I Read a Lot of Books

A little back ground is in order. I am actually half Chilean, and have spent a little time there over the years. I also lived for a while in Brazil. This helped me in my pursuit of a second major field of study at university. Yes, one major was not enough. I double majored in Political Science and Latin American Studies. As a result I feel fairly confident in my knowledge of Latin American history, culture, politics and religion. So when my uncle (also an avid reader of anything he can get his hands on) lent me his battered copy of In Patagonia, I was excited to see what Mr. Chatwin would have in store.A well written travel memoir is a difficult thing to come by in my opinion. I enjoyed Isak Denison’s Out of Africa, only because I knew that most of the experiences she relates did not happen and the rest were hog wash. I’ve enjoyed some war memoirs because they focus on a brief period of time where many intense experiences shape the outline of the book. I was truly unprepared to like In Patagonia so much. I tried to find a central theme, and yet all I could find were a man’s interwoven tails and memories from his youth that lead him to South America where he tries to hunt down information about Butch Cassidy’s time there, falls in with ex pats from Europe, and encounters all forms on life as he tries to get a bit of Mylodon skin.

Charley Milward, a cousin of Bruce Chatwin’s grandmother, wrecked his ship of the Strait of Magellan and made South America his home. He sent home letters and a piece of mylodon skin from a cave in Chile. This fragment of skin and memory sparked an interest in seeing Patagonia, and as an adult and natural wanderer, Bruce made the journey and wrote about. Mr. Chatwin, before his death traveled and published several novels, and of those that I have read I find In Patagonia the most engaging. It is written in an observant and flippant style and reminds one of the actual jostle and upsets that happen during any journey. The characters he meets along the way are wonderful in that they are real, and yet, some of them seem fictitious.

I do think that his interactions with the native groups and his knowledge of the history of these groups is lacking and a bit generalized, overall, I think Mr. Chatwin did a decent job of trying to present a character, or a group based on a bit of history and his interaction, and then leave the reader to decide what these characters mean and whether or not they are likable. Notable exceptions are his treatment of some of the former Chilean landowners. Surely he uses their own quotations, but I can’t help but feel that much of what I was reading was written out of context for a specific effect.

I also always have difficulty with the organization of Bruce Chatwin books. In Patagonia bothered the least, because it did seem to be vignettes of different experiences during travel. I know that he added excerpts of his own relatives life in South America to tie the narrative together, but he does so in such a way that it actually distracts, and the Butch Cassidy part seemed unnecessary and speculative. Despite these minor complaints, I quite enjoyed seeing Patagonia through the eyes of a visitor.