| In Patagonia |  | Author: Bruce Chatwick
Publisher: Books On Tape
Category: Book
This item is no longer available
Avg. Customer Rating:  12 reviews
Sales Rank: 5144386
Format: Import
Media: Audio Cassette
Number Of Items: 6
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
ISBN: 5557086811
EAN: 9785557086813
ASIN: 5557086811
Publication Date: January 1977
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Product 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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 7 more reviews...
 An old favorite. September 30, 2008
This is a re-read for me. I actually gave my copy to my partner years and years ago when we were in that relationship stage where you try to prove your meant-to-be-ness to each other by sharing books and music. I figured that since we both loved travel writing and we both had a dream of visiting Argentina, then Bruce Chatwin was a safe bet. (He's been a favorite writer of mine since falling in love with his work through the film version of Utz.)
I couldn't have been more off-base. He read it all right, but he really didn't like it. I think that I wouldn't be exaggerating to say that it actively irritated him. Since then he's tried a couple more times to read Chatwin, each one a failure. That remains the Dividing Line of Travel Writers for us-- I like eccentric people who talk about characters and odd history. B. wants to read about the beauty of the landscape and the things that a person can do while visiting. We have an awful lot of Meant-To-Be-Ness in other ways, but not travel writing, apparently.
Anyhow. I loved it. As I loved it the first time. I like the character of Chatwin as he meanders across the scene. I enjoy the way that he meditates on the people and on the history that affects their and his lives. I find that the loose way that he ties everything together works very well for me. I love and share his love of walking, and what that teaches you about where you are.
We have not yet made it to Argentina as a couple, but when we go, I'll be clutching this book under my arm. Recommended.
In Patagonia gets better with time September 14, 2008
I am enjoying every single one of the short, sometimes very short, ninety seven stories of Bruce's In Patagonia. I do not miss at all the lack of a threading narrative giving unnecessary details of how he got from one town to the next. Perhaps in this era of short attention span and infinite linking our minds have morphed into absorbers of high density language only, and In Patagonia is all wheat and no chaff.
I must admit that Bruce's credibility was enhanced by the mention of some names like Teofilo Breide: I went to school with another member of that arab family with expansive land possessions near Epuyén. But beyond the actual names, Bruce's description of places, character, circumstances and attitudes is so accurate, so masterly perceived and conveyed that his prose invariably conjures up the scene in my mind, and I re-read to savour every sentence, at times a single word, as if sipping expensive wine.
If you have never been to Patagonia, reading this book is next to knowing Patagonia well. I am fortunate enough to enjoy both privileges.
"go to Patagonia for me" she said August 23, 2008
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 July 4, 2008
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 April 4, 2008
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
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