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ocurtsinger 's review for:
On the Black Hill
by Bruce Chatwin
There was something about this novel that didn't strike me until after I read it. For most of the time that I was actually in the thick of reading, I didn't feel particularly attached to any of the characters. From reading his other books, I feel that Mr. Chatwin had a sense of observation more powerful than most writers of his time, and that certainly shines through in this first novel of his. The sense of community and landscape is made tangible through the little details that Chatwin is so good at observing and reporting, and as a result you realize that you've got a perfect picture of the setting without really working too hard at it. Yet I read at a pace that didn't have me stop and linger with any particular scene, and the plot didn't motivate me to care for any particular character. Only after the final scene, when the twins are flown over the Black Hill for their 80th birthday, did I realize that plot wasn't really something that Mr. Chatwin was trying to achieve here -- more likely just a high-up perspective of a particular place in a particular time, and how two humble lives moved through it.