Chatwin takes us on a journey few will ever have the opportunity to match. ( )

Hmmm. Didnt know what to expect from my first "Bruce Chatwin", but this wasnt it. Lots of little snippits - most chapters less than 2 pages long - I got very little idea of Patagonia as a place, there seemed to be very little focus or a line being followed.[return][return]Plenty of characters but couldnt tell how they related to each other (if at all) or how they related to Chatwin. Most interesting things were the longer chapters, such as those on Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, who spent several years in Patagonia before disappearing off into the sunset

Excellent. I'm glad I read this after travelling Patagonia, so that I was sharing the author's reactions to the places and freshening memories, instead of just settings expectations. Plenty of interesting stories in their own right; I just enjoyed the moments of recognition on top of it. ( )

Published in 1977, this book is a mix of history and travel diary. Bruce Chatwin starts in Buenos Aires, and travels down Argentina, crossing the region known as Patagonia. He stops to visit people along the way, asks them questions about their family histories and the events that occurred in the area. We hear many immigration stories and local legends. Chatwin supplements what he hears from the people he meets with his own historical research.

It is all reasonably interesting, but there is little organization or narrative arc. As he travels, he jumps from one topic to the next in a series of extremely short chapters. We hear a lot about Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, who apparently owned a cabin in the region. We get a description of the landscape and see photos from his travels. There are descriptions of extinct giant sloths. We learn the story of Jemmy Button, an indigenous person taken in 1830 from Tierra del Fuego, who traveled on the HMS Beagle. These are just a few examples of many vignettes.

This is a memoir with very little introspection or analysis. He repeats historical stories that have been debunked as myths. I found lots of side dishes to enjoy, but it seems lacking in a main course.
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Very good. ( )