Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.45 AVERAGE
3.45 AVERAGE
dark
reflective
slow-paced
adventurous
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
I am surprised that I did not read this book in my early 20s when I devoured travel books. At that time in my life I could not afford to travel. Now the coronavirus had made me pick up travel writing again.
I picked this book as I was watching the show Long way up in which Ewan Mc Gregor and his friend Charlie ride up from Patagonia to LA. The Patagonia part was fascinating to me and I wanted to learn more.
The book is great, it is not a guide to Patagonia but the authors Patagonia. Written in snippets, but snippets that catch attention. You may look for a larger point or theme, I found none and that was the most enjoyable part—as if I was travelling.
Patagonia is a wild country with rugged terrains, sparse towns and actually inhabited by Welsh, Germans and a lot of non hispanic people. The areas around southern tips around Punta Arenas in the South are depressing and harsh—but people live there—a different kind of people and it was good to look into their houses for a bit.
I picked this book as I was watching the show Long way up in which Ewan Mc Gregor and his friend Charlie ride up from Patagonia to LA. The Patagonia part was fascinating to me and I wanted to learn more.
The book is great, it is not a guide to Patagonia but the authors Patagonia. Written in snippets, but snippets that catch attention. You may look for a larger point or theme, I found none and that was the most enjoyable part—as if I was travelling.
Patagonia is a wild country with rugged terrains, sparse towns and actually inhabited by Welsh, Germans and a lot of non hispanic people. The areas around southern tips around Punta Arenas in the South are depressing and harsh—but people live there—a different kind of people and it was good to look into their houses for a bit.
adventurous
medium-paced
Strange book. Many short, interconnected stories in 97 chapters and 200 pages.
I tried to read this book once before and could not understand it because it is not your classic travelogue. So first I read Nicholas Shakespeare's excellent biography of Chatwin to get a sense of who he was and what he was trying to do with this book. As Chatwin himself said after the book was published, it is a tale of wonders not a travelogue. Meaning that unlike Paul Theroux, Chatwin does not describe in detail how he got from one place to other, he does not describe the country in detail or the people. Instead he jumps from topic to topic about things that interest him. Chatwin is something of a polymath with a wide range of interests and you are along for the ride. He begins with the faux brontosaurus skin (really a mylodon) in his grandmother's cabinet of wonders that was found in Patagonia. His other wonders include a fake plesiosaur; Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid Patagonian hide outs and activities; the Welsh, Scots, Boers, Italians, and Brits who settled there; a missing unicorn; the Yoshil -- tiny humanlike creatures; The Golden City; a secret witch cult; and assorted monsters. Unfortunately, Chatwin is not a very verbose writer -- sometimes he just alludes to things -- and so it was very helpful to read sitting next to my computer so I could Wiki everything.
Chatwin has been accused of a number of things. He has been accused of cultural appropriation especially in his book The Songlines which describe the secret beliefs of the Australian aborigines and he is pretty clearly guilty of that. Also because no one would work with him, he didn't get it exactly right apparently. He has apparently been accused of literary colonialism because he doesn't really talk much with the people of Patagonia but he does talk quite a lot with the colonialist who settled there, the aforementioned Welsh, Scots, Boers, Italians, and Brits. This was partly because he didn't speak much Spanish.
But the problem with this view, in my opinion, is that first of all Chatwin very clearly did not approve of the way the native populations were treated by the colonizers. He describes in shocked tones the annihilation of the native population of Tierra del Fuego. And yes he does quote the colonists who helped wipe them out, but I think it is important for the historical record to have the views of people who did terrible things. How can we understand slavery if we don't have records of words and deeds of slaveowners? How can we understand the mentality that led to these people being slaughtered if we don't know what the barbaric people who did it had to say about it? I think it is a valuable service to have this information. And Chatwin is no Kipling. He very clearly condemns the church and the colonizers who committed unspeakable acts.
Secondly, Chatwin has been accused (rightly) of fabrication. In the case of In Patagonia, this was very limited. As I said, I read this book along with information from Wikipedia among others and the account in the book tracks. He did improve some people's reading choices and there were gripes here and there that people said he didn't quote them quite accurately. But as Nicholas Shakespeare said in the biography, scholars went back and checked In Patagonia and said it was very accurate.
It is full of wonderful insights into things like the Rime of the Ancient Mariner and an Edgar Allen Poe story. There is a wonderful passage about nuns and penguins:
"Halfway across the Strait, V-formations of black and white cormorants flashed past, and a school of black and white dolphins danced in the golden sea.
The day before I had met the nuns of the Santa Maria Auxiliadora Convent on their Saturday coach outing to the penguin colony on Cado Virgenes. A bus-load of virgins. Eleven thousand virgins. About a million penguins. Black and white. Black and white. Black and white.
It is just lovely. don't let people talk you out of reading it because of some literary theory. Read it for yourself.
Chatwin has been accused of a number of things. He has been accused of cultural appropriation especially in his book The Songlines which describe the secret beliefs of the Australian aborigines and he is pretty clearly guilty of that. Also because no one would work with him, he didn't get it exactly right apparently. He has apparently been accused of literary colonialism because he doesn't really talk much with the people of Patagonia but he does talk quite a lot with the colonialist who settled there, the aforementioned Welsh, Scots, Boers, Italians, and Brits. This was partly because he didn't speak much Spanish.
But the problem with this view, in my opinion, is that first of all Chatwin very clearly did not approve of the way the native populations were treated by the colonizers. He describes in shocked tones the annihilation of the native population of Tierra del Fuego. And yes he does quote the colonists who helped wipe them out, but I think it is important for the historical record to have the views of people who did terrible things. How can we understand slavery if we don't have records of words and deeds of slaveowners? How can we understand the mentality that led to these people being slaughtered if we don't know what the barbaric people who did it had to say about it? I think it is a valuable service to have this information. And Chatwin is no Kipling. He very clearly condemns the church and the colonizers who committed unspeakable acts.
Secondly, Chatwin has been accused (rightly) of fabrication. In the case of In Patagonia, this was very limited. As I said, I read this book along with information from Wikipedia among others and the account in the book tracks. He did improve some people's reading choices and there were gripes here and there that people said he didn't quote them quite accurately. But as Nicholas Shakespeare said in the biography, scholars went back and checked In Patagonia and said it was very accurate.
It is full of wonderful insights into things like the Rime of the Ancient Mariner and an Edgar Allen Poe story. There is a wonderful passage about nuns and penguins:
"Halfway across the Strait, V-formations of black and white cormorants flashed past, and a school of black and white dolphins danced in the golden sea.
The day before I had met the nuns of the Santa Maria Auxiliadora Convent on their Saturday coach outing to the penguin colony on Cado Virgenes. A bus-load of virgins. Eleven thousand virgins. About a million penguins. Black and white. Black and white. Black and white.
It is just lovely. don't let people talk you out of reading it because of some literary theory. Read it for yourself.
adventurous
dark
informative
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
When in Patagonia, read "In Patagonia". Some of the anecdotes Chatwin spins in his shirt chapters seem like yarns (or at least stretched truths), and some of the descriptions of indigenous peoples is very dated--still, this read features some stunning turns of phrase that give the reader a sense of the vast wilds and secrets of the land.
Was very fragmented with no clear narrative so was hard to get invested in it
A little difficult to follow (I was not in the right headspace) but ultimately very enjoyable.