In Patagonia

Lots of bouncing around to interesting first hand experience of the author to random historical facts and tangents that I found distracting to what really interested me. I can see why it’s highly regarded but it was not for me.

This is a re-read for me. I actually gave my copy to my partner years and years ago when we were in that relationship stage where you try to prove your meant-to-be-ness to each other by sharing books and music. I figured that since we both loved travel writing and we both had a dream of visiting Argentina, then Bruce Chatwin was a safe bet. (He's been a favorite writer of mine since falling in love with his work through the film version of Utz.) I couldn't have been more off-base. He read it all right, but he really didn't like it. I think that I wouldn't be exaggerating to say that it actively irritated him. Since then he's tried a couple more times to read Chatwin, each one a failure. That remains the Dividing Line of Travel Writers for us-- I like eccentric people who talk about characters and odd history. B. wants to read about the beauty of the landscape and the things that a person can do while visiting. We have an awful lot of Meant-To-Be-Ness in other ways, but not travel writing, apparently. Anyhow. I loved it. As I loved it the first time. I like the character of Chatwin as he meanders across the scene. I enjoy the way that he meditates on the people and on the history that affects their and his lives. I find that the loose way that he ties everything together works very well for me. I love and share his love of walking, and what that teaches you about where you are. We have not yet made it to Argentina as a couple, but when we go, I'll be clutching this book under my arm. Recommended.

Bruce Chatwin in 1974 was an unknown British journalist with no books to his name. Seeking the life of a nomad he flew to the southern part of South America and severed ties with his newspaper and former life with a single-sentence telegram: "Have gone to Patagonia." For the next 6 months he walked and hitchhiked around this remote region keeping a diary which became the basis for the book. According to the The Cambridge Companion to Travel Writing (2002) it is one of three most important travel books of its era: "[its] laconic and elliptical style, in its ninety-seven short sections averaging little more than a couple of page each, seemed to finally bring modernist aesthetics to a fundamentally nineteenth-century genre..[it was] a landmark in contemporary travel writing." The narrative does follow a geographic route, but the included map does not show it, the reader has to piece together where on the map Chatwin is next. There is almost no narrative about actual travel, each of the mini chapters starts in a new place with Chatwin already arrived. The people he meets and stays with have no background or reason why he is there. Throughout is interweaved chapters on Patagonian history, often highly esoteric and in some cases true original research by Chatwin he solves some puzzle or mystery of history: Chapter 49 is as good an etymology on the word "patagonia" as will ever be found. Subsequent revelations showed some of it to be fiction; some of the people Chatwin wrote about later came forward and denied things happened, or who were characterized incorrectly. Chatwin never denied this but explained that his work did not so much change reality as augment it, sort of like how political cartoons can bring out a hidden truth. Chatwin, who died age 48 of AIDS (he was bi-sexual and one of the super-star AIDS victims in the 1980s), went on to write other well known books and is recognized as a skilled stylist. His travel writing is very literary and the book is credited with reviving interest in the genre as a legitimate form of literature. It is full of great poetic imagery, I just picked a page at random and found this quote: "She was waiting for me, a white face behind a dusty window. She smiled, her painted mouth unfurling as a red flag caught in a sudden breeze. Her hair was dyed dark-auburn. Her legs were a mesopotamia of varicose veins. She still had the tatter of an extraordinary beauty. She had been making pastry and the grey dough clung to her hands. Her blood-red nails were cracked and chipped."

How many children become adults fulfilling a childhood dream by visiting remote places? Bruce Chatwin, driven by memories of his grandfather's strange artifact, takes us with him to the farthest reaches of South America. His travels in that mysterious realm result in this masterfully done account of journeys in Patagonia - southern Argentina and Chile. It's not an exaggeration to praise this work as the first to supplement Darwin's. Both sought fossils, although Chatwin's pursuit is rather more specific. Both described the land, the people and events in the most captivating and readable manner. A rare treasure in travel literature, this book is a timeless treasure.Patagonia has been a haven for many European nationalities besides the Spanish. British, Welsh, Scots and the Germans have found refuge and opportunities here. Chatwin encounters a wide spectrum of the inhabitants. By touring on foot, bus and horse, as well as obtaining the occasional lift, he is able to garner intense impressions. Lacing the account of what he observes with numerous piquant historical side notes, he imparts the place along with the spirit of the residents. The history varies as the land itself. Rising from the Atlantic across a vast plain until reaching the rising slopes of the "back" of the Andes, Patagonia offers incredible vistas and diversity. Decades of building immense rancheros and farms have been punctuated by social and political upheavals. Chatwin recounts the lives of many of the rebels and how they impacted the pampas scene. His literary capacity seems as vast as the territory. We even encounter The Ancient Mariner. There are no dull moments in this book.Chatwin's presents a more knowledgeable view in discussing aboriginal people than that of most travel writers. There's nothing patronizing in his tone as he tries to address their plight. "Tries to" because European intrusion has left so little for researchers of indigenous cultures to address. He cites the expressive terms in the Yamana language to point out how culturally inept the colonizing powers have been. We learn to use the term "primitive" with caution. Millennia of residence gained the original peoples skills the Europeans disparaged, often to their regret. It's becoming a familiar story, made sadder at the realization the loss of cultures swept away by colonization.At the end, his original quest brings him to a cave visited by Charley Milward, wrecked ship's captain. He cannot replace the artifact Milward left in Chatwin's grandmother's house, but there is other compensation. That the quest isn't a failure adds further lustre to an incredible journey. But what Chatwin has gained is as nothing compared to what he's given us. This book will remain a classic for years to come.

I am just back from a far too brief whirlwind trip to Patagonia and even though all the guide books correctly advise reading In Patagonia before going. I had had no time. Bruce Chatwin places a human experiences context around the faintly disturbing sights and odd feelings todays visitors will have but can't fully understand. There has been little change there since Bruce Chatwin wrote about this amazing place in the 1970's. Only a thin veneer of new tourist facilities on the frame of remotness and lonliness that seems to haunt the semi ghost towns and desolate landscapes. Bruce Chatwin's in-depth experiences breathe life into untold stories and feelings that seem unapproachable to the visitor on a timetable. I wanted the book to go on and on with story after story to illuminate my memories and understanding of Patagonia. I delighted in every chapter.

This is a wonderful collection of tall tales, fiction, fact and bizarre anecdotes, loosely connected by their association with a sparsely populated part of South America. Unfortunately critics and publishers in their obsessive need to categorise books, called it a Travel Book. This was misleading, as are the claims that he reinvented travel writing or had some sort of unique insight into Patagonia, its people, history and landscape. Chatwin was primarily a storyteller, not a travel writer or an expert on Southern Argentina. His talent for the 5-6 page yarn is unparalleled in modern literature and this is as good as anything he wrote.