Bruce Chatwin

Competent and very readable biography that tries to make sense of a complicated, contradictory character. Written with the co-operation of Chatwin's widow and his parents, so it tells us a lot more about his early days than literary biographies usually manage to do. On the other hand, we don't necessarily get a neutral picture: Chatwin's wife, whom he clearly treated rather badly, certainly comes across as a complete saint.

Having read this, I'm still not much closer to making my mind up about Chatwin: he was arrogant, parachuted into places for a few weeks and used other people's lives and the results of their work irresponsibly, went in for unscientific theories of everything, and used the label of "fiction" to protect himself against show more any comebacks. On the other hand, he had a wonderful gift for assimilating abstruse knowledge and presenting it in interesting ways; he wrote and looked like an angel; and by Shakespeare's account he alternately charmed and infuriated a large circle of friends. I suppose you pays your money and you takes your choice.

I've read biographies of both John Betjeman and Bruce Chatwin recently. In both cases it seemed that the really interesting characters, only present on the margins of the story, were the wives. Coincidentally, Penelope Betjeman and Elizabeth Chatwin were close friends who would go off trekking in India together. I must read more about them. show less

I purchased this (remaindered) biography of Bruce Chatwin written by Nicholas Shakespeare. I probably did it to confirm my own prejudices (the sneaking suspicion that Chatwin was 'not a nice man') and on that level it delivered in spades. Shakespeare gives a magnificent warts-and-all portrait. Chatwin's friends and his apparently long-suffering wife could obviously see beyond the warts - all I saw was a monstrous egotistical carbuncle called Bruce Chatwin. I am pleased to have made his acquaintance via this biography; I would never have wanted to meet him in real life. I would have viewed him as a black hole - always taking, never giving.

This biography held my attention even though I don't think I wouldn't have liked Chatwin - a strange, fey man whose adventures and eye for antiques and art made what could have been a merely eccentric and self-absorbed life into a fascinating one.

Award-winning novelist Nicholas Shakespeare has written the definitive biography of one of the most influential literary figures of our time: Bruce Chatwin, whose works' strangely compelling combination of research, first-hand experience, myth, and mystification may have been the real substance of his seemingly contradictory life.

Chatwin's first book, In Patagonia, became an international bestseller, revived the art of travel writing, and inspired a generation to set out in search of adventure. Chatwin became a celebrity, while remaining a conundrum. With little formal education, he had become a director of Sotheby's. An avid collector, he eschewed material things and revered the nomadic life. Married for twenty-three years, he had show more male lovers throughout the world. And only at his death did his personal myth fail him. Nicholas Shakespeare, who was given unrestricted access to his papers, spent eight years retracing Chatwin's steps and interviewing the people who knew him. The result is a biography that is at once sympathetic and revelatory. show less

This biography doesn't offer up a cohesive and satisfying narrative as much as it presents a series of impressions. Chatwin is a strange man, and ordering his life from the outside presents an obvious challenge. That said, 'Chatwin' is an honest effort, and is enlightening on some strange level at least, when it comes to a man whose life was carefully crafted and desperately manipulated at almost every turn.

Reviewed by Peter Lowe for The Voice of the Turtle here:

http://voiceoftheturtle.org/show_article.php?aid=161

Nicholas Shakespeare: Bruce Chatwin: 1999: 550 blz: The Harvill Press

Voordat ik aan deze biografie begon dacht ik zo'n beetje alles over Bruce Chatwin te weten wat van belang was. Gelukkig pakte het boek me en bleek het een meeslepend geschreven boek te zijn. Alles uit het leven van Chatwin wordt behandeld: zijn jeugd, werkzaamheden bij Sotheby's, als archeologiestudent in Edingburg, zijn geworstel met het manuscript van "The nomadic alternative", als journalist bij "The Sunday Times", de achtergrondverhalen bij zijn boeken, schrijvers die hem hebben beïnvloed, zijn vrouw Elisabeth, zijn homoaffaires, de ziekte Aids. Shakespeare heeft met zo'n beetje iedereen gesproken die Chatwin van nabij gekend heeft. Het resultaat is een prachtige show more biografie die alles wat Chatwin zelf heeft geschreven in de schaduw stelt.
Uitgelezen vrijdag 6 september 2002, waardering ****

Andere biografieën die de moeite waard zijn:
- James Boswell: The life of Samuel Johnson ****
- Michael Asher: Thesiger ****
- Alan Bullock: Hitler en Stalin ***
- Li Zhisu: Het priveleven van voorzitter Mao ***
- Stephen B. Oates: Let the trumpet sound, over het leven van Martin Luther King jr. *** show less