Chatwin, Bruce

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In Patagonia
A Vivid Imagination and a Powerfully Bracing Landscape Makes for a Superb Travelogue
A unique portrait of a unique land

In Patagonia (Penguin Classics)
Bruce Chatwin
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0142437190
Release Date: 2003-03-25

Book Description

In Patagonia is Bruce Chatwin's exquisite account of his journey through "the uttermost part of the earth," that stretch of land at the southern tip of South America, where bandits were once made welcome and Charles Darwin formed part of his "survival of the fittest" theory. Chatwin's evocative descriptions, notes on the odd history of the region, and enchanting anecdotes make In Patagonia an exhilarating look at a place that still retains the exotic mystery of a far-off, unseen land. An instant classic upon publication in 1977, In Patagonia remains a masterwork of literature.

Customer Reviews:

In Patagonia.......2007-01-12

I liked the fact that the author traversed the country on foot or by hitchhiking, getting a very close feel for the country. He interviews or quotes older experienced people who give a real feel for their area.

A Vivid Imagination and a Powerfully Bracing Landscape Makes for a Superb Travelogue.......2006-08-12

Published back in 1978, Bruce Chatwin's seamless mix of fact and fiction is still among the most enthralling of travel books. Prompted by a piece of reddish animal skin he found in his grandmother's curio cabinet when he was a child, the author ignites himself on a flight of fancy about its origin. This leads him to an expansive area of wild beauty, Patagonia on South America's southernmost tip. I have been lucky enough to visit this part of the world myself about four years ago, and I can confirm from my travels that Chatwin does an amazing job of capturing not only its physical splendor but its colorful inhabitants. However, this is no linear travel narrative, as the author breaks his stories down into mini-sections, ninety-seven in total.

Several of the episodes deal with his own experiences on the road and the individuals he encounters like the gauchos on the pampas, the Welsh-originated villagers, a French soprano, and a hippie from Haight-Ashbury looking for work in the mines. Interspersed with these accounts are snippets of history, real or imagined, such as an unknown connection between Magellan's expedition and Shakespeare's "The Tempest", the whereabouts of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid after they left the states, and a 19th-century European lawyer who convinced the local Araucanian Indians to elect him their monarch. Chatwin shows particular gift for culling whimsical trivia into a greater storytelling context that is hard to resist as long as the reader is aware that little of it is verifiable. He inevitably ends the book the way he started - by finding the source of the animal scrap. Few writers have shown such a vivid imagination and a powerful sense of imagery as Chatwin has with his splendid travelogue. This will make those with an extreme case of wanderlust want to book their flights to Punta Arenas, Chile, right away.

A unique portrait of a unique land.......2005-03-05

In December 1947, Bruce Chatwin began a journey through Patagonia, a "vast, vague territory that encompasses 900,000 square kilometres of Argentina and Chile." As he wandered, Chatwin recorded the stories of the people he met and those who had gone before him; "fugitives of justice, regime change, or simply 'the coop of England.'" The result was In Patagonia, an instant classic that was described as "a law unto itself."

Thirty years later, I landed in Puerto Montt, Chile at the northwestern edge of Patagonia and started my own journey through that windswept country. I toted In Patagonia along with me as I traveled through Patagonia; resolving every few days to read it, only to put in down in favor of more entertaining books after the first few pages. Despite the book's inability to really grab my attention, I had this unshakable notion that if one has a book titled In Patagonia and one is, in fact, in Patagonia, one should read the book. (This was coupled with the fact that I had used precious cargo space to haul the book 6,000 miles from home and I was damn well going to make use of it.) It wasn't until the end of the journey, while bussing it across Patagonia, that I packed all of my books *except* In Patagonia in the backpack that was stored underneath of the bus. Upon arriving in Punta Arenas ten hours later, I still didn't like In Patagonia, but I had read over a hundred pages and felt honor bound to stick it out for the rest of the book.

Paul Theroux best sums up what I didn't like about In Patagonia: "How had he traveled from here to there? How had he met this or that person? Life was never so neat as Bruce made out." In Patagonia isn't Chatwin's account of his travels through Patagonia so much as it is a collection of biographic narratives of people who have nothing in common except their inhabitance in Patagonia. There is no sense of cohesion to the book. Chatwin bounces from the story of two long-dead bandits to the possible existence of a Patagonian unicorn to the struggles of an Haight-Ashbury Flower Child stranded in Argentina to a traditional Argentinean asado then returns to further exploits of the outlaws, leaving me slightly bewildered and lost.

Nor does Chatwin dwell on most of his tales. A few accounts, such as the self proclaimed King of Patagonia and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, earned multiple chapters, but most stories were no more that a brief sketch, confined to no more than a page. I know this was a conscious stylistic choice of Chatwin, but the snippets left me feeling unsatisfied and wondering what their point was.

While I wasn't overly impressed with Chatwin's style, the main reason I continued the read In Patagonia was because in between the snippets, there was some fascinating stories. In 1859, a French lawyer called Orélie-Antoine de Tounens declared himself king of Araucania and Patagonia, a kingdom that stretches from Latitude 42 South to Cape Horn and still maintains a court in exile in Paris. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid fled to Patagonia to avoid arrest in the States, but reverted to a life of crime and pulled off several successful robberies before they supposedly died in a shoot-out in Bolivia. In Patagonia reveals "the Patagonian origin of Coleridge's Ancient Mariner, Darwin's theory of evolution, Shakespeare's Caliban, Dante's Hell, Conan Doyle's Lost World, Swift's Brobdignagians, Poe's Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym. Even the Patagonian origin of Man himself." These stories propelled me through the dull bits to the end of the book.

Furthermore, my original assessment, that I should read In Patagonia while in Patagonia, was correct and there were times when I found myself nodding and agreeing with Chatwin's descriptions and assessments. In other parts, the thirty years between Chatwin's trip and mine had wrought profound changes and Chatwin's account and mine didn't remotely match up, demonstrating the political upheaval of South America in the latter part of the twentieth century.

There is also something thrilling about reading the story of town you're currently in or have just left. During my bus journey home, I changed busses in Puerto Natalas and spend the hour between my arrival and departure wandering around the town. I stopped at the town plaza as I walked back to the bus station. In the centre of the plaza was a raised dais with a train engine sitting atop it. Back on the bus, I read Chatwin's account of his trip to the town, which included the origins of the train:

"Puerto Natalas was a Red town ever since the meat-works opened up. The English built the meat-works during the First World War, four miles along the bay, where deep water ran inshore. They build a railway to bring the men to work; and when the place ran down, the citizens painted the engine and put it in the plaza - an ambiguous memorial."

Nicholas Shakespeare, who wrote the introduction to my copy of In Patagonia, described Chatwin saying, "Bruce Chatwin was always attracted to border countries: to places on the rim of the world, sandwiched ambiguously between cultures, neither one thing nor another." I am very much the same way and despite the negative aspects of In Patagonia, Chatwin did capture the wild, untamed abandon that is my Patagonia.

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Annoying interjections
Bruce Chatwin wrote half a book...
Aboriginals in Australia
Best of the best
The Songlines

The Songlines
Bruce Chatwin
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0140094296

Amazon.com

The late Bruce Chatwin carved out a literary career as unique as any writer's in this century: his books included In Patagonia, a fabulist travel narrative, The Viceroy of Ouidah, a mock-historical tale of a Brazilian slave-trader in 19th century Africa, and The Songlines, his beautiful, elegiac, comic account of following the invisible pathways traced by the Australian aborigines. Chatwin was nothing if not erudite, and the vast, eclectic body of literature that underlies this tale of trekking across the outback gives it a resonance found in few other recent travel books. A poignancy, as well, since Chatwin's untimely death made The Songlines one of his last books.

Customer Reviews:

Annoying interjections.......2007-05-22

The first sentence sounded promising:"In Alice Springs - a grid of scorching streets where men in long white socks were forever getting in and out of Land Cruisers - I met a Russian who was mapping the sacred sites of the Aboriginals." And indeed what follows in the next thirty or so chapters is a very readable and insightful travelogue of a British (author? archaelogist? historian?) "going bush" with Arkady Volchok, trying to learn about the mythical Aboriginal songlines. Not understandably, then, the author throws in bits and pieces of the protagonist's notebooks, which all more or less anthropological citations and thoughts from very different sources. The concept reminded me a bit of the motif in "The English Patient", where Almasy carries a copy of Herodotus' The Histories with him, adding his own notes and observations. Fortunately, in Ondaatje's novel, this remains a motif which does not disrupt the plot itself. With "The Songlines", however, I found myself flicking impatiently through the interjection-pages in order to get back to the story.

Bruce Chatwin wrote half a book..........2007-04-17

The Songlines really captured my attention. Human ecology, cultural anthropology, human evolution, cultural imperialism, Songlines, Native Australians ("aborigines"), travels... this is a book with information about a people and a place. I enjoyed the flow and pace of the story, and I hope I learned the reality of Native Australian culture.

However, Bruce Chatwin chose to use this book to publish assorted observations, quotes, and reflections from other travels. For me (me), they affected the flow of his storytelling, my ability to focus on the theme - Australia, not nomads - and the ending. Perhaps this is a style thing, and I don't know if Chatwin applies this style in his other books.

Didn't work for me. I wanted a conclusion to his original story.

Aboriginals in Australia.......2007-03-13

In Alice Springs the narrator called Bruce meets Arkady Volchok, an Australian citizen who is mapping the sacred sites of the Aboriginals. Arkady is fascinated by them, by their grit and tenacity and their ways of dealing with white people. Arkady speaks a couple of their languages and he is often astounded by their intellectual vigour, their memory and their capacity to survive.
It was during his time as a schoolteacher in Walbiri that Arkadi learned of the labyrinth of invisible pathways which meander all over Australia and are known to Europeans as Songlines - a way for Aboriginals to sing out the name of everything that crosses their path during their wanderings: birds, animals, plants, rocks, waterholes and so sing the world in existence.
When a route is suggested for a new Alice to Darwin railway line, Arkady's job is to identify the traditional landowners, to drive them over their old hunting grounds and to get them to reveal which rock or soak or ghost-gum is the work of a Dreamtime hero. Bruce is happy to join Arkady and to spend some time "out bush".
The reader of this novel learns a lot about Australia and the Aboriginals. The plot and the characters however are a bit thin. One finds it hard to sympathise with the Aboriginal figures appearing in the story. What they have to say and the way they express themselves amounts to practically nothing. It seems as though they need the white people to tell their stories and traditions.

Best of the best.......2006-10-02

This is the kind of writing/reflecting many people do while travelling and is not a "how to" type of travel guide. I've recommended this book to several thoughtful people, given it to many thoughtful teens as they begin to self-discover, and re-read the book twice. VERY nice writing, good thoughts, great ideas about humans.

The Songlines.......2005-12-17

As i never wanted to go to Australia, i have to say that after reading this book i have not changed my mind, but it is not a point. It is not a book about traveling in Australia. It is more a book about walking, for example. As i like walking, i have found in this book so many great examples of what the walking is about, it is not just moving from one point on the Earth to another, it is also philosophy. And so on...this book is highly recommended for those who knows what the word "travel" means. In present time many people travel, but just a few ones deserve to be called "traveller". Bruce Chatwin is among them.

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As lush as Ondaatje
Shining, but ultimately unsatisfactory
Remote and Gritty Past Relived!
Engaging!
The Rise and Fall of a Slave Trader

The Viceroy of Ouidah
Bruce Chatwin
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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In Patagonia (Penguin Classics)

ASIN: 0140112901

Book Description

In this vivid, powerful novel, Chatwin tells of Francisco Manoel de Silva, a poor Brazilian adventurer who sails to Dahomey in West Africa to trade for slaves and amass his fortune. His plans exceed his dreams, and soon he is the Viceroy of Ouidah, master of all slave trading in Dahomey. But the ghastly business of slave trading and the open savagery of life in Dahomey slowly consume Manoel's wealth and sanity.

"This is Conrad's Heart of Darkness seen through a microscope." --The Atlantic Monthly

"Dazzles and mystifies, with its lush anger, its impacted memory, its gorgeous desolation." --The New York Times

Customer Reviews:

As lush as Ondaatje.......2006-06-06

I can do this book no higher praise than name it in the company of two of my favorite books: Michael Ondaatje's "Running in the Family" and Gabriel Garcia Marquez's "Love in the Time of Cholera." This is the select company of books in which every sentence is to be savored, and each story seems plucked out of a parallel life far more exciting and troubled than ours.

Chatwin is, like Ondaatje, a master of English prose, and a story-teller of immense subtlety and grace. "The Viceroy of Ouidah" packs into its slender frame what many an overstuffed epic can only aspire to.

Shining, but ultimately unsatisfactory.......2004-09-18

I am not a great fan of this novel. For me, this is Chatwin at his most show offy. This book followed hot on the heels of his thumpingly successful debut 'In Patagonia' and Chatwin was clearly garnering a reputation for describing far flung places in an original and inventive way. This he does in the Viceroy of Ouidah, a short biographical novel about the Brazillian Manoel de Silva who rose from poverty and obscurity to become the head of slave trading in Dahomey, now Benin in West Africa. A potentially brilliant framework for Chatwin's prose style to let rip you might think, but I think he goes overboard on the lush descriptions of the geography, climate and people of the regions he illuminates and loses sight of how to really engage the reader in the novel.

This novel was not all that well received when it first came out. His next work 'On the Black Hill' reveived the 1982 Whitbread Literary Award for Best First Novel, overlooking the fact that Chatwin had alreay published Viceroy previously and I think this is telling. I found the novel lacking in the gripping substance, intangible though that may be that really makes a great novel. Like one of the many works of art Chatwin catalogued when he was working at Sotheby's, it is a glistening gem, but beneath the surface, there is little that stirs the soul and lodges in the memory as passages of great fiction do.

Still worth reading though, as Chatwin at his worst is better than many writers at their best.

Remote and Gritty Past Relived!.......2004-09-04

In this text, "THE VICEROY OF OUIDAH," author Bruce Chatwin takes the reader on an engaging journey into the life of Francisco Manoel da Silva, a man who: Became the "best friend" of the King of Dahomey. Was granted the title of Viceroy of Ouidah and a monopoly over the sale of slaves. Fathered "sixty-three mulatto sons and an unknown quantity of daughters." And, whose now black descendants gather each year to "mourn the Slave Trade as a lost Golden Age."

At 155 pages, the reader can easily devour this tantalizing read in one weekend! This is a great book of blended fiction and historical fact. I have been a closet fan of Chatwin for some time and I heartily recommend this book to anyone looking for a great book premised on a remote and gritty topic. You'll love it! Five stars. Bravo.

Engaging!.......2004-06-24

After revelling in the experience that was 'Songlines,' I decided to try one of Bruce Chatwin's novels. Africa has long held its spell over me and thus, 'Viceroy of Ouidah,' seemed the obvious choice. At a little over 120 pages, 'Viceroy' is one of Chatwin's shortest works, but don't let its size deter you. Every page is a treasure onto itself and soon you'll be wishing it were longer.

Chatwin, in his never-ending quest to illuminate places that fall well off the beaten track, brings the tiny African nation of Dahomey, known nowadays as Benin, into the light. Home to an indomitable fighting-machine filled with fierce women warriors, a series of cannibalistic tyrant-kings with a penchant for human sacrifice, Dahomey was a place long-feared by the European colonizers. Eventually subdued by the French in 1885, Dahomey, along with neighboring Ghana and Nigeria supplied the Americas with a large portion of its brutalized and very 'unwilling immigrants.'

Chatwin's protagonist is one Francisco Manoel De Silva, a penniless Brazilian sharecropper who longs to find his fortune. Africa captures him in her mesmerizing embrace and Francisco finds himself not only a new home, but also a new life as well, that of a slave-trader. Allying himself with the demented King, De Silva monopolizes the internal slave-trade and soon makes a fortune and a name for himself sending unfortunates back home through the British blockade. His dream is to one day return to his beloved Bahia, rich and respected. As somebody. Instead, he slowly and inevitably becomes part of the continent he has made his home in. Surrounded by his multitude of mulatto offspring, the King's Viceroy slips into the quagmire of his delusions. An outcast at home and abroad, his soul never finds its true solace.

Those familiar with Chatwin's nomad philosophy will find ample material in 'Viceroy.' De Silva's life underscores Chatwin's belief that our earthly existence is ultimately rootless. Chatwin not only mocks the idea that we can eventually 'return home,' but also questions whether we can call any place 'home.' According to Chatwin, constant movement on the road of life is about the best we can hope for.

The novel is artfully structured into two parts. The beginning takes place in modern-day Benin, where De Silva's mixed progeny come to pay their respects to their 'Brazilian' progenitor. Here, Chatwin gives us a glimpse into the chaos of post-colonial Africa, with its coups and fatigue-wearing thugs. The second part goes back in time to the sad story of the Viceroy himself. Tight, vibrant sentences greet you on every page. With Chatwin, it's not only what he says, but rather how he says it that grabs the reader. His descriptions of people and place are some of the richest in recent English letters. Bursting with color, stench and sound, Chatwin brings Africa to our eyes, noses and ears. And with the greatest of economy. Like his master, Hemingway, Chatwin uses the 'nickel and dime' style, but unlike his master, he makes every word paint a picture. In fact, this novel is akin to a giant canvas of virulent and violent images.

If the novel has a weakness, it's the lack of psychology in it. Like one reviewer aptly put it, 'We never get into Francisco's head.' Chatwin has painted a true and luscious tapestry, but he has left the questions and analysis up to us. Not surprising when considering Chatwin's past as an art critic for Sotheby's.

Yet, don't let this minor criticism put you away from reading a brilliant introduction to Chatwin's fiction. Moreover, anybody enraptured with the 'dark continent,' would do well to check out 'Viceroy of Ouidah.'

The Rise and Fall of a Slave Trader.......2001-09-27

For sheer dripping tropical lushness of prose that at the same time is watertight and flowing, nothing can beat Chatwin's VICEROY OF OUIDAH. I have long admired the author's essays, and this is only my second (and far from last) foray into his fiction. Picture to yourself a story in two parts, each occupying roughly half the book. The first is a gathering of Francisco da Silva's descendents years after his death; the second follows his life from its humble beginnings in Brazil to his glory days as a much-loved and much-hated slave-trader and finally ending in his slow undoing in the vortex of passions, jealousies, and greed in the West African society in which he lives.

That same society was described by another great writer almost a century earlier. Sir Richard Francis Burton's A MISSION TO GELELE, KING OF DAHOMEY captures the scene perfectly some 50 years or so after da Silva's passing, including the all-female army regiments of the King and the weird dysfunctionality of his court. Chatwin seems to have taken a few leaves from Burton's book and woven a fascinating study of the rise and fall of a very limited man.

We never really see into da Silva's mind: In the first part of the book, he is merely a revered forefather; in the second, an adventurer whose decline is as precipitate as Citizen Kane's. The King's Amazon warriors howl at his passing: "It was not the leopard that killed him. Not the buffalo that killed him. It was night. Night that killed him." That -- and everything else.

At no time does da Silva understand the irony of his being a slave broker whom the slaving ship captains could trust. We do not follow the slavers to the New World, just see them off at the docks as they begin their grim voyage. The Dahomean kings use da Silva, but profoundly distrust him. When he no longer serves their purpose, they and the whole society in which he lives drive him to the final extremity.

Book Description

Bruce Chatwin's bestselling novel traces the fortunes of Kaspar Utz, an enigmatic collector of Meissen porcelain living in Cold War Czechoslovakia. Although Utz is allowed to leave the country each year, and considers defecting each time, he always returns to his Czech home, a prisoner of the Communist state and of his precious collection.

"A triumph." --The Washington Post

"Exquisite. . . One thinks of a Vermeer painting, a luminous miniature disclosing worlds within worlds." --Newsday

Customer Reviews:

A delightful novel.......2007-01-31

In this witty and delightful novel the author portrays a character called Kaspar Joachim Utz, an unconventional collector of Meissen porcelain. Despite all efforts to suppress individualism the communist regime of the late 1960s Czechoslovakia allowed Utz to keep a spectacular private collection of porcelain amounting to more than a thousand pieces, all crammed in a small two-roomed flat in Prague. The account of how Utz built up his collection is truly moving and the humour with which Mr Chatwin describes his peregrinations across Europe is irresistible. Wars, pogroms and revolutions offer excellent opportunities for the collector, Utz remarks ironically!
The novel is a sharp account of the history of Middle Europe from the 1850s to the Prague Spring in 1969, of the history of the Meissen porcelain production, of the absurdities of communism and also of the Czech spirit of which Mr Chatwin is a very keen observer.

The world in miniature.......2005-09-14

In 'Utz' Chatwin has created an object that tempts yet resists definitive analysis. It resembles, in effect, a piece of the Meissen porcelain which is central to its concerns. At once exquisitely wrought, yet appealing to coarser interests, it is a paradoxical synthesis of the refined and the grotesque.
*
It is, in a sense, a piece of travel writing - the travel is not merely geographical, but also through time and through the life of the eponymous protagonist. The minor characters are sparkling caricatures, Chatwin's gleaming words fashioning figures as charming, and as repulsive, as the variously described Meissen figurines. The narrator asks himself, and implicitly asks us too, how much and how little we see and learn of all of this, and how much we invent in our need to make the narrative, and perhaps the world with its baffling cast of beings, coherent and meaningful.
*
Chatwin's prose possesses grace and clarity. It supports a multitude of learned references effortlessly. The tone has hints of the great European classics, even 'The Magic Mountain' (this being Utz's intended reading on his first venture away from Communist Czechoslovakia), but remains light and readable. Yet this supple style allows Chatwin to speculate over the length of Utz's virile member, and over his fetish for gargantuan divas. It ranges easily from the personal to the political. The style itself is a worthy object for a fetishist, and in its precision and erudition suggests that the author himself finds words his fetish.
*
The book entertains a feast of ideas - the role of art in at once defeating and heightening fears of death and aging; the sublimation of the desire for physical beauty; the tension between the private and political (was Utz, after all, a spy, or, at the least, a conduit for stolen works of art to be sold in the West for the profit of the Czech state); the fragility and tenacity of acquaintance and friendship; the role of fantasy in lives constantly moulded by hard realities.
*
All of this is layered within 150 odd pages. What might be said to be missing is the overt portrayal of a complex character - we see Utz, and his offsiders, and indeed Chatwin himself, glancingly. But such glimpses only help to inspire a wonder for the world and all its inexplicable variety - and, for me, for a book to foster such inspiration is a great achievement.
*
A truly beautiful work of art.

To live in artistic rapture!.......2005-02-06

Armin Muller Stahl made a tour de force acting as the patience collector. Art against fashion; cosmic breathe against fashion concerns. These figures are a real visual feast.

The amazing dialogues , the assertive narrative pulse and the ravishing performance of Stahl deserved for him the Best Actor Award in Cannes 1992.

If you are a artwork collector as I do, acquire this unusual movie.

Light as a feather yet extremely deep.......2004-12-29

Bruce Chatwin was dying in the late 1980s of a mystery disease, he claimed originating from a rare Chinese fungus. It was subsequently confirmed to be AIDS. Utz emerged out of these inauspicious circumstances. Chatwin explained the thinking behind Utz in a letter to his friend, Cary Welch, whilst confined to his bed due to ill health: 'I had thought I'd use the time to read and re-read all the great Russian novels. Instead, hardly able to hold a pen, I launched forth on my story: A tale of Marxist Czechoslovakia conceived in the spirit and style or the Rococo'.

As ever, Chatwin could sum up the spirit of his own novels in a few words better than anyone else. But while Utz is certainly ornate, it is not florid and insubstantial like much of the art that the term Rococo is applied to. Utz is a porcelain collector who collects under the shadow of Communist repression which prohibits private ownership of property. The story is said to be based on Chatwin's encounter with Dr Rudolph Just, a businessman and passionate collecter of glass, silver and Meissen who married his housekeeper.

The story is ostentiably about the collection of porcelain as an escape from political repression. But within its few pages, the novel explores a great many more themes. Great art as a beacon of hope, the survival of the characters of Old Europe - resolutely immune to political indoctrination, as manifested in the character of Marta, Utz'z housekeeper whom he marries towareds the end of the novel, the Jewish dimension (Utz is partly Jewish) - the notion of collecting as a subversive activity, worshipping idols over God. The pretty little figurines in Utz seem to take over a life of their own as they become imbued with the worries and burdens of the characters. And as a backdrop to all of this, Chatwin penetrates deep into the spirit of Communist Prague better than almost any other novelist who has tried.

A gem of a novel.

Salvation in small things.......2004-03-17

This was for me the first Chatwin, and a great surprise.
Not just a novel, not just a travel story in the last years of the soviet regime in the Czech Republic, but also a delicate essay of some marginal aspects of XVIII century life: the art of white Meissen ceramics.... With many delicious detours in the labyrinths of mittleeuropean culture and in the psychology of the collector (be him of books, of stamps or whatever).
A book of enormous erudition almost concealed in small details and witty remarks.
And not just learning, but also humanity and a mild observation on the cases of human life under despotism - the meaning freedom, the many faces of opportunism (the one in the oppressed citizen, the one of the intellectual who "freely" criticizes from his warm "western" deck the grey dull soviet regime).
No one get salvation, but Baron Von Utz, who seems able in the mediocrity of ordinary life, of prevarications, of despotism, to resist the nausea of life in the contemplation of his collection.
The perfect world theorised by Leibnitz is perceived as in a glimpse in the eternal stillness of his Meissen figures.
A truly great book!

Amazon.com

This is the last of Bruce Chatwin's works to be published while he was still alive (he penned the introduction in 1988, a few months before he died). It's a collection of Chatwin gems--profiles, essays, and travel stories that span the world, from trekking in Nepal and sailing down the Volga to working on a film with Werner Herzog in Ghana and traveling with Indira Gandhi in India. Chatwin excels, as usual, in the finely honed tale.

Book Description

In this text, Bruce Chatwin writes of his father, of his friend Howard Hodgkin, and of his talks with Andre Malraux and Nadezhda Mandelstram. He also follows unholy grails on his travels, such as the rumour of a "wolf-boy" in India, or the idea of looking for a Yeti.

Customer Reviews:

Too much about people and not enough about travel.......2007-02-23

Chatwin's stories of Africa, Nepal and Afghanistan of the 1980s were all very riveting, but there were many more essays about his obscure friends I had no interest in. I especially liked his write-up of the civil war he experienced in a small African country. But because this book was mostly a profile of his friends, I only give it three instead of four stars.

The Master Stylist.......2004-12-23

This is Bruce Chatwin's dying opus. He edited the pieces in What Am I Doing Here (a quote from one of Rimbaud's letters, writing home from Egypt) whilst weak, fevered and dying from AIDS in 1988. It is the first and best of the collections of Chatwin's shorter writings, composed of articles written when writing for the Sunday Times Magazine in the early 1970s, other newspaper articles, Granta contributions and other miscellaneous pieces.

This compendium, arguably more than any of his other travel books and novels, gives a good insight into the complex and fascinating life Chatwin lived, always in pursuit of the bizzare, the exotic, the beautiful and a good story. Chatwin's writings cover themes as dispirate as travel, art, politics, people and literature. Always discussed in a terse, erudite style that became his trademark. The breadth and depth of Chatwin's knowledge is incredible, thus these writings are not the most accessible. Some appreciation of art history, literature and anthropology for example is necessary to comprehend some of the more esoteric pieces in the collection.

Readers who give Chatwin the time will be able to unravel a wealth of brilliantly illuminated stories. From personal tales about family members, meetings with fabulously well connected and artistic people - such as George Costakis the Soviet art collector and Madeline Vionnet the French dressmaker, descriptions of his travels to far flung places - Patagonia, Afghanistan, China, searching for yeti in the Himalayas - the list goes on, one never fails to marvel at the rich tapestry that comprised Chatwin's life. Certainly, he lived a life about as far from the mundane as it is possible to get.

How did Chatwin manage to constantly encounter such fascinating and varied people and draw out their stories? Part of the reason lies in his connections from his days working as Sotheby's, another explanation lies in his innate charm that seduced men and women all over the world. Also it should be remembered that Chatwin was frequently liberal with the truth in order to tell a story that fitted with his own remarkable perception of the world and its inhabitants. At times he put the fictional process to work in odd instances - his biographical piece on the artist Howard Hodgkin for instance has been declared innacurate by Hodgkin himself, and this as explained in the bibliographical note was published as a 'portrait of the artist' to accompany the catalogue for the Tate Gallery exhibition 'Howard Hodgkin's Indian Leaves'! How did Chatwin get away with it? The truth will probably never fully out, but I would recommend Nicholas Shakespeare's excellent biography 'Bruce Chatwin' for readers interested in finding out more about Chatwin's life.

As a final note, I agree with the opinion of Salman Rushdie that the four short pieces at the end of the book 'Tales of the Art World', written in the last year of Chatwin's life are among the best he ever wrote. Four final drops of genius that Chatwin left before departing this world.

Rocks and diamonds.......2004-07-16

Whether its following the insufferable Kinski through the jungles of Ghana, tracing the Von Daniken lines through the deserts of Peru or climbing after the mythical Yeti in the Nepalese Himalaya, Bruce Chatwin takes you to the strangest places and introduces you to the oddest folks. In 'What Am I Doing Here,' his hodge-podge collection of stories, travelogues, and portraits, Chatwin once again shows his talent for bringing the odd, the exotic and the extreme to light. Where else could one learn about such unknowns as Soviet art collector, George Costakis or South African composer, Kenneth Volans? During his world-wide wanderings, Chatwin met with more than his share of eccentrics and rescued them from oblivion with the magic of his pen. While one often wonders why we should know about these places and characters, it is Chatwin's masterfully wrought prose and storytelling gifts that keep you reading on. While many pieces skirt the periphery of eccentricity and will only appeal to hardcore Chatwinophiles, his best work centers around the more well-known. His biographical sketches of André Malraux and Ernst Jünger brim with sharp insights and intriguing facts. When it comes to giving you a taste of place, his river journey down the Volga does more in 20 pages then most travel writers achieve with 200. But his tour de force is his scathing and trenchant analysis of the demise of French Algeria in 'The Very Sad Story of Salah Bougrine.' Sad and savage at the same time, it explains the labyrinthian chaos of France's Vietnam better than any history book I've ever read.

Like in all his works, the line between fact and fiction is near impossible to discern, but in the end, it doesn't really matter as Chatwin creates sublime pictures with his words. It's not surprising that this ex-Sotheby's employee and art-fanatic sought to recreate with his pen what others have done with the brush. Often deemed a master storyteller, Chatwin was even more the master of the vignette. Brilliantly colored worlds of exotic people and places all dashed onto the page with a tightly-controlled pen. The best of these leave you with a zesty aftertaste, full of inspiration and quirky knowledge, while the weaker---most of the so-called 'stories' of the collection---often leave you hanging for more, searching for a point.

But maybe Chatwin wrote them with just that intention in mind: that there is no point, no underlying theme that might glue these disparate pieces into one congruent whole. Instead, one should revel in the chisled and stark sentences that hide much behind their austere exterior. Chatwin lures you in with his deceptively simple prose, then opens up a world full of rich imagery and insight.

If you are looking for an armchair escape to faraway lands, or for encounters with strange figures, then take a chance on Chatwin and dive into a world where you too will soon ask, 'What Am I Doing Here?'

Very enjoyable.......2003-03-09

I wasn't familiar with Bruce Chatwin when my girlfriend gave me this book for Christmas. I really like his casual, captivating style. I doubt that he was able to write anything that I wouldn't find interesting.

Such an interesting life!.......2002-12-12

I've always thought to myself that when I'm getting close to death and I look back on my life, there's one thing I'll want. At this point, I don't particularly care about money, or love, or having kids or anything like that. But when I die, I want to look back on what I did throughout life, and think: Holy cow. My life was so INTERESTING!

When Bruce Chatwin died in '88, there is no doubt that he fulfilled that same goal. His life was undeniably fascinating, and this book is snippets of it. 35 stories, each concerning different people or places, and all of them are riveting.

Chatwin covered an incredible amount of ground throughout his life, and the book gives one a minor snapshot of some of those places. It feels like someone were interviewing him about his life, and just asked the broad question: So, what were your favorite experiences?

I lacked the necessary background in art history to fully appreciate a lot of his stories (he being an art connoisseur), but even with little to no knowledge of such things, Chatwin's book was fascinating; he makes you care about what he cares about, whether you did before or not.

When I finished the book, I put it down and immediately wanted another one just like it. Undoubtedly Chatwin had more stories to tell, but the general public will have to be satisfied with his own self-selected highlights from a fascinating life.

I really can't recommend this book highly enough, especially for people who like to travel, or particularly like art or history.

Anatomy of Restlessness: Selected Writings 1969-1989
Average customer rating:

Nicely mixed bag!

A charming collection of half forgotten Chatwin texts

stick with songlines & what am I doing here

Vintage Chatwin, but not his best.

Anatomy of Restlessness: Selected Writings 1969-1989
Bruce Chatwin
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0140256989

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The dangling ends of Bruce Chatwin's writing career were posthumously tied together by Jan Borm and Matthew Graves in a collection of 17 previously neglected or unpublished essays, articles, short stories, and travel tales. They span 20 years of writing, yet common threads emerge: his compulsive storytelling, the endless lure of the remote, and his keen sense of place. Borm and Graves have compiled a wonderful gift for the many Chatwin fans who miss him.

Customer Reviews:

Nicely mixed bag!.......2004-09-22

Bruce Chatwin was one of those rarities in the world of English letters. An 'artiste.' A true craftsman of the word. His pristine, illuminous sentences are models of how the English language can and should be used. With nothing superflous, each word and each comma masterfully measured, Chatwin's style beams like an eternal sun amidst the often grey, turbid sky of English prose. Chatwin did for modern English prose what Larkin did for modern English poetry; he slayed the dragon of prolixity. He sped things up, showered them with lots of sun and then sent them on their way. A liberator with the pen.

This sprawling collection of miscellaneous stories, sketches and essays comprise some of Chatwin's best work. Unfortunately, mere beginnings, a glimpse into what could have been had Chatwin lived longer. The bio pieces like 'I Always Wanted to Go to Patagonia,' and 'A Place to Hang Your Hat,' poignantly examine the forces behind this brilliant wanderer. The obsession with exotic places and persons, a lonely, fatherless childhood and his insatiable curiosity are all laid bare with humor and pathos. With his essays on the 'The Nomadic Alternative,'(the strongest part of the collection) Chatwin extends his own incurable migratory needs into a well-argued case for the nomadic lifestyle. Chatwin claims that our most natural---and most desirable---state is that of constant migration, carrying little and not staying for long in any one place. With the building of cities, man became 'thing-oriented' and began to hoard his precious property behind walls to protect against the violent forces from without. Chatwin argues that if we hoarded less, we would evoke less greed, less aggression and thus, cause much fewer problems for ourselves. While Chatwin's arguments have their grey spots, they always manage to challenge the reader with something original.

The other parts of the collection, mostly stories and literary reviews, are enjoyable, even if not on the same level of the other pieces. Yet, Chatwin's style keeps you turning the pages even when the content doesn't. With his terse, energetic sentences, he shows a world virginal and ready for discovery.

While only genuine Chatwinophiles will get worked up about this collection, those interested in quality writing would be wise to take a rest stop here. And for those with pack and pen, ready to conquer the sunset, a finer model couldn't be found.

A charming collection of half forgotten Chatwin texts.......2004-05-22

If you accept the disadvantageous consequences of a collection of disjointed texts, and take this book for what it is, you'll definitely enjoy reading it.

And maybe this collection isn't so incoherent after all. The texts gain coherence from Chatwin's ever returning themes, a.o. restlessness and rootlessness (united in his preoccupation with Nomadism), and above all Chatwin's writing style, which is abundantly present in all texts. All texts benefit from a Chatwin flavour.

I really enjoyed this book. I can't imagine haven't read the autobiographical sketches `I always wanted to go to Patagonia' or `A place to hang your hat', the review `Abel the nomad' or the three texts gathered in part III "The Nomadic Alternative". These texts are classic Chatwin texts, if you would ask me.

The 'Songlines' might be more epic, 'In Patagonia' more odd, but 'Anatomy of Restlessness' is incontestable Chatwin's most charming book. Very charming, indeed.

stick with songlines & what am I doing here.......2001-05-25

I was happy come across a book by Chatwin and another title that seemed to make sense to me. But - disapointment followed. This book is full of name dropping and references so obscure to a time and age that is really only talking to the gilded ex-pats of yore that were sitting in their chestnut studies in the colonised counties and it doesn;t go much beyond that. I think the basis for better is there in, say, the chapter "the Morality of Things" but published as it is, it is still unformed. The same goes for the Nomad chapters. Basically, these works were left unpublished for a reason. They should have stayed that way. Bruce has died and we should just appreciate his words from his own hand. I suggest you stick with the real Bruce.

Vintage Chatwin, but not his best........1999-06-18

Fans of the great journeyman and travel writer Bruce Chatwin will not be disappointed by this collection of essays and short stories. Some of the fiction is quite nice, if esoteric (but very Chatwin); the essays on art are a little more digestable, if a little vague since they are removed from their original context.

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Bruce Chatwin's fascination with nomads and wanderlust represents itself in reverse in On the Black Hill, a tale of two brothers (identical twins) who never go anywhere. They stay in the farmhouse on the English-Welsh border where they were born, tilling the rough soil and sleeping in the same bed, touched only occasionally by the advance of the 20th century. Smacking of a Welsh Ethan Frome, Chatwin evokes the lonely tragedies of farm life, and above all the vibrant land of Wales.

Customer Reviews:

Chatwin Reconsidered.......2005-07-28

The conjunction of considerable brouha surrounding release with my place of residence in Central Australia compelled me to read Chatwin's ,'Songlines'. The disappointment with this inaccurate and sloppily structured book deterred further curiosity in his oeuvre. What a loss! 'Black Hill' is a brilliant description of rural Wales, resonant with some of the sweetest nature observations, and the minuatae of rural existence. Chatwin is on the top of his game in this earlier work. No wonder his press expected 'Songlines' to be the magnum that would establish an enduring reputation. The subject matter is generated by the curious tale of geriatric twin brothers who have barely ventured beyond a twenty mile radius of Black Hill. Their 80 years are sketched in without psychologising their inhibitions. For a novel that does explore those dimensions, read Michel Tournier's,'Gemini'. But Chatwin's work has an unhurried pacing spiced with effortless aliterations('spider webs, wavering white with dew, were stitched over the dead grass'...'croziers of young bracken curled up through the cow-parsley')that seem conjured from the mists hanging over the Hill. He's as unobtrustive as the twins, cocooned as they are from the turmoils of the century, beyond their pasture. The years roll on, loved ones and rivals, all pass without Chatwin resorting to Thomas Hardy's melodramatic coicidences to paste the seasons together with wilfull moralising.I mention Hardy as Chatwin refers to him in the text. I did think of John Berger's work at times. And that's fine recommendation from me.

One of his best!.......2005-05-20

Along with 'Songlines,' 'On the Black Hill,' is Chatwin's most accessible work. For those unsmitten with Chatwinitis, these two gems of rich storytelling give an idea of just how talented a writer we lost with Mr. Chatwin's premature demise in 1988. Whereas 'Songlines' attempts to dissect our wandering passions, 'On the Black Hill' tries to answer the opposite: why we stay where we are.

Set in the Wye river borderlands between England and Wales, this most complete of Chatwin's works follows the daily toils, sorrows and rare joys of a Welsh farming family. Chatwin guides us through the vicissitudes of Amos Jones and his English wife, Mary Latimore. Yet, the story's real center is the life of their twin offspring, Benjamin and Lewis. The two grew up inseparable from one another. Yet, whilst they share the same hardships of rural life, they differ sharply from each other. Lewis is his father's child: a rough, taciturn man-child whose thoughts and desires rarely stray beyond the farm and the fields. His escape and simultaneously, only connection with the outside world, is his fascination with airplanes. In his few spare moments, Lewis collects articles about the newest innovations in flight. In rare moments, Lewis dreams of flying off to distant lands, freeing himself from the bonds of family, routine and the land. Yet, his alter-ego, Benjamin, always manages to hold him back. Shy, withdrawn, and sensitive, Benjamin takes after his mother, cultivating the more 'feminine' side of farm life: cooking, reading and keeping house. As if Chatwin wanted show the sheer interdependence of both types, Benjamin and Lewis grow into one person as it were, a yin and yang of the human type. Neither can exist without the other for long. When Benjamin gets drafted into the First World War, Lewis feels the torments and humiliations his brother undergoes at boot camp. Likewise, when Lewis 'threatens' to marry, Benjamin falls into deep depression and is saved from death only when his brother comes home again, alone.

From before the Great War to the early 1970's, Chatwin sketches the life of the Jones with incredible detail. As with all Chatwin works, the diamonds are in the pictures he paints, the characters he details. Every level of caste-ridden England and egaliterian Wales is represented with pithy accuracy. The overbearing and decadent English landlords flit away their estates with drink and profligacy while the dour Welsh peasants suffer in dirt and dearth with the hope for a 'better world to come.' The English are all staid High-Church tea drinkers, while the Welsh wander between pub and chapel. Ethnography isn't far from the surface as Chatwin's portrayal of the English-Welsh symbosis mirrors that of the twins. Two brothers so different, yet lost without the other.

Here, like in all Chatwin works, grand meanings are difficult to uncover. Unlike his predecessor of sorts, Thomas Hardy, Chatwin fails to get into the psychological nitty-gritty of why his characters act the way they do. Instead, we're given a canvas of life spread across seventy years and asked merely to observe, sympathize and maybe see ourselves in one of the faces. In this way, 'On the Black Hill' resembles Kent Haruf's testimony to the American Midwest, 'Plainsong,' another novel about two brothers who chose to stay put rather than set out for something new, different, and better. And perhaps this is the message of the work: life isn't elsewhere, it's right under your nose. Coming from the highpriest of wanderlust himself, I'd say that's quite an insight.

Paradoxically, Chatwin at his best in rural Wales.......2004-09-26

On the Black Hill is, on the face of it, a paradoxically British novel to emerge from the pen of a writer renowned for his curiousity for travel, the exotic and the fantastic. Following on from the Viceroy of Ouidah, a fantastical story set in 19th Century West Africa, 'On the Black Hill' tells the story of two twin boys, Benjamin and Lewis who they spend the entirety of their lives farming in rural Wales.
Chatwin masterfully captures the subtelties of the Welsh countryside - the roughshod agricultural basis to everyday life, the elitism and mannerisms of the gentry, the subtle changes in the weather, the dark, brooding landscapes and the eccentric and intriguing characters of the local community.
For my money, Chatwin is at his best when using his talent for descriptive prose to describe the everyday rather than the fantastic. His eye for detail and story telling enable him to bring the lives of insular rural types to life in a way that sets 'On the Black Hill' apart from the large body of books written about British country life. The plot develops gently and gradually, with events such as the First World War and the development of the motor car affecting the community in realistic and entertaining ways. One emphathises with the characters as their lives are shaped and developed and the 20th Century history of the area is bought to life in a manner that few other rural novels manage.
Chatwin the nomad actually excells when involved much closer to home than one might imagine.

An eloquent celebration of the quiet life........2000-08-19

On the Black Hill is an elegantly written homage to the inelegant life of rural Wales, a life in which no one ever strays far from the farm--there are few opportunities and little motivation to do so. Spartan lives are enriched by stories and gossip, slights are never forgotten, feuds reach epic intensity, and bottled-up frustrations simmer till they explode. Through rich and vivid descriptions of the minutiae of daily existence, we come to know twin brothers Lewis and Ben Jones as they grow up and are shaped by their family and their small community. The townspeople become our own friends or enemies, depending on their behavior towards the twins, and we empathize with them as they use their limited resources to struggle with the Big Questions which concern us all--questions of life, love, spirituality, death, cruelty, justice, and ultimately, happiness. By paring life to the bone here, Chatwin gives us a classic example of the adage, "Less is more."

In the final analysis, Chatwinýs not provincial at all.......2000-04-11

All Bruce Chatwin's books seem to have a provincial side to them. Set in outlandish places in all corners of the Earth, they all have a sort of question mark attached to them, perhaps asking: Now, what's going on here? "On the Black Hill," is, I maintain, set in as outlandish a spot as any of them. The Welsh countryside has bred just as odd examples of humanity as the green hills of Kentucky or the wide veldt of South Africa. Yet Chatwin sees through them all, down to some sort of common denominator, and what we have in this book is the most human story to issue from this pen. The story of the twins will not only delight for its old-fashioned setting and eccentric but somehow so British behaviour, it will also draw you into Chatwin's elegant prose with its remarkable tempo (you might almost call it metre) and ability to colour scenes with gouache-like softness and light. In fact, coming to Chatwin through "On the Black Hill" may not be such a good idea. Read "The Songlines" first, and failing that, read "Utz" either before or after. In any case, although this short-lived modern writer has not left us the overwhelming legacy we might normally have expected, there is sufficient material to keep you occupied and thinking about your own and Chatwin's world, for some time to come. And in the end you'll see that Bruce Chatwin's not provincial at all.

Average customer rating:

Far Journeys
Bruce Chatwin
Manufacturer: Viking Adult
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0670851485

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I don't have received this book
Her Infinite Variety
The "other" Mapplethorpe
View it once and feel bored, then view it again and again.
An eye opening exploration of the beauty of a strong woman

Lady: Lisa Lyon
Robert Mapplethorpe , and Bruce Chatwin
Manufacturer: Bulfinch
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0821222775

Customer Reviews:

I don't have received this book.......2007-03-08

I still don't have received this book. First it will arrive at the end of Februar, nov aprox April! But I already paid for it.

Her Infinite Variety.......2001-04-19

This book is one of the most interesting photographic studies of a woman that I have ever seen because it displays so many dimensions of the same person. You feel like you've moved past the external to understand the psyche of Lisa Lyon. Most books of female photography focus on one aspect of one female role, whether it be as fashion model, temptress, character etched in a face, tender of children, or as a beautiful icon. This book captures all those roles except the tender of children, plus adds quite a few others that are rarely seen. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand the full potential of the photographic art.

Before going further, you should realize that this book contains much female nudity of a challenging sort that would probably cause the images to exceed an R rating if they were a motion picture.

Most of the images were taken in New York City between 1980 and 1982. Ms. Lyon had won the first World Women's Bodybuilding Championship in Los Angeles in 1979. She refused to defend her title, stating that she was a "performance artist" who acts as a "sculptor whose raw material was her own body." Seeing her posing in these images makes me realize that aspect of her talent and interests. She and Mr. Mapplethorpe collaborated on what images to shoot, and enjoyed lively wrangles along the way.

The foreword by Samuel Wagstaff nicely summarizes the results. The images "escape the shackles of womanly stereotype." As the dust cover image shows, she could sit like a "lady" while showing her "muscle" at the same time. The joint effects are fascinating. As Mr. Wasgtaff points out, it's "a new freedom of tongue-in-cheek." One image has her standing totally bare wearing only an old-fashioned gas mask.

Ms. Lyon adds her own comment. "The pictures are a little hard, like us." As a body builder, she can pose so that you see extreme muscle definition or she can relax in a dress and simply look like a fascinating fashion model. This flexibility adds greatly to the viewer's enjoyment.

In the essay by Bruce Chatwin, you can learn a lot about Mr. Mapplethorpe's work here. "His eye for a face is the eye of a novelist in search of a character . . . ." ". . . [H]is eye for a body that of a classical sculptor in search of an 'ideal.'" Mr. Mapplethorpe's female sitters "seem mesmerized . . . by his presence, and they are temporarily transported into a dream-world."

As for Ms. Lyon, she describes herself this way. "My childhood was dark." Mr. Chatwin points out the wonderful contribution she makes to the images through her "histrionics, ability to sass, spoof, impersonation, parody, caricature, and charade." He feels that Mr. Mapplethorpe and she have created a "picaresque novel." Mr. Mapplethorpe was originally attracted by her "air of an Old Testament heroine."

I found almost all of the images to be outstanding. They are not named, so I will do my best to describe a few to give you a flavor for the work.

Emerging from the water, Fire Island, New York (this is a classic Venus pose);

Framed by foliage, Jamaica (this gives a feeling of full-bodied innocence in the Garden of Eden);

In repose on a raised cement curb, Jamaica (this gives a sculptoral feeling of looking at a Greek goddess);

Lifting torso on bench, Jamaica (this is a difficult muscle stunt that displays perfect form and strength, and gives the feeling of classic sculpture);

Silhouette with knife, New York City (this looks like a French cut-out);

Sitting on edge of shower, Jamaica (this feels like a woman in deep thought and is all about the mind, even though the body is nude);

Holding hand mirror wearing corset looking out, New York City (this one raises the question of, who am I?);

Flamenco dancer with her hand holding her skirt up to one side, New York City (this is an idealisation of the female identity);

Nude lit by flaming paper, New York City (this seems like a primitive woman celebrating the religious mysteries).

I found all of the many fashion shots to be delightful because they have a campy feeling. My favorite was the one of her wearing a fedora.

For comparison, I suggest you look at Boris Vallejo's fine photograpic studies of female bodybuilders for his illustrations. That will give you the full sense of how imaginative and wonderful these photographs are.

The question this collection poses is how to get beyond stereotypes. Often these preset notions are so grounded in our thinking that we are not even aware of them. As a result, we presume, assume, and misjudge. We project our fears onto what we see, and act accordingly. I suggest that you use this work to encourage you to project your love and caring instead.

Look beyond what you see now, to imagine what could be. Then act on the potential!

The "other" Mapplethorpe.......1999-12-12

Robert Mapplethorpe is famous for his highly erotic male nudes. He also created a series of B/W photos of flowers in order to have pictures to sell that were not so erotically charged. His photos of Lisa Lyon, the first famous female bodybuilder, fall into a very different category. Mapplethorpe shot a few other muscular females in the late 1970s, but his most extensive work was with Lisa. This was a very collaborative project - Lisa Lyon was a kind of "performance artist" who was very involved in creating the images seen in this book. By modern standards, Lisa hardly looks like a bodybuilder at all (the so-called "fitness" women are more muscular) but she was very much a pioneer in the field and Mapplethorpe was one of the few photographers of the day (another being Helmut Newton) to turn his attention to the muscular female body. "Lady" is an interesting book of pictures, especially for (1) fans of Mapplethrope, (2) fans of Lisa Lyon, (3) fans of the muscular female physique - as well as those who simply like interesting collections of photographs.

View it once and feel bored, then view it again and again........1997-09-07

I am a Mapplethorpe fan and, after viewing the Lisa Lyon publication the first time, I felt somewhat disappointed. Then, days later, I became curious as to what I may have overlooked in the pictures. Indeed. Even today, when I open the book to enjoy the work of Mapplethorpe, I sometimes notice something of interest I missed the last time. By no means, is Lisa Mapplethorpe's best publication, but, most assuredly, it is a good buy and one which will gather no dust

An eye opening exploration of the beauty of a strong woman.......1997-01-31

Robert Mapplethorpe is one of our century's most misunderstood, and important artists. His skill with the camera was matched only by his genius in deciding what, and how, to photograph. These images of Lisa Lyons are at times reminiscient of the work of Edward Weston, one the the all time great photographers of history, and they reveal the true beauty of feminine strength. Sadly, Robert was one of the casualties of the AIDS crisis, but his work lives on, and will change lives for the better for many, many years to come. Review by Edward Lynn, student of commercial photography, The Art Institute of Seattle

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A Romatic tale of Patagonia
Brilliant work
More interesting than informative.
Brilliant hodge-podge!
Where the Jumblies Live

In Patagonia
Bruce Chatwin
Manufacturer: VINTAGE (RAND)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0099769514

Amazon.com

Fascinated by Patagonia since an early childhood lust for Grandma's scrap of hairy Giant Sloth skin, Chatwin's also intrigued by odd miners and the log cabin built by Butch Cassidy in Cholila. In 1977 the London Observer called it "a brilliant travel book," and while Chatwin's no longer alive (he died in 1989), his book still glows. From Rio Negro to the southernmost town of Ushuaia, Chatwin depicts all in writing as spare as the Patagonian desert itself, and as vibrant as the purple clouds off Last Hope Sound.

Book Description

Evocative descriptions, notes on the history of the region, and remarkable anecdotes from a remote and starkly beautiful part of the world.

"A travel book to stand on the shelf with Graham Greene, Somerset Maugham, and Paul Theroux." --<cite>The New York Times Book Review</cite>

Customer Reviews:

A Romatic tale of Patagonia.......2007-06-11

Chatwin's account of his journey across Patagonia in the late 1970's certainly is embellished with all the qualities of a good English romantic. His tale begins with a memory from his childhood about a piece skin that was in the procession of his grandmother. She told him that is belonged to a Brontosaurus and came from the distant land of Patagonia in the south of Argentina. It turns out that the piece of skin in question actually belonged to a Mylodon, an ancient Giant Sloth native to Patagonia, and Chatwin received his fair share of belittlement from his schoolmasters for claiming it came from a dinosaur. Still, he held a special revere for the skin though and hoped to become its caretaker one day. Unfortunately the skin was tossed out after his grandmother passed away. He never lost his fascination with the distant and mysterious land of Patagonia though and always hoped to secure a piece of Mylodon skin for himself one day.

Fast-forward about 25 years and we pick up Chatwin's story as he arrives in Argentina, finally fulfilling his dream to visit Patagonia. His journey takes him all over modern Patagonia, if one can use the word modern in regards to the region, bouncing from town to town in search of old legends and odd tales. He investigates the haunts of the last known days of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, visits the beaches the Darwin visited during his famous voyage aboard the Beagle, even visits the famous Mylodon cave where the archaic animal's remains were discovered.

Chatwin tells a remarkable tale and brings a nice mingling of history, myth, travel and local flavor all into one narrative. At several points he takes time to digress on several side stories that have a connection to the place he is visiting or a story that he is in the progress of rooting out. In spite of all this, or perhaps because of it, one gets the felling that all that Chatwin writes is not the stone cold truth. Certainly some areas are embellished to facilitate the flow of the narrative. Due to this it is hard to separate fact from fiction, but in a work such as this it is not especially important. Chatwin conveys the magic and mystery of the land that has for so long held a special place in his mind. He gives us a glimpse of what Patagonia has meant and stood for for generation after generation of seekers and travelers.

Brilliant work.......2007-01-10

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. I borrowed it from the library, read it, and was so entertained and impressed that I sought out and purchased a copy. Simply a terrific book.

More interesting than informative........2005-01-29

Depending on what you look for in a "travel" book you may or may not like this. If you're looking for history, natural history, or political developments, this is not the book for you. 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!.......2004-12-08

Often deemed 'a classic' of travel literature, Bruce Chatwin's claim to fame, 'In Patagonia,' defies classification. Anyone looking for a straightforward account of Southern Argentina and Chile would best be advised to check elsewhere. 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.

Where the Jumblies Live.......2004-05-24

I was browsing the shelves of the travel section of a large bookshop recently. 'In Patagonia' appealed to me for three reasons. Firstly, I am planning a long trip to South America and am keen to read any writing covering that area. Secondly, I was captivated by Paul Theroux's comment on the back cover of the Vintage edition that Bruce Chatwin has found a remote place 'like the Land where the Jubmlies live'. I love eccentric people and places. Thirdly, I was intrigued by the pictures in the centre of the book - a corrugated iron hut on wheels, a run down station in the middle of nowhere, a set of hand prints on a cave wall and other peculiar and whimsical images relating to the places Chatwin visited on his travels and the stories he collected on the way. For these reasons, I had to read it.
What emerges is an extraordinary chronicle of the nomadic wanderings of Chatwin during his six month trip to Patagonia (he quit his job at the Sunday Times in order to go there). He begins by describing how he was curious to find out more about a curious beast, of which his grandmother had a fragment of skin, but soon becomes waylaid by a bizzarre succession of people and stories that build upon each other as the book progresses like a ramshackle house of cards.

It is the stories that form the essence of the book. There is description of the geography and physical characteristics of the region but only in brief passages as a setting to another piece of Patagonian folklore. Chatwin clearly has an ear for a good story and an almost dilletante, enquiring mind. Also, in the manner of a skilled raconteur, he is frequently economical with the truth in order to include his own even better facts. Thus the book is a fascinating conglomerate of part travel writing, part sociology, part history, part anthropology and part fiction.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reaing quirky, original and imaginative travel writing.

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