like a vagabond - someone on the road, not knowing what the next turn would reveal.
It's all storytelling: one engaging y...more
It's all storytelling: one engaging y...more
When this book first came out, back in the old days, I subscribed to the TLS and learned about it by reading their review. The review described a book which seemed so impossible that I wrote (from New York) to the reviewer (who turned out to be living on a farm in the Welsh mountains) via the TLS asking whether the review was some kind of April Fool's prank. The reviewer wrote back and told me that no, this was a real book about a real journey that Chatwin (a real person) had actually taken. I o...more
Bruce Chatwin has a style of travel-writing which I envy because I will never achieve it; he is, fundamentally, a man of very few words. Yet despite this, he manages to write a book on a subject of his choosing, fill it with more detail than his peers cram into something ten times as long, and not waste a single letter. His perfunctory style is not unsatisfactory, though, and rather than skimping on description, he simply chooses his words extremely carefully. Sometimes, barely a sentence is nee...more
What a singular, breathtakingly effortless book! I'm in the midst of the final editing of a travel book of my own and I had to put this down for later, lest I start turning my own work into a pale imitation of Chatwin's breezy empathic prose. The way he weaves through the lives of those he meets in Patagonia, the conceit of the piece of brontosaurus skin his grandmother kept in the china cabinet that set him on this journey, even the mild controversy around the veracity of Chatwin's accounts - i...more
A meandering account of a westerner's journey through Patagonia. At once a personal travelogue and social history, In Patagonia weaves together first-hand interactions, deeply researched history and local legend into an ethereal landscape of myth and tangible tragedy, of sea captains and ranchers, of unicorns and giant sloths, vanished first peoples and the multi-ethnic populace who came to replace them, Butch Cassidy and Charles Darwin, of kings and Marxists all against a backdrop of wide open...more
Colorful descriptions illuminate Bruce Chatwin's much anticipated (since childhood) trip to search for the true story of a distant uncle who once sent Chatwin's mother a piece of skin from a mylodon, a Giant Sloth that inhabited South America but has been extinct for 10,000 years. Chatwin's eclectic journey takes him over the mountains and through the islands that lie south of Bahia Blanca in Patagonia, an area that spans Chile and Argentina. Chatwin's begins his journey by heading south from R...more
Bruce Chatwin was an extremely well read public school gent who after dabbling in this and that finally found what he was best at. There always feels the element of the dilettante about Chatwin and his writing. He's no more an anthropologist / ethnologist, archaeologist or even a geographer than I am and yet the self-confidence of the archetypal public-school type allows him the ability to pass himself off as being all of these things. It helps of course that the gadgie was extremely well-read....more
This travel classic is odd, but fascinating. It's a travel book based on Chatwin's time in the south of South America, Argentina and Chile. But there's not much about the landscape of the country except for a few scenes of eerie beauty and a whole lot of bleak wildness. There's also not much about Chatwin the traveler, the natives of the region, or the contemporary political world of Patagonia. Instead, he travels from place to place and collects stories about the historical settlers and travele...more
May 20, 2009
Mike
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
South America buffs, travel readers
Recommended to Mike by:
Amazon.com
This book took the world by storm in the late 1970s. It's not hard to understand why. The book is a collection of eclectic characters in a harsh land.
Having just visited Patagonia this year, I can vividly see much of the terrain Chatwin describes. When the book was first published, many derided it and some of those Chatwin talks about were aghast at his descriptions of them.
A caveat to the reader, some of what Chatwin wrote about in this book is supposedly made up and pure fiction. According to...more
Having just visited Patagonia this year, I can vividly see much of the terrain Chatwin describes. When the book was first published, many derided it and some of those Chatwin talks about were aghast at his descriptions of them.
A caveat to the reader, some of what Chatwin wrote about in this book is supposedly made up and pure fiction. According to...more
A good alternate title for this book would be "97 Ways of Looking at Patagonia". Chatwin set out for Patagonia to track down the prehistoric beast a piece of whose skin sat in his grandmother's dining-room cabinet when he was a child. But this is no plodding treasure hunt, with interviews and hypotheses and dead ends and breakthroughs. Instead we learn about Patagonia in snippets that add up to a nice complex whole.
Chatwin's writing just kills. He has a knack for evocative word-paintings. Here'...more
Chatwin's writing just kills. He has a knack for evocative word-paintings. Here'...more
Having read Chatwin's 'The Songlines', I was ready for his somewhat disjointed method of crafting a book. Much like an anthology, Chatwin links together series of episodes interlaced with microcosms of historical perspective. While often entertaining reading, this seldom provides a clear enough view of the forest because Chatwin is dedicated to giving you up close views of select trees.
Readers will get 'in the moment' descriptions of people and places. For more detailed information of the geogr...more
Readers will get 'in the moment' descriptions of people and places. For more detailed information of the geogr...more
May 15, 2012
Cheryl in CC NV
marked it as skimmed-reference-dnf
Couldn't get into it. For one thing, Chatwin assumes we know something of the area and its history, its relationship to the rest of the world. I don't. Maybe someday.... but given the size of Mt TBR, not likely. Sorry.
I chose this book because (1) I'm going to Patagonia next Feb., and (2) it's considered one of the "great" travel books. While I found it mostly interesting, Chatwin focuses mainly on the people he met on his trip, which was about 40 years ago, and little on the places I expect to see. Considerable time is devoted to various recollections and hearsay regarding Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and their South American activities in the early 20th century. One thing I found surprising was the am...more
“Gone to Patagonia for six months.”
So read the now apocryphal telegram to his employers at The Sunday Times. And in a prose pared down to a precision that was to become his characteristic style – its economy borrowed from Flaubert and Hemingway and his own cataloguing days at Sotheby’s – Chatwin embarked upon his first attempt at the ‘non-fiction novel’.
Part travelogue, part family and social history, he fashioned a philosophical musing on exile and wandering by way of Welsh settlers, Butch Cas...more
So read the now apocryphal telegram to his employers at The Sunday Times. And in a prose pared down to a precision that was to become his characteristic style – its economy borrowed from Flaubert and Hemingway and his own cataloguing days at Sotheby’s – Chatwin embarked upon his first attempt at the ‘non-fiction novel’.
Part travelogue, part family and social history, he fashioned a philosophical musing on exile and wandering by way of Welsh settlers, Butch Cas...more
Bruce Chatwin left his place of employment and went to Patagonia as a result of a brontosaurus which was found by his grandmother's cousin, Charley Milward the Sailor. The Brontosaurus never made it to London except as a putrefied mess. The bones are in a museum and cousin Charley had posted a scrap of skin to Chatwin's grandmother. Chatwin says that "never in my life have I wanted anything as I wanted that piece of skin". Unfortunately, his mother tossed it!
And so, later in life he chose to go...more
And so, later in life he chose to go...more
Este livro foi-me emprestado pelo meu genro, tendo como objectivo aguçar (ainda mais) o meu apetite em relação à viagem que, com outros amigos, vou fazer no final do ano à América do Sul. Mais concretamente à Argentina e Chile, incluindo naturalmente a Patagónia.
Ainda que não de trate dum puro livro de viagens eu gostei muito do modo como o escritor descreve a Patagonia e os seus habitantes. Curiosamente muitos deles oriundos de outras latitudes.
Igualmente fiquei fascinado pela perspectiva histó...more
Ainda que não de trate dum puro livro de viagens eu gostei muito do modo como o escritor descreve a Patagonia e os seus habitantes. Curiosamente muitos deles oriundos de outras latitudes.
Igualmente fiquei fascinado pela perspectiva histó...more
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One of my favorites by Chatwin. This is an adventure story, among other things. But it is Chatwin and his writing that draw the reader in and keep one glued to the unwinding tales.
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Charles Bruce Chatwin was an English novelist and travel writer. He died of AIDS.
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“I climbed a path and from the top looked up-stream towards Chile. I could see the river, glinting and sliding through the bone-white cliffs with strips of emerald cultivation either side. Away from the cliffs was the desert. There was no sound but the wind, whirring through thorns and whistling through dead grass, and no other sign of life but a hawk, and a black beetle easing over white stones.”
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10 people liked it
“I pictured a low timber house with a shingled roof, caulked against storms, with blazing log fires inside and the walls lined with all the best books, somewhere to live when the rest of the world blew up.”
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4 people liked it
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Nov 11, 2011 10:09am