Customer Reviews:
 Where the Jumblies Live May 24, 2004
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I was browsing the shelves of the travel section of a large bookshop recently. 'In Patagonia' appealed to me for three reasons. Firstly, I am planning a long trip to South America and am keen to read any writing covering that area. Secondly, I was captivated by Paul Theroux's comment on the back cover of the Vintage edition that Bruce Chatwin has found a remote place 'like the Land where the Jubmlies live'. I love eccentric people and places. Thirdly, I was intrigued by the pictures in the centre of the book - a corrugated iron hut on wheels, a run down station in the middle of nowhere, a set of hand prints on a cave wall and other peculiar and whimsical images relating to the places Chatwin visited on his travels and the stories he collected on the way. For these reasons, I had to read it.
What emerges is an extraordinary chronicle of the nomadic wanderings of Chatwin during his six month trip to Patagonia (he quit his job at the Sunday Times in order to go there). He begins by describing how he was curious to find out more about a curious beast, of which his grandmother had a fragment of skin, but soon becomes waylaid by a bizzarre succession of people and stories that build upon each other as the book progresses like a ramshackle house of cards.
It is the stories that form the essence of the book. There is description of the geography and physical characteristics of the region but only in brief passages as a setting to another piece of Patagonian folklore. Chatwin clearly has an ear for a good story and an almost dilletante, enquiring mind. Also, in the manner of a skilled raconteur, he is frequently economical with the truth in order to include his own even better facts. Thus the book is a fascinating conglomerate of part travel writing, part sociology, part history, part anthropology and part fiction.
I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reaing quirky, original and imaginative travel writing.
 Superficial, sometimes boring March 21, 2004
5 out of 12 found this review helpful
I was very dissapointed when I first read this so famoues book, that many people interested in Patagonia use to read.
The autor has a very superficial point of view of this territory and its people, there's no deep sight in the stories of the people themselves, who are seen merely as some kind of zoo animals, besides the only detailed descriptions the autor makes is about physical appearence (fat, slim, dark, no teeth, wrinkles, ugly, etc.), specially if they are men, what could tell us a lot about him.
Some of the stories are quite absurd and show that he didn't understand a thing about Patagonia, sometimes centered in romantic stories of fugitives from the far west, yes, a part of the legend of patagonia, but...
And finally, the sometimes racist comments on people, specially indians and chileans workers on the estancias (he always describe them as lazy and drunk!!!)
Chatwin a colonial, anti-Semitic jerk October 28, 2002
11 out of 29 found this review helpful
I started this book expecting to prefer it to Theroux and, after reading Travels in a Thin Country by Sara Wheeler, looking forward to Chatwin's version of Patagonia. Chatwin's focus is on the colonial families, especially those from the British Isles. He obviously has no sympathy for or interest in Latin residents. And then to top it off he tells of a Mrs. Wood who (gasp) tries to pass herself off as English when she is really a "Russian Jewess." Then he follows up with Simon Radowitsky, who "with the wild hope of his Race" is irrational. This book was published in 1977, not 1877, but you wouldn't know it from Chatwin's sensitivities. Read Wheeler for a cultured English viewpoint on Chilean Patagonia. And a much more interesting book.
 A classical of travel books June 7, 2002
4 out of 8 found this review helpful
Starting a journey to one of the most mytical places on earth with an objective as vague and mytical as of Chatwin is a great begging for a book. The search for a ancestor place on history and the recount of his whereabouts on Patagonia with people from almost every place on earth is the book shortest description.
The search for an identity, a purpose in life are the main focus of the book. The beatifull description of Patagonia and its people are extraordinary.
In Patagonia Meet Bruce Chatwin! February 2, 2002
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
In Patagonia is not only a great book, but it is also a great introduction to a brilliant author.
It was Bruce Chatwin's first published book. It recounts Chatwin's wide and varied travels in southern Chile and Argentina, known collectively as 'Patagonia'.
Chatwin's lively, stylish prose records the people and places that he saw on his six month tour of Patagonia. He colourfully describes the history, mythology and literary context of this strange place.
The book introduces the reader to some of Chatwin's most enduring literary themes: such as his fascination with a travelling or 'nomadic' lifestyle and his interest in the exotic and strange;
It sets the stage for later works such as The Viceroy of Ouidah and The Songlines.
My advice: READ IT!
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