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"go to Patagonia for me" she said

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In Chatwin's uncollected writings, posthumously titled "Anatomy of Restlessness", he recounts how he went to Patagonia on the suggestion of a ninety three year old friend of his. He went and returned six months later with the makings of a book. "While stringing its sentences together, I thought that telling stories was the only conceivable occupation for a superflous person such as myself". "In Patagonia" is part travelogue, part history, and part anecdotal tour. This book has a discursive nature about it that stands on its own terms; it is composed of vignettes, loosely related, yet glued together with Chatwin's compelling narrations. He bounces around, describing the evocative landscapes of the Patagonian wilds; the legends of Butch Cassidy and his sidekick are teased out; there is his take on Darwin's theory as it applies to the unique fauna; he tells us of a self-proclaimed King of Patagonia and all his french connections; and he detours through discussions of half a dozen literary lights, none of which are even remotely connected with Patagonia. But . . . It is Chatwin's imagination that is the guide, even if you're left wondering what happened to the trail. It is a non-linear journey and thus, a book full of twists and turns. He lived out his nomadic proclivities as he walked and hitchhiked around this vast region. The book that emerged from this ramble shows Chatwin's tremendous metaphoric powers; the magnetism of these narratives is undeniable. This is truly one fascinating read. Most highly recommended. The Cloud Reckoner Extracts: A Field Guide for Iconoclasts

In Patagonia

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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."

Interesting account of the people of Patagonia	Customer Rating:
Chatwin's story of his search to find the skin of a giant ground sloth and the people he meets along the way in Patagonia is a truly different type of travel literature. Rather than a simple travel diary, Chatwin introduces the reader to a number of the different personalities that inhabit this bleak, but beautiful landscape

a great writer

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When I read that Bruce Chatwin had died at the age of 31, I personally grieved as if he had been someone I knew. It is rare to find a book of gentle surprises with wonderful sentences and description, a treat to read, a promise of things to come. But that was not to be. I mourned for what we all lost. There are other books by Chatwin but I like to wonder about all the things he would have written had he lived. Prior to his death he had been in China where he became ill with some tropical disease. He returned home to die, his book on China unwritten, perhaps unplanned. Here are a few of his books: The Songlines, On the Black Hill, The Viceroy of Ouidah. There are more.

Great Literature	Customer Rating:
We are preparing to visit South America, so this book is very apt. The author put together a new kind of travel story, weaving imagination with reality. It seems to us that a lot of South American native literature does the same thing. A fascinating insight into life in Patagonia, whether you read it as travel stories or fiction.