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3.74 AVERAGE
3.74 AVERAGE
I originally started reading this book 10 years ago, when I was travelling through New Zealand and Australia. One day I was reading it in my hostel in Wellington and one of the other guests came up to me and said "pfft, The Songlines? Read this" and handed me a strip of newspaper with "The last of the nomads - Peasley" written on it.
This year I gave the book another try, and this time did make it to the end. I found the handwritten note inside, and this is where I am getting to the point: if you want to learn about Aboriginal culture in Australia, this book will infuriate you plenty about the injustice, and give you the occasional insight, but it will not teach you all that much - my fellow hostel mate did make a good point. Chatwin mostly uses the book to impose his own view on nomadism ('this is how men were meant to live'), and to share the wisdom (I considered putting quotation marks there) he gained from travelling. You may find yourself agreeing with some things, not with others (as with most books), but to be fair it does make you think. He does have a very classic view on the role of women - as I suppose was "normal" for those times-, which I did not like.
This year I gave the book another try, and this time did make it to the end. I found the handwritten note inside, and this is where I am getting to the point: if you want to learn about Aboriginal culture in Australia, this book will infuriate you plenty about the injustice, and give you the occasional insight, but it will not teach you all that much - my fellow hostel mate did make a good point. Chatwin mostly uses the book to impose his own view on nomadism ('this is how men were meant to live'), and to share the wisdom (I considered putting quotation marks there) he gained from travelling. You may find yourself agreeing with some things, not with others (as with most books), but to be fair it does make you think. He does have a very classic view on the role of women - as I suppose was "normal" for those times-, which I did not like.
181st book of 2020.
Chatwin has lost his readership over the years, which I find interesting; I was reading about it the other night. Firstly, Chatwin’s blend of fiction and non-fiction raised a few issues when he was first publishing. My copy of The Songlines as “Travel”—this implies a level of truth: as soon as we read something that isn’t “Fiction”, we jump to presume that it is indeed fact. I read a funny anecdote about another one of Chatwin’s novels: he meets a girl in it and she is described as sitting around and reading Tolstoy, or Dante, or something of the like, and it transpired that the real girl Chatwin was describing actually sat about reading “trash” novels. For this reason, people were sceptical of reading him. I say, why not change what she is reading? A young girl reading Anna Karenina is far more romantic, and “truth” or not, we are in Chatwin’s world when we drop our eyes to his pages.
The closest comparison I could think of for Chatwin is something like a blend between W.G. Sebald and Christopher Isherwood. It is a novel of two halves. The first half addresses Chatwin’s travels in Australia where he is attempting to learn about Aborigine culture, namely, the songlines. I was very invested in the book at the beginning and enjoyed the personal elements, as I do with Isherwood’s books too. Chatwin meets a number of characters and slowly draws us into the things he learns. The songlines are a little confusing, or at least they were for me, so I read with slow and close attention. There were some great exchanges between characters.
This was really the heart of the book and what I wanted and expected from the book, being called The Songlines. My auntie lives in Australia and my father and brother have been out to stay with her and I have not. When the current pandemic is finally over (a distant concept), I am hoping to finally fly the twenty-four hours to stay with her and do some exploring of my own.
Photo from The Guardian
Sadly, the second half of the book goes a little off-piste. The “narrative” fades and instead we are assaulted with pages and pages of Chatwin’s notebook entries. I’ve seen a few people claiming Chatwin’s arrogance here, merely illustrating how well-read and intelligent he is. As I began the notebook sections, I disagreed, and adored reading his musings from different countries, and many quotes from other books and writers, but slowly as it dragged on, I changed my mind. Arrogance is the wrong word, but there is a certain nagging in my mind about the entries and how important they are to the novel. In fact, the second half barely returns to the idea of the songlines, instead, they are mostly Chatwin’s musings and quotes on humankind’s desire and need to travel and walk. This is something of interest to me, I am a nature-lover and walker, but its format made it slightly indigestible. Then, when I thought I was resurfacing back towards the narrative of Chatwin in Australia (and we do, momentarily) the notebook entries begin again, but now exploring the idea of violence, predators, and humankind’s desire to kill one another throughout history. Again, this is interesting to me. Interestingly though, these things lost all interest because I felt I was just walking in circles, or rather, walking away from where I wanted to be. Chatwin led us to Australia and made us interested in the place and the songlines, and then before we knew it, it was as if he had had enough of talking about that, and began chatting about something else. We cannot interrupt a book and ask it to backtrack, that we weren’t finished learning about the songlines, so we are carried, unavoidably, further away from it. By the time the narrative returned to Australia and the characters Chatwin had befriended, I was too tired to care. A shame. On the other hand, if these two halves of the novel were developed into two separate books with less notebook entries (I’ll add: they were all in italics too; I hate reading italics in books for any more than 4 lines, let alone 40 pages), then I’m sure both would be a great success for me. I am not, however, unsure of Chatwin’s prose, which is clean and well-written. I hope his other books are more focussed.
I’ll end with something from Chatwin’s notebooks displayed in the book. It is a quote from an 1847 letter by Søren Kierkegaard (the Danish philosopher) and it is good to remember in today’s world:
Chatwin has lost his readership over the years, which I find interesting; I was reading about it the other night. Firstly, Chatwin’s blend of fiction and non-fiction raised a few issues when he was first publishing. My copy of The Songlines as “Travel”—this implies a level of truth: as soon as we read something that isn’t “Fiction”, we jump to presume that it is indeed fact. I read a funny anecdote about another one of Chatwin’s novels: he meets a girl in it and she is described as sitting around and reading Tolstoy, or Dante, or something of the like, and it transpired that the real girl Chatwin was describing actually sat about reading “trash” novels. For this reason, people were sceptical of reading him. I say, why not change what she is reading? A young girl reading Anna Karenina is far more romantic, and “truth” or not, we are in Chatwin’s world when we drop our eyes to his pages.
The closest comparison I could think of for Chatwin is something like a blend between W.G. Sebald and Christopher Isherwood. It is a novel of two halves. The first half addresses Chatwin’s travels in Australia where he is attempting to learn about Aborigine culture, namely, the songlines. I was very invested in the book at the beginning and enjoyed the personal elements, as I do with Isherwood’s books too. Chatwin meets a number of characters and slowly draws us into the things he learns. The songlines are a little confusing, or at least they were for me, so I read with slow and close attention. There were some great exchanges between characters.
“It's a weird country,” I said.
“It is.”
“Weirder than America.”
“Much!” he agreed. “America's young! Young, innocent and cruel. But this country's old. Old rock! That's the difference! Old, weary and wise. Absorbent too! No matter what you pour on to it, it all gets sucked away.”
This was really the heart of the book and what I wanted and expected from the book, being called The Songlines. My auntie lives in Australia and my father and brother have been out to stay with her and I have not. When the current pandemic is finally over (a distant concept), I am hoping to finally fly the twenty-four hours to stay with her and do some exploring of my own.
Photo from The Guardian
Sadly, the second half of the book goes a little off-piste. The “narrative” fades and instead we are assaulted with pages and pages of Chatwin’s notebook entries. I’ve seen a few people claiming Chatwin’s arrogance here, merely illustrating how well-read and intelligent he is. As I began the notebook sections, I disagreed, and adored reading his musings from different countries, and many quotes from other books and writers, but slowly as it dragged on, I changed my mind. Arrogance is the wrong word, but there is a certain nagging in my mind about the entries and how important they are to the novel. In fact, the second half barely returns to the idea of the songlines, instead, they are mostly Chatwin’s musings and quotes on humankind’s desire and need to travel and walk. This is something of interest to me, I am a nature-lover and walker, but its format made it slightly indigestible. Then, when I thought I was resurfacing back towards the narrative of Chatwin in Australia (and we do, momentarily) the notebook entries begin again, but now exploring the idea of violence, predators, and humankind’s desire to kill one another throughout history. Again, this is interesting to me. Interestingly though, these things lost all interest because I felt I was just walking in circles, or rather, walking away from where I wanted to be. Chatwin led us to Australia and made us interested in the place and the songlines, and then before we knew it, it was as if he had had enough of talking about that, and began chatting about something else. We cannot interrupt a book and ask it to backtrack, that we weren’t finished learning about the songlines, so we are carried, unavoidably, further away from it. By the time the narrative returned to Australia and the characters Chatwin had befriended, I was too tired to care. A shame. On the other hand, if these two halves of the novel were developed into two separate books with less notebook entries (I’ll add: they were all in italics too; I hate reading italics in books for any more than 4 lines, let alone 40 pages), then I’m sure both would be a great success for me. I am not, however, unsure of Chatwin’s prose, which is clean and well-written. I hope his other books are more focussed.
I’ll end with something from Chatwin’s notebooks displayed in the book. It is a quote from an 1847 letter by Søren Kierkegaard (the Danish philosopher) and it is good to remember in today’s world:
Above all, do not lose your desire to walk: every day I walk myself into a state of well-being and walk away from every illness; I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it…but by sitting still, and the more one sits still, the closer one comes to feeling ill…Thus if one just keeps on walking, everything will be all right.
this one didn't capture my imagination and hold my attention the way chatwin did with IN PATAGONIA, which i liked very much. i'm not sure why - the pacing and the multiple story lines didn't hold together in an interesting way. just sort of had to force myself to get through it ... it's possible it was me, not the book.
I had a love hate relationship with this book. Learned plenty, repulsed by his judgemental white privileged male perspective, fascinated by the understanding of land it awoke, frustrated by Bruce’s ‘everyone should be on the move and are not as good as me for not being’ attitude, wondering how Songlines would be if written from a neutral place, glad it is over.
Found myself likening the sections from his notebooks to the Elven genealogy/history section of Lord of the Rings.
Found myself likening the sections from his notebooks to the Elven genealogy/history section of Lord of the Rings.
3.5 a really interesting and special read, appreciated ‘the notebook’ sections but felt it was too much would have liked more of the story and more of the people i got to know.
Another incredible Chatwin read. Again, the writing style is stunningly beautiful. This time Chatwin goes to the heart of Australia seeking to understand his own restless nature – with which he burdens all humanity. Part essay, part travelogue and all dubious anthropology and rhetorical circles. The “Bruce” of the book is clearly not Bruce Chatwin the writer. “Bruce” is a clumsy westerner with imperialistic notions trying to understand the blacks. It’s a fascinating literary tool. Through Bruce’s stumbles into aboriginal culture the reader can access an honest essence of “the songlines”. This is a rambling exploration of landscape, transhumance and the origin of violence in humans. Brilliant.
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
I enjoyed learning about the songlines, but there's not much plot there. It's like he took the broadest outlines of a story about the songlines and a bunch of research material for a scholarly work about why some people(s) are nomadic, and randomly interspersed them.