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rfinch 's review for:
In Patagonia
by Bruce Chatwin
This book’s title is a tad misleading, as it is less about the fascinating land of Patagonia, and more an idiosyncratic history of selected events that transpired there, and the personalities involved. The author’s main focus is on northern European settlers: primarily Welsh, German, English — and almost nothing about the Spanish.
The author’s prose are great but his language is dated, referring—rather dismissively I think—to (mostly Spanish-speaking) laborers as “peons,” which I found off-putting. He is a bit less dismissive about the (mis)treatment of native peoples by the colonizers and national governments (also pointing out Charles Darwin’s unabashed contempt for the native inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego chronicled in “Voyage of the Beagle”).
If you are interested in learning about Patagonia history and some of the interesting (European) inhabitants, this is a decent read, albeit kind of anachronistic. But as a description of the land itself, I found it lacking. I think a more informative title for the book would be, “A Eurocentric Chronicle of My Travels Through Patagonia.”
The author’s prose are great but his language is dated, referring—rather dismissively I think—to (mostly Spanish-speaking) laborers as “peons,” which I found off-putting. He is a bit less dismissive about the (mis)treatment of native peoples by the colonizers and national governments (also pointing out Charles Darwin’s unabashed contempt for the native inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego chronicled in “Voyage of the Beagle”).
If you are interested in learning about Patagonia history and some of the interesting (European) inhabitants, this is a decent read, albeit kind of anachronistic. But as a description of the land itself, I found it lacking. I think a more informative title for the book would be, “A Eurocentric Chronicle of My Travels Through Patagonia.”