Customer Reviews:
| Showing reviews 26-30 of 30 | | « PREV | | |
 "In Patagonia" doesn't live up to the hype. November 6, 1997
36 out of 40 found this review helpful
Reviews of Bruce Chatwin's "In Patagonia" tend to gush emotionally about Chatwin's spare verse and quirky sketches of colorful characters. Others have claimed to have used his book as a guide while living in Patagonia. As much as Chatwin's now-famous travelogue offers pleasant reading, it still pales in comparison to other Patagonian travel books, including "Edward Chace, A Yankee in Patagonia." Chatwin also liberally hijacked ideas straight from previous authors, who made his journey and investigated the same people and subjects a full four or five decades before the publication of "In Patagonia." What's more, the locals down there (and a Ph.D candidate in Patagonia history I met on my journeys) hate Chatwin, claiming he was sloppy with his facts about their relatives. Chatwin's name in Patagonia is as popular as General Sherman's in Atlanta. So don't get overwhelmed by the Chatwin hype. Browse the Patagonian classics you'll find on most library shelves first, then reread this so-called masterpiece. Comparative shopping is worth the effort here.
 The best travel book I've read August 24, 1997
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Although a little slow starting, an excellent book filled with wonderful anecdotes, historical information and beautiful geography. Well worth the read
 In Patagonia is unforgettable. July 29, 1997
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
In Patagonia is unforgettable. Chatwin creates a frontier of possibilities, and populates it with stories of the living and the dead. In Patagonia is about travel and transience, settlement and desolation, Butch and Sundance, Evita and exile, memory and ghosts, dinosaurs and loneliness, the wind and the land, Welshmen and Lithuanians, and beauty. Read it
If you wear the clothes, you gotta read the book! April 7, 1997
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
After three years in Patagonia, on the Argentine side mostly,Chatwins book describes it beautifully. From Bahia Blanca to Ushuaia,my first year I used it as a travel guide. Chatwin managed to objectively consider the Argentine with an equal eye, as opposed to Theroux coloniality. I made a lot of friends in Argentina, and reading Chatwin was like studying an excellant text before the exam.
A great read for those who love travel writing with dry wit March 28, 1997
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
What travel writing should be. History, observation and quirky encounters and tales woven together to create a unique form of story telling. With humor as dry as the Sahara the author reveals the unique history, people, geography and climate of Patagonia. This guy makes Paul Thoroux read like Fromer's
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