Travel to South America

In Patagonia

Format: Paperback
Author: Bruce Chatwin
ReleaseDate: 07 June, 1988
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Rating:

Brilliant work
I borrowed it from the library, read it, and was so entertained and impressed that I sought out and purchased a copy. It's rare to encounter such subtle humor as one finds here; the book is not only an adept sketch of life at the bottom of the world, it's a screamingly, if subtly, funny throughout. Simply a terrific book.

More interesting than informative.
If you're looking for history, natural history, or political developments, this is not the book for you. Depending on what you look for in a "travel" book you may or may not like this. It is not comprehensive in any way.

If you're looking for entertaining reading set in an interesting location with snippets of odd information this book would be entertaining. Of travel authors I have read, this author most closely resembles Theroux, but without the curmudgeonly judging. Like Theroux, his facts may or may not be correct but he doesn't claim to be writing a textbook, just some stuff that happened to him in this place.

Mercifully, Chatwin spares us deep philosphical introspections so prevalent in much modern "travel" writing.

I read it and enjoyed it and recommend it.

Brilliant hodge-podge!
Anyone looking for a straightforward account of Southern Argentina and Chile would best be advised to check elsewhere. Often deemed 'a classic' of travel literature, Bruce Chatwin's claim to fame, 'In Patagonia,' defies classification. But those who hunger for literary experiences that enchant, engage and fascinate without end, pick up this book ASAP!

As an ardent Chatwinophile, I expected to be bowled over with rich prose and endless mountains of the most esoteric information, the standard Chatwin fare. I wasn't disappointed. 'In Patagonia' is a brilliant hodge-podge of history, anthropology, ethnography and good old-fashioned yarn-spinning. And if anybody can tell a story, Chatwin is the one. Each page overflows with gripping descriptions of the strange mixture of peoples who make up this forgotten land. You're led through communities of Welsh Methodists, Lithuanian eccentrics and Spanish anarchists, all exiles to this bleak land of sagebrush and glaciers. Chatwin's clean and sparing style 'paints' each character, each anecdote with sharp, jarring colors. Your imagination is thrown into overdrive as each story jumps off the page and buries itself in your mind. Glacial winds chafe the face, the din of a thousand penguins deafens and the bitter smile of the Patagonian exile tugs at the heart.

Chatwin's style was his genius and his downfall. As was said of Emerson, Chatwin 'doesn't give the reader enough to chew on. ' Sparse, clear and always adorned with odd facts and exotic images, Chatwin's sentences are those of the journalist turned artist. The sheer volume of fact and anecdote threatens to swallow the reader up. . . detailed diary accounts of Darwin's voyage. . . eyewitness renderings of Butch Cassidy's exile days. . . an intricate explanation of the local Yamana tribe's linguistic world. . . How to make sense of it all and complete the picture of Patagonia and its people? Difficult work at best. You are thrown so much and from so many angles, it's best to just sit back and simply be overwhelmed. So, arm-chair travellers and connoisseurs of fine prose, follow this nomad of nomads into an amazing world of stark beauty and even starker lives. .

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