The late Bruce Chatwin carved out a literary career as unique as any writer's in this century: his books included In Patagonia, a fabulist travel narrative, The Viceroy of Ouidah, a mock-historical tale of a Brazilian slave-trader in 19th century Africa, and The Songlines, his beautiful, elegiac, comic account of following the invisible pathways traced by the Australian aborigines. Chatwin was nothing if not erudite, and the vast, eclectic body of literature that underlies this tale of trekking across the outback gives it a resonance found in few other recent travel books. A poignancy, as well, since Chatwin's untimely death made The Songlines one of his last books.

The human tide, 25 Jul 2007
This is a unique and unclassifiable book, part novel, part travel book, part notebook full of quotations and speculations. Chatwin focuses on the notion that language and human thought began in songs that sang the landscape and living things into existence. Aboriginal culture continues this tradition in songlines which are explored as living entities, maps, boundaries, calendars, catalogues, survival systems, myths. Chatwin says the ultimate question he is asking is, why are humans so restless? He argues that this is the ultimate human quality. We are nomadic in our core. He quotes a European tramp: "It's like the tides were pulling you along the highway. I'm like the Arctic tern, guv'nor...what flies from the North Pole to the South Pole and back again." This book doesn't provide answers. Indeed it plunges into even wider speculations about war, prehistory, mythology and culture. But it goes far beyond the predictable "Aboriginal wisdom for the westerner" that I expected. A fascinating, difficult, but intriguing book.

Aboriginals in Australia, 13 Mar 2007
In Alice Springs the narrator called Bruce meets Arkady Volchok, an Australian citizen who is mapping the sacred sites of the Aboriginals. Arkady is fascinated by them, by their grit and tenacity and their ways of dealing with white people. Arkady speaks a couple of their languages and he is often astounded by their intellectual vigour, their memory and their capacity to survive.
It was during his time as a schoolteacher in Walbiri that Arkadi learned of the labyrinth of invisible pathways which meander all over Australia and are known to Europeans as Songlines - a way for Aboriginals to sing out the name of everything that crosses their path during their wanderings: birds, animals, plants, rocks, waterholes and so sing the world in existence.
When a route is suggested for a new Alice to Darwin railway line, Arkady's job is to identify the traditional landowners, to drive them over their old hunting grounds and to get them to reveal which rock or soak or ghost-gum is the work of a Dreamtime hero. Bruce is happy to join Arkady and to spend some time "out bush".
The reader of this novel learns a lot about Australia and the Aboriginals. The plot and the characters however are a bit thin. One finds it hard to sympathise with the Aboriginal figures appearing in the story. What they have to say and the way they express themselves amounts to practically nothing. It seems as though they need the white people to tell their stories and traditions.


Eye-opening view into new cultural perspecitve + situation, 01 Apr 2006
A great, thoughtful read, stimulating, observing, searching for many answers.....

A mixture of philosophical thinking and suggestion, formed from insightful discoveries, and a real-life voyage of personal encounters into Australia. Fascinating revelations about the Aboriginees and their 'Songlines' - connected to mapping and navigating the country and territories. Also, their sacred mysteries, ancestors of the 'Dreamtime'.

The book holds Chatwin's passive, entertaining observations of characters + incidents, and revelatory thoughts about the nature of nomadism in mankind, across the world and back through the Ages. It finds much weight to support the memorable truth that we are not yet 'settlers' to any happy extent. Excellent body of quotations. Memorable accounts. The nature of song.

For someone not familiar with this topic, I was grateful for this intriguing introduction to these amazing, nomadic survivors, and some well-meaning, willing, attentive white friends.

Communicating through song, 09 Mar 2004
I was recommended this book by several different people, if you are interested in the 'aboriginal' culture/travelling or you think you might be then this book is for you. Although it is classically written & occasionally quite heavy I found it very interesting. Bruce Chatwin goes on a journey to study the songlines and on the way he ponders the origin of man, presenting evidence that man was originally Nomadic & also writes 3/4 chapters worth of short passages taken from all over the globe to give atmosphere to this claim, one of the most amazing facts was that an aboriginal in the far north can understand an aboriginal from the far south without understanding his language, he translates the melodies of his songs & therefore knows which path he is walking & therefore where he is from, this book has been a great help in understanding more about the ancients in OZ for me, personal accounts of cultures are always more informative than text books I find & this book is no exception :-)

Outback adventure, 29 Sep 2003
In the late 1980s, travel writer Bruce Chatwin visited the Australian outback to find out more about the songlines, the invisible pathways across the continent which connect communities and follow ancient boundaries. During his journey, he is accompanied by a Russian-born Australian, Arkady Volchok, who is mapping the sacred sites of the aborigines. Volchok proves to be a wonderful and knowledgeable host, showing Chatwin the rugged beauty of the landscape and introducing him to its many native human inhabitants.

Chatwin's writing is deceptively simple but very engaging; he captures feelings and characters so aptly that it's almost like you're on the journey with him. I thoroughly enjoyed his adventure to Alice Springs and the far north, especially his encounters with Jim Hanlon, a 73-year-old loner who wanted Chatwin to stay in a caravan "smelling of something dead" to finish his book, and Donkey Donk, an aboriginal who takes him hunting in a Ford Sedan which degenerates into a bit of a sad, hit-and-miss affair.

My only quibble is that the book begins to wane about two-thirds of the way in and never quite picks up the pace again. Chatwin fills much of the last few chapters with jottings from old notebooks in an attempt to explore his idea that travelling is a natural instinct in humankind that has been tamed by the trappings of materialistic life. I appreciated the point, but felt it had been laboured much too strongly.

Despite this, The Songlines is a highly readable and interesting travel tale, well worth reading, especially if you are interested in nomadic lifestyles, aboriginal culture and the Australian outback.

Bruce Chatwin's fascination with nomads and wanderlust represents itself in reverse in On the Black Hill, a tale of two brothers (identical twins) who never go anywhere. They stay in the farmhouse on the English-Welsh border where they were born, tilling the rough soil and sleeping in the same bed, touched only occasionally by the advance of the 20th century. Smacking of a Welsh Ethan Frome, Chatwin evokes the lonely tragedies of farm life, and above all the vibrant land of Wales.

The human tide, 25 Jul 2007
This is a unique and unclassifiable book, part novel, part travel book, part notebook full of quotations and speculations. Chatwin focuses on the notion that language and human thought began in songs that sang the landscape and living things into existence. Aboriginal culture continues this tradition in songlines which are explored as living entities, maps, boundaries, calendars, catalogues, survival systems, myths. Chatwin says the ultimate question he is asking is, why are humans so restless? He argues that this is the ultimate human quality. We are nomadic in our core. He quotes a European tramp: "It's like the tides were pulling you along the highway. I'm like the Arctic tern, guv'nor...what flies from the North Pole to the South Pole and back again." This book doesn't provide answers. Indeed it plunges into even wider speculations about war, prehistory, mythology and culture. But it goes far beyond the predictable "Aboriginal wisdom for the westerner" that I expected. A fascinating, difficult, but intriguing book.

Aboriginals in Australia, 13 Mar 2007
In Alice Springs the narrator called Bruce meets Arkady Volchok, an Australian citizen who is mapping the sacred sites of the Aboriginals. Arkady is fascinated by them, by their grit and tenacity and their ways of dealing with white people. Arkady speaks a couple of their languages and he is often astounded by their intellectual vigour, their memory and their capacity to survive.
It was during his time as a schoolteacher in Walbiri that Arkadi learned of the labyrinth of invisible pathways which meander all over Australia and are known to Europeans as Songlines - a way for Aboriginals to sing out the name of everything that crosses their path during their wanderings: birds, animals, plants, rocks, waterholes and so sing the world in existence.
When a route is suggested for a new Alice to Darwin railway line, Arkady's job is to identify the traditional landowners, to drive them over their old hunting grounds and to get them to reveal which rock or soak or ghost-gum is the work of a Dreamtime hero. Bruce is happy to join Arkady and to spend some time "out bush".
The reader of this novel learns a lot about Australia and the Aboriginals. The plot and the characters however are a bit thin. One finds it hard to sympathise with the Aboriginal figures appearing in the story. What they have to say and the way they express themselves amounts to practically nothing. It seems as though they need the white people to tell their stories and traditions.


Eye-opening view into new cultural perspecitve + situation, 01 Apr 2006
A great, thoughtful read, stimulating, observing, searching for many answers.....

A mixture of philosophical thinking and suggestion, formed from insightful discoveries, and a real-life voyage of personal encounters into Australia. Fascinating revelations about the Aboriginees and their 'Songlines' - connected to mapping and navigating the country and territories. Also, their sacred mysteries, ancestors of the 'Dreamtime'.

The book holds Chatwin's passive, entertaining observations of characters + incidents, and revelatory thoughts about the nature of nomadism in mankind, across the world and back through the Ages. It finds much weight to support the memorable truth that we are not yet 'settlers' to any happy extent. Excellent body of quotations. Memorable accounts. The nature of song.

For someone not familiar with this topic, I was grateful for this intriguing introduction to these amazing, nomadic survivors, and some well-meaning, willing, attentive white friends.

Communicating through song, 09 Mar 2004
I was recommended this book by several different people, if you are interested in the 'aboriginal' culture/travelling or you think you might be then this book is for you. Although it is classically written & occasionally quite heavy I found it very interesting. Bruce Chatwin goes on a journey to study the songlines and on the way he ponders the origin of man, presenting evidence that man was originally Nomadic & also writes 3/4 chapters worth of short passages taken from all over the globe to give atmosphere to this claim, one of the most amazing facts was that an aboriginal in the far north can understand an aboriginal from the far south without understanding his language, he translates the melodies of his songs & therefore knows which path he is walking & therefore where he is from, this book has been a great help in understanding more about the ancients in OZ for me, personal accounts of cultures are always more informative than text books I find & this book is no exception :-)

Outback adventure, 29 Sep 2003
In the late 1980s, travel writer Bruce Chatwin visited the Australian outback to find out more about the songlines, the invisible pathways across the continent which connect communities and follow ancient boundaries. During his journey, he is accompanied by a Russian-born Australian, Arkady Volchok, who is mapping the sacred sites of the aborigines. Volchok proves to be a wonderful and knowledgeable host, showing Chatwin the rugged beauty of the landscape and introducing him to its many native human inhabitants.

Chatwin's writing is deceptively simple but very engaging; he captures feelings and characters so aptly that it's almost like you're on the journey with him. I thoroughly enjoyed his adventure to Alice Springs and the far north, especially his encounters with Jim Hanlon, a 73-year-old loner who wanted Chatwin to stay in a caravan "smelling of something dead" to finish his book, and Donkey Donk, an aboriginal who takes him hunting in a Ford Sedan which degenerates into a bit of a sad, hit-and-miss affair.

My only quibble is that the book begins to wane about two-thirds of the way in and never quite picks up the pace again. Chatwin fills much of the last few chapters with jottings from old notebooks in an attempt to explore his idea that travelling is a natural instinct in humankind that has been tamed by the trappings of materialistic life. I appreciated the point, but felt it had been laboured much too strongly.

Despite this, The Songlines is a highly readable and interesting travel tale, well worth reading, especially if you are interested in nomadic lifestyles, aboriginal culture and the Australian outback.

Beauty out of Banality, 21 Nov 2008
This wonderful little book shows us what a great talent Bruce Chatwin was. The world of literature is so much the poorer for his tragic early death. His only other work I have read is "In Patagonia", an enthralling account of his travels in that area. "On the Black Hill" is a very different work showing his great versatility and his great knowledge of country lives.
The book covers the lives of two brothers who are identical twins. They are born on a farm where they continue to live out their hardworking lives. Their lives inextricably woven together. Chatwins skill lies in his ability to make this unpromising material so immensely readable. He is so believable. I have lived and worked among such people all my life. My own Grandfather whose trousers were held up by a binder twine belt would have recognised the twins. They are rural characters seen across the length and breadth of our Country and no doubt in other country's also. At last they have an author who has captured them. The minutiae and detritus of their lives encapsulated in this brief book. No words are wasted here. Many will say "but what about Hardy". My own experience is that he left me cold. Too morbid and too distant for my personal tastes. But the brothers I warmed to. They are truly painted and it is as honest a work as I have come across. It has been a revelation to me and a breath of fresh air. If I could write I would love to write like this. If you truly wish to know how many rural people lived in isolated farms across the Country in the last century, then reading this book will enlighten you. If I seem a little over the top in my adulation I make no apologies. This little book deserves all the plaudits and more. My efforts here will not have been wasted if I convince only one person to read it. That thought would make me extremely happy.

Compelling literature, 07 Feb 2008
Had this one on the shelf for years and was slightly put off after reading the Songlines and finding it a bit mystifying.This book however is totally different in every way.Although the subject matter may not be appealing at first the attention to detail and the emotions of the characters draw you in so completely I could not put it down.I'm not a fast reader by some standards but this was one of the only books I've read cover to cover in two sittings its that good.As a debut novel its astounding and I don't think he ever came close again to this.

A Beautiful, moving novel , 23 Mar 2007
A lovely - if rather sad book, the story of identical twin brothers Lewis and Benjamin on the hill farm on the English Welsh boarder where they live their whole lives. It's a touching story of a traditional welsh commuinity, farming and a brotherly devotion - that often feels disabling. The prose is eloquent, and through the eyes of these memorable characters, we see, and feel so much. I loved this book so much - a beautiful, moving novel.

An eloquent celebration of the quiet life., 14 Oct 2003
On the Black Hill is an elegantly written homage to the inelegant life of rural Wales, a life in which no one ever strays far from the farm--there are few opportunities and little motivation to do so. Spartan lives are enriched by stories and gossip, slights are never forgotten, feuds reach epic intensity, and bottled-up frustrations simmer till they explode. Through rich and vivid descriptions of the minutiae of daily existence, we come to know twin brothers Lewis and Ben Jones as they grow up and are shaped by their family and their small community. The townspeople become our own friends or enemies, depending on their behavior towards the twins, and we empathize with them as they use their limited resources to struggle with the big questions which concern us all--questions of love, spirituality, death, cruelty, justice, and ultimately, happiness. By paring life to the bone here, Chatwin gives us a classic example of the adage, "Less is more."

A great read, 09 May 2002
Chatwin is unusual in that he is often very accessible and easy to read but also an intelligent writer. This book is not as intellectually stimulating as, say, "Utz", but it feels like a book written with love. If you have any feeling for the countryside and British history you will be entranced by this book. There is a feeling of D H Lawrence, without his sexual obsessions plus a sense of humour ! There is also a wonderful lyricism here and a sense of continuity with the past which is perhaps unrealistic - but who cares !

This is the last of Bruce Chatwin's works to be published while he was still alive (he penned the introduction in 1988, a few months before he died). It's a collection of Chatwin gems--profiles, essays, and travel stories that span the world, from trekking in Nepal and sailing down the Volga to working on a film with Werner Herzog in Ghana and travelling with Indira Gandhi in India. Chatwin excels, as usual, in the finely honed tale.

The human tide, 25 Jul 2007
This is a unique and unclassifiable book, part novel, part travel book, part notebook full of quotations and speculations. Chatwin focuses on the notion that language and human thought began in songs that sang the landscape and living things into existence. Aboriginal culture continues this tradition in songlines which are explored as living entities, maps, boundaries, calendars, catalogues, survival systems, myths. Chatwin says the ultimate question he is asking is, why are humans so restless? He argues that this is the ultimate human quality. We are nomadic in our core. He quotes a European tramp: "It's like the tides were pulling you along the highway. I'm like the Arctic tern, guv'nor...what flies from the North Pole to the South Pole and back again." This book doesn't provide answers. Indeed it plunges into even wider speculations about war, prehistory, mythology and culture. But it goes far beyond the predictable "Aboriginal wisdom for the westerner" that I expected. A fascinating, difficult, but intriguing book.

Aboriginals in Australia, 13 Mar 2007
In Alice Springs the narrator called Bruce meets Arkady Volchok, an Australian citizen who is mapping the sacred sites of the Aboriginals. Arkady is fascinated by them, by their grit and tenacity and their ways of dealing with white people. Arkady speaks a couple of their languages and he is often astounded by their intellectual vigour, their memory and their capacity to survive.
It was during his time as a schoolteacher in Walbiri that Arkadi learned of the labyrinth of invisible pathways which meander all over Australia and are known to Europeans as Songlines - a way for Aboriginals to sing out the name of everything that crosses their path during their wanderings: birds, animals, plants, rocks, waterholes and so sing the world in existence.
When a route is suggested for a new Alice to Darwin railway line, Arkady's job is to identify the traditional landowners, to drive them over their old hunting grounds and to get them to reveal which rock or soak or ghost-gum is the work of a Dreamtime hero. Bruce is happy to join Arkady and to spend some time "out bush".
The reader of this novel learns a lot about Australia and the Aboriginals. The plot and the characters however are a bit thin. One finds it hard to sympathise with the Aboriginal figures appearing in the story. What they have to say and the way they express themselves amounts to practically nothing. It seems as though they need the white people to tell their stories and traditions.


Eye-opening view into new cultural perspecitve + situation, 01 Apr 2006
A great, thoughtful read, stimulating, observing, searching for many answers.....

A mixture of philosophical thinking and suggestion, formed from insightful discoveries, and a real-life voyage of personal encounters into Australia. Fascinating revelations about the Aboriginees and their 'Songlines' - connected to mapping and navigating the country and territories. Also, their sacred mysteries, ancestors of the 'Dreamtime'.

The book holds Chatwin's passive, entertaining observations of characters + incidents, and revelatory thoughts about the nature of nomadism in mankind, across the world and back through the Ages. It finds much weight to support the memorable truth that we are not yet 'settlers' to any happy extent. Excellent body of quotations. Memorable accounts. The nature of song.

For someone not familiar with this topic, I was grateful for this intriguing introduction to these amazing, nomadic survivors, and some well-meaning, willing, attentive white friends.

Communicating through song, 09 Mar 2004
I was recommended this book by several different people, if you are interested in the 'aboriginal' culture/travelling or you think you might be then this book is for you. Although it is classically written & occasionally quite heavy I found it very interesting. Bruce Chatwin goes on a journey to study the songlines and on the way he ponders the origin of man, presenting evidence that man was originally Nomadic & also writes 3/4 chapters worth of short passages taken from all over the globe to give atmosphere to this claim, one of the most amazing facts was that an aboriginal in the far north can understand an aboriginal from the far south without understanding his language, he translates the melodies of his songs & therefore knows which path he is walking & therefore where he is from, this book has been a great help in understanding more about the ancients in OZ for me, personal accounts of cultures are always more informative than text books I find & this book is no exception :-)

Outback adventure, 29 Sep 2003
In the late 1980s, travel writer Bruce Chatwin visited the Australian outback to find out more about the songlines, the invisible pathways across the continent which connect communities and follow ancient boundaries. During his journey, he is accompanied by a Russian-born Australian, Arkady Volchok, who is mapping the sacred sites of the aborigines. Volchok proves to be a wonderful and knowledgeable host, showing Chatwin the rugged beauty of the landscape and introducing him to its many native human inhabitants.

Chatwin's writing is deceptively simple but very engaging; he captures feelings and characters so aptly that it's almost like you're on the journey with him. I thoroughly enjoyed his adventure to Alice Springs and the far north, especially his encounters with Jim Hanlon, a 73-year-old loner who wanted Chatwin to stay in a caravan "smelling of something dead" to finish his book, and Donkey Donk, an aboriginal who takes him hunting in a Ford Sedan which degenerates into a bit of a sad, hit-and-miss affair.

My only quibble is that the book begins to wane about two-thirds of the way in and never quite picks up the pace again. Chatwin fills much of the last few chapters with jottings from old notebooks in an attempt to explore his idea that travelling is a natural instinct in humankind that has been tamed by the trappings of materialistic life. I appreciated the point, but felt it had been laboured much too strongly.

Despite this, The Songlines is a highly readable and interesting travel tale, well worth reading, especially if you are interested in nomadic lifestyles, aboriginal culture and the Australian outback.

Beauty out of Banality, 21 Nov 2008
This wonderful little book shows us what a great talent Bruce Chatwin was. The world of literature is so much the poorer for his tragic early death. His only other work I have read is "In Patagonia", an enthralling account of his travels in that area. "On the Black Hill" is a very different work showing his great versatility and his great knowledge of country lives.
The book covers the lives of two brothers who are identical twins. They are born on a farm where they continue to live out their hardworking lives. Their lives inextricably woven together. Chatwins skill lies in his ability to make this unpromising material so immensely readable. He is so believable. I have lived and worked among such people all my life. My own Grandfather whose trousers were held up by a binder twine belt would have recognised the twins. They are rural characters seen across the length and breadth of our Country and no doubt in other country's also. At last they have an author who has captured them. The minutiae and detritus of their lives encapsulated in this brief book. No words are wasted here. Many will say "but what about Hardy". My own experience is that he left me cold. Too morbid and too distant for my personal tastes. But the brothers I warmed to. They are truly painted and it is as honest a work as I have come across. It has been a revelation to me and a breath of fresh air. If I could write I would love to write like this. If you truly wish to know how many rural people lived in isolated farms across the Country in the last century, then reading this book will enlighten you. If I seem a little over the top in my adulation I make no apologies. This little book deserves all the plaudits and more. My efforts here will not have been wasted if I convince only one person to read it. That thought would make me extremely happy.

Compelling literature, 07 Feb 2008
Had this one on the shelf for years and was slightly put off after reading the Songlines and finding it a bit mystifying.This book however is totally different in every way.Although the subject matter may not be appealing at first the attention to detail and the emotions of the characters draw you in so completely I could not put it down.I'm not a fast reader by some standards but this was one of the only books I've read cover to cover in two sittings its that good.As a debut novel its astounding and I don't think he ever came close again to this.

A Beautiful, moving novel , 23 Mar 2007
A lovely - if rather sad book, the story of identical twin brothers Lewis and Benjamin on the hill farm on the English Welsh boarder where they live their whole lives. It's a touching story of a traditional welsh commuinity, farming and a brotherly devotion - that often feels disabling. The prose is eloquent, and through the eyes of these memorable characters, we see, and feel so much. I loved this book so much - a beautiful, moving novel.

An eloquent celebration of the quiet life., 14 Oct 2003
On the Black Hill is an elegantly written homage to the inelegant life of rural Wales, a life in which no one ever strays far from the farm--there are few opportunities and little motivation to do so. Spartan lives are enriched by stories and gossip, slights are never forgotten, feuds reach epic intensity, and bottled-up frustrations simmer till they explode. Through rich and vivid descriptions of the minutiae of daily existence, we come to know twin brothers Lewis and Ben Jones as they grow up and are shaped by their family and their small community. The townspeople become our own friends or enemies, depending on their behavior towards the twins, and we empathize with them as they use their limited resources to struggle with the big questions which concern us all--questions of love, spirituality, death, cruelty, justice, and ultimately, happiness. By paring life to the bone here, Chatwin gives us a classic example of the adage, "Less is more."

A great read, 09 May 2002
Chatwin is unusual in that he is often very accessible and easy to read but also an intelligent writer. This book is not as intellectually stimulating as, say, "Utz", but it feels like a book written with love. If you have any feeling for the countryside and British history you will be entranced by this book. There is a feeling of D H Lawrence, without his sexual obsessions plus a sense of humour ! There is also a wonderful lyricism here and a sense of continuity with the past which is perhaps unrealistic - but who cares !

Fascinating combination of travel experiences and erudition, 06 Jan 2002
In an effort to leave a testifying legacy of his memories and mesmerizing knowledge, Mr Chatwin shares with the reader a careful selection of his numerous travels and adventures, which lead us with him to the beautiful and the bizarre.
The stories are cleverly intertwined with recollections of his encounters with key contemporary thinkers and personalities.
This gives him a platform to also reveal his vast erudition and to touch on cultural and philosophical reflections.
He may sometimes verge on a certain intellectual arrogance, but one can only forgive the precise writer and the well-travelled thinker.
My favourite story? His encounter with Andre Malraux. How about yours?

Wonderful, 25 May 1999
A number of delightful short stories from one of our most erudite, charming and complex writers penned shortly before he died so tragically. Chatwin's immense spirit and unflagging interest in the World around him leap from the pages.

The human tide, 25 Jul 2007
This is a unique and unclassifiable book, part novel, part travel book, part notebook full of quotations and speculations. Chatwin focuses on the notion that language and human thought began in songs that sang the landscape and living things into existence. Aboriginal culture continues this tradition in songlines which are explored as living entities, maps, boundaries, calendars, catalogues, survival systems, myths. Chatwin says the ultimate question he is asking is, why are humans so restless? He argues that this is the ultimate human quality. We are nomadic in our core. He quotes a European tramp: "It's like the tides were pulling you along the highway. I'm like the Arctic tern, guv'nor...what flies from the North Pole to the South Pole and back again." This book doesn't provide answers. Indeed it plunges into even wider speculations about war, prehistory, mythology and culture. But it goes far beyond the predictable "Aboriginal wisdom for the westerner" that I expected. A fascinating, difficult, but intriguing book.

Aboriginals in Australia, 13 Mar 2007
In Alice Springs the narrator called Bruce meets Arkady Volchok, an Australian citizen who is mapping the sacred sites of the Aboriginals. Arkady is fascinated by them, by their grit and tenacity and their ways of dealing with white people. Arkady speaks a couple of their languages and he is often astounded by their intellectual vigour, their memory and their capacity to survive.
It was during his time as a schoolteacher in Walbiri that Arkadi learned of the labyrinth of invisible pathways which meander all over Australia and are known to Europeans as Songlines - a way for Aboriginals to sing out the name of everything that crosses their path during their wanderings: birds, animals, plants, rocks, waterholes and so sing the world in existence.
When a route is suggested for a new Alice to Darwin railway line, Arkady's job is to identify the traditional landowners, to drive them over their old hunting grounds and to get them to reveal which rock or soak or ghost-gum is the work of a Dreamtime hero. Bruce is happy to join Arkady and to spend some time "out bush".
The reader of this novel learns a lot about Australia and the Aboriginals. The plot and the characters however are a bit thin. One finds it hard to sympathise with the Aboriginal figures appearing in the story. What they have to say and the way they express themselves amounts to practically nothing. It seems as though they need the white people to tell their stories and traditions.


Eye-opening view into new cultural perspecitve + situation, 01 Apr 2006
A great, thoughtful read, stimulating, observing, searching for many answers.....

A mixture of philosophical thinking and suggestion, formed from insightful discoveries, and a real-life voyage of personal encounters into Australia. Fascinating revelations about the Aboriginees and their 'Songlines' - connected to mapping and navigating the country and territories. Also, their sacred mysteries, ancestors of the 'Dreamtime'.

The book holds Chatwin's passive, entertaining observations of characters + incidents, and revelatory thoughts about the nature of nomadism in mankind, across the world and back through the Ages. It finds much weight to support the memorable truth that we are not yet 'settlers' to any happy extent. Excellent body of quotations. Memorable accounts. The nature of song.

For someone not familiar with this topic, I was grateful for this intriguing introduction to these amazing, nomadic survivors, and some well-meaning, willing, attentive white friends.

Communicating through song, 09 Mar 2004
I was recommended this book by several different people, if you are interested in the 'aboriginal' culture/travelling or you think you might be then this book is for you. Although it is classically written & occasionally quite heavy I found it very interesting. Bruce Chatwin goes on a journey to study the songlines and on the way he ponders the origin of man, presenting evidence that man was originally Nomadic & also writes 3/4 chapters worth of short passages taken from all over the globe to give atmosphere to this claim, one of the most amazing facts was that an aboriginal in the far north can understand an aboriginal from the far south without understanding his language, he translates the melodies of his songs & therefore knows which path he is walking & therefore where he is from, this book has been a great help in understanding more about the ancients in OZ for me, personal accounts of cultures are always more informative than text books I find & this book is no exception :-)

Outback adventure, 29 Sep 2003
In the late 1980s, travel writer Bruce Chatwin visited the Australian outback to find out more about the songlines, the invisible pathways across the continent which connect communities and follow ancient boundaries. During his journey, he is accompanied by a Russian-born Australian, Arkady Volchok, who is mapping the sacred sites of the aborigines. Volchok proves to be a wonderful and knowledgeable host, showing Chatwin the rugged beauty of the landscape and introducing him to its many native human inhabitants.

Chatwin's writing is deceptively simple but very engaging; he captures feelings and characters so aptly that it's almost like you're on the journey with him. I thoroughly enjoyed his adventure to Alice Springs and the far north, especially his encounters with Jim Hanlon, a 73-year-old loner who wanted Chatwin to stay in a caravan "smelling of something dead" to finish his book, and Donkey Donk, an aboriginal who takes him hunting in a Ford Sedan which degenerates into a bit of a sad, hit-and-miss affair.

My only quibble is that the book begins to wane about two-thirds of the way in and never quite picks up the pace again. Chatwin fills much of the last few chapters with jottings from old notebooks in an attempt to explore his idea that travelling is a natural instinct in humankind that has been tamed by the trappings of materialistic life. I appreciated the point, but felt it had been laboured much too strongly.

Despite this, The Songlines is a highly readable and interesting travel tale, well worth reading, especially if you are interested in nomadic lifestyles, aboriginal culture and the Australian outback.

Beauty out of Banality, 21 Nov 2008
This wonderful little book shows us what a great talent Bruce Chatwin was. The world of literature is so much the poorer for his tragic early death. His only other work I have read is "In Patagonia", an enthralling account of his travels in that area. "On the Black Hill" is a very different work showing his great versatility and his great knowledge of country lives.
The book covers the lives of two brothers who are identical twins. They are born on a farm where they continue to live out their hardworking lives. Their lives inextricably woven together. Chatwins skill lies in his ability to make this unpromising material so immensely readable. He is so believable. I have lived and worked among such people all my life. My own Grandfather whose trousers were held up by a binder twine belt would have recognised the twins. They are rural characters seen across the length and breadth of our Country and no doubt in other country's also. At last they have an author who has captured them. The minutiae and detritus of their lives encapsulated in this brief book. No words are wasted here. Many will say "but what about Hardy". My own experience is that he left me cold. Too morbid and too distant for my personal tastes. But the brothers I warmed to. They are truly painted and it is as honest a work as I have come across. It has been a revelation to me and a breath of fresh air. If I could write I would love to write like this. If you truly wish to know how many rural people lived in isolated farms across the Country in the last century, then reading this book will enlighten you. If I seem a little over the top in my adulation I make no apologies. This little book deserves all the plaudits and more. My efforts here will not have been wasted if I convince only one person to read it. That thought would make me extremely happy.

Compelling literature, 07 Feb 2008
Had this one on the shelf for years and was slightly put off after reading the Songlines and finding it a bit mystifying.This book however is totally different in every way.Although the subject matter may not be appealing at first the attention to detail and the emotions of the characters draw you in so completely I could not put it down.I'm not a fast reader by some standards but this was one of the only books I've read cover to cover in two sittings its that good.As a debut novel its astounding and I don't think he ever came close again to this.

A Beautiful, moving novel , 23 Mar 2007
A lovely - if rather sad book, the story of identical twin brothers Lewis and Benjamin on the hill farm on the English Welsh boarder where they live their whole lives. It's a touching story of a traditional welsh commuinity, farming and a brotherly devotion - that often feels disabling. The prose is eloquent, and through the eyes of these memorable characters, we see, and feel so much. I loved this book so much - a beautiful, moving novel.

An eloquent celebration of the quiet life., 14 Oct 2003
On the Black Hill is an elegantly written homage to the inelegant life of rural Wales, a life in which no one ever strays far from the farm--there are few opportunities and little motivation to do so. Spartan lives are enriched by stories and gossip, slights are never forgotten, feuds reach epic intensity, and bottled-up frustrations simmer till they explode. Through rich and vivid descriptions of the minutiae of daily existence, we come to know twin brothers Lewis and Ben Jones as they grow up and are shaped by their family and their small community. The townspeople become our own friends or enemies, depending on their behavior towards the twins, and we empathize with them as they use their limited resources to struggle with the big questions which concern us all--questions of love, spirituality, death, cruelty, justice, and ultimately, happiness. By paring life to the bone here, Chatwin gives us a classic example of the adage, "Less is more."

A great read, 09 May 2002
Chatwin is unusual in that he is often very accessible and easy to read but also an intelligent writer. This book is not as intellectually stimulating as, say, "Utz", but it feels like a book written with love. If you have any feeling for the countryside and British history you will be entranced by this book. There is a feeling of D H Lawrence, without his sexual obsessions plus a sense of humour ! There is also a wonderful lyricism here and a sense of continuity with the past which is perhaps unrealistic - but who cares !

Fascinating combination of travel experiences and erudition, 06 Jan 2002
In an effort to leave a testifying legacy of his memories and mesmerizing knowledge, Mr Chatwin shares with the reader a careful selection of his numerous travels and adventures, which lead us with him to the beautiful and the bizarre.
The stories are cleverly intertwined with recollections of his encounters with key contemporary thinkers and personalities.
This gives him a platform to also reveal his vast erudition and to touch on cultural and philosophical reflections.
He may sometimes verge on a certain intellectual arrogance, but one can only forgive the precise writer and the well-travelled thinker.
My favourite story? His encounter with Andre Malraux. How about yours?

Wonderful, 25 May 1999
A number of delightful short stories from one of our most erudite, charming and complex writers penned shortly before he died so tragically. Chatwin's immense spirit and unflagging interest in the World around him leap from the pages.

A beautifully crafted piece, 02 Jul 2008
This book, like one of its main subjects - porcelain dolls - it petite, fragile, and crafeully formed. Its other main theme is Prague under communism in the 60s and 70s, and how in these times the intelligensia were forced to take on menial work, while anyone with collections of any value was made to fret over them.
Chatwin strings together a series of tiny chapters, many as short as a page long, to tell the story of porcelain collector Utz through his narrator, an English art historian. Propelled into Utz's life for little more than 9 hours, he is somehow drawn into the mystery of the man's life, which he tries to unravel, but is never sure if he really has.
Chatwin's unravelling of the tale is just as dextrously performed as the hero's own, in this untterly engrossing book.
Historically and psychologically - the mindset of collectors - this book is a rare treasure.

A delight, 01 Jul 2008
An exquisite novel, but Alas, too short!

And yet, it conjures unforgettable characters and evokes Prague in a way that makes you recognize it even if you've never been there.

It isn't just the main characters that are memorable, but all of the characters in this story, no matter how small a space they take up. Characters such as Orlik, the paleontologist who studies house-flies and who asked the narrator to examine Dutch and Flemish still-lifes of the seventeenth century "to check whether or not there was a fly in them", or the temperamentful ex-soprano who lived under Utz's apartment, or the man whose job was emptying garbage trucks, but who spoke English and was a writer, or the Ludvik and Zitek, other "garbage collectors" who were actually poets, writers, philosophers and out-of-work actors.

While most of the characters in the book seem unfazed by the restrictions imposed upon them by the regime in former Czechoslovakia, they do, however, express themselves in constantly enigmatic terms such as "maybe yes, maybe no", "maybe it is, maybe it is not", "maybe they are alive, maybe they are not"... whether that is the only deference to circumspection they are willing to offer, or whether it is
due to a need to inject mystery into their lives to compensate for its grimness and predictability, we do not know for sure..

The world of the story seems divided into several "parallel universes" that coexist side-by-side, that of the characters versus that of the figurines, whom "Utz", the protagonist, regards as living entities, as well as that of the communist regime versus the people, who find ways to navigate around it with the least confrontation and maximum benefit possible.

The question of the fate of the collection remains unanswered in the end, with the narrator offering a wild guess that is neither confirmed nor denied. The story ends at the sight of the one character that could give him the answers. We, however, do not learn what those answers are.

Maybe because the uncertainty of a "maybe-maybe not" is the only answer there is?

There is, however, one certainty about this book: its characters shall remain with you for a long time after you put it down.

Why?!, 30 May 2007
We read this for our book club and we were all puzzled as to why the book has received good reviews. The story is bizarre and dull.

Salvation in small things, 16 Mar 2004
This was for me the first Chatwin, and a great surprise.
Not just a novel, not just a travel story in the last years of the soviet regime in the Czech Republic, but also a delicate essay of some marginal aspects of XVIII century life: the art of white Meissen ceramics.... With many delicious detours in the labyrinths of mittleeuropean culture and in the psychology of the collector (be him of books, of stamps or whatever).
A book of enormous erudition almost concealed in small details and witty remarks.
And not just learning, but also humanity and a mild observation on the cases of human life under despotism - the meaning freedom, the many faces of opportunism (the one in the oppressed citizen, the one of the intellectual who "freely" criticizes from his warm "western" deck the grey dull soviet regime).
No one get salvation, but Baron Von Utz, who seems able in the mediocrity of ordinary life, of prevarications, of despotism, to resist the nausea of life in the contemplation of his collection.
The perfect world theorised by Leibnitz is perceived as in a glimpse in the eternal stillness of his Meissen figures.
A truly great book!

I love reading and even more sharing and discuss my opinions. Feel free to write me!

An exquisite story of an obsessive collector., 15 Nov 2000
Bruce Chatwin was an extraordinary observer of all that is curious. This was the impetus for all his works, culminating in his last novel written shortly before he died in 1989 - Utz, the story of a compulsive collector of Meissen porcelain in communist Prague.

Shortlisted for the 1988 Booker Prize, the book tells the story of Utz, a master of subterfuge.

Running his own private commedia, he outwits the Czech authorities to secure the safety of his treasure. The melancholic mood of Prague weighs heavy on the pages, relieved by the brevity of Chatwin's style. While Stalin's regime reigns horror outside of Utz's house, inside Utz "lifts the characters of the Commedia from the shelves, and placed them in the pool of light where they appeared to skate over the glass of the table, pivoting on their bases of gilded foam, as if they would forever go on laughing, whirling, improvising."

Utz introduces the reader to his family of anthropomorphised clay, the spaghetti eater, Pulchinella, with coils of spaghetti "poised eternally, destined to plunge into his nostrils", ladies of the court, "with frozen smiles and swaying crinolines"; monkey musicians wearing "ruffs and powdered wigs" and the seven figures of Harlequin, the trickster, arch-improviser, 'master of the volte-face'.

At the heart of any Chatwin story is a myth. With the book Utz, it is the Hebrew golem, that of the uncreated and unformed. It was on an archaeological pursuit in Prague, that Chatwin sought out the mythology of golems. When fire is breathed into the glutinous clay mud, the golem comes to life.

Thirteen years after his death, Bruce Chatwin remains one of the most inspirational writers in the UK.

Travelling toward the exotic, Chatwin collected anecdotes, rearranged them with a dash of fact and served up a delicious blend of fact, fantasy and folklore.

Utz flirts with the fantastic, paying meticulous attention to detail, reminding one of that other great illusionist, Borges. Both have the same clipped style, where conciseness illuminates the object and the reader is aware of authorial control.

Like the character Utz, Chatwin was an obsessive collector, had a sexually never defined and needed to return as much as roam.

Utz, given the option of exile, returns repeatedly to his collection. A victim of his collection, he fails to liberate himself from objects.

Chatwin himself spent his last days in an art frenzy, adding to his collection from the London galleries.

Chatwin once wrote in an essay, 'The Morality of Things', "Do we not all long to throw down our altars and rid ourselves of our possessions? Do we not gaze coldly at our clutter and say, 'If these objects express my personality, then I hate my personality."

Chatwin, it is said, 'holds a conversation with his reader that has the ring of midnight.' As his first editor (and current theatre critic) Susannah Clapp said, 'With Bruce, it was always midnight.'

The human tide, 25 Jul 2007
This is a unique and unclassifiable book, part novel, part travel book, part notebook full of quotations and speculations. Chatwin focuses on the notion that language and human thought began in songs that sang the landscape and living things into existence. Aboriginal culture continues this tradition in songlines which are explored as living entities, maps, boundaries, calendars, catalogues, survival systems, myths. Chatwin says the ultimate question he is asking is, why are humans so restless? He argues that this is the ultimate human quality. We are nomadic in our core. He quotes a European tramp: "It's like the tides were pulling you along the highway. I'm like the Arctic tern, guv'nor...what flies from the North Pole to the South Pole and back again." This book doesn't provide answers. Indeed it plunges into even wider speculations about war, prehistory, mythology and culture. But it goes far beyond the predictable "Aboriginal wisdom for the westerner" that I expected. A fascinating, difficult, but intriguing book.

Aboriginals in Australia, 13 Mar 2007
In Alice Springs the narrator called Bruce meets Arkady Volchok, an Australian citizen who is mapping the sacred sites of the Aboriginals. Arkady is fascinated by them, by their grit and tenacity and their ways of dealing with white people. Arkady speaks a couple of their languages and he is often astounded by their intellectual vigour, their memory and their capacity to survive.
It was during his time as a schoolteacher in Walbiri that Arkadi learned of the labyrinth of invisible pathways which meander all over Australia and are known to Europeans as Songlines - a way for Aboriginals to sing out the name of everything that crosses their path during their wanderings: birds, animals, plants, rocks, waterholes and so sing the world in existence.
When a route is suggested for a new Alice to Darwin railway line, Arkady's job is to identify the traditional landowners, to drive them over their old hunting grounds and to get them to reveal which rock or soak or ghost-gum is the work of a Dreamtime hero. Bruce is happy to join Arkady and to spend some time "out bush".
The reader of this novel learns a lot about Australia and the Aboriginals. The plot and the characters however are a bit thin. One finds it hard to sympathise with the Aboriginal figures appearing in the story. What they have to say and the way they express themselves amounts to practically nothing. It seems as though they need the white people to tell their stories and traditions.


Eye-opening view into new cultural perspecitve + situation, 01 Apr 2006
A great, thoughtful read, stimulating, observing, searching for many answers.....

A mixture of philosophical thinking and suggestion, formed from insightful discoveries, and a real-life voyage of personal encounters into Australia. Fascinating revelations about the Aboriginees and their 'Songlines' - connected to mapping and navigating the country and territories. Also, their sacred mysteries, ancestors of the 'Dreamtime'.

The book holds Chatwin's passive, entertaining observations of characters + incidents, and revelatory thoughts about the nature of nomadism in mankind, across the world and back through the Ages. It finds much weight to support the memorable truth that we are not yet 'settlers' to any happy extent. Excellent body of quotations. Memorable accounts. The nature of song.

For someone not familiar with this topic, I was grateful for this intriguing introduction to these amazing, nomadic survivors, and some well-meaning, willing, attentive white friends.

Communicating through song, 09 Mar 2004
I was recommended this book by several different people, if you are interested in the 'aboriginal' culture/travelling or you think you might be then this book is for you. Although it is classically written & occasionally quite heavy I found it very interesting. Bruce Chatwin goes on a journey to study the songlines and on the way he ponders the origin of man, presenting evidence that man was originally Nomadic & also writes 3/4 chapters worth of short passages taken from all over the globe to give atmosphere to this claim, one of the most amazing facts was that an aboriginal in the far north can understand an aboriginal from the far south without understanding his language, he translates the melodies of his songs & therefore knows which path he is walking & therefore where he is from, this book has been a great help in understanding more about the ancients in OZ for me, personal accounts of cultures are always more informative than text books I find & this book is no exception :-)

Outback adventure, 29 Sep 2003
In the late 1980s, travel writer Bruce Chatwin visited the Australian outback to find out more about the songlines, the invisible pathways across the continent which connect communities and follow ancient boundaries. During his journey, he is accompanied by a Russian-born Australian, Arkady Volchok, who is mapping the sacred sites of the aborigines. Volchok proves to be a wonderful and knowledgeable host, showing Chatwin the rugged beauty of the landscape and introducing him to its many native human inhabitants.

Chatwin's writing is deceptively simple but very engaging; he captures feelings and characters so aptly that it's almost like you're on the journey with him. I thoroughly enjoyed his adventure to Alice Springs and the far north, especially his encounters with Jim Hanlon, a 73-year-old loner who wanted Chatwin to stay in a caravan "smelling of something dead" to finish his book, and Donkey Donk, an aboriginal who takes him hunting in a Ford Sedan which degenerates into a bit of a sad, hit-and-miss affair.

My only quibble is that the book begins to wane about two-thirds of the way in and never quite picks up the pace again. Chatwin fills much of the last few chapters with jottings from old notebooks in an attempt to explore his idea that travelling is a natural instinct in humankind that has been tamed by the trappings of materialistic life. I appreciated the point, but felt it had been laboured much too strongly.

Despite this, The Songlines is a highly readable and interesting travel tale, well worth reading, especially if you are interested in nomadic lifestyles, aboriginal culture and the Australian outback.

Beauty out of Banality, 21 Nov 2008
This wonderful little book shows us what a great talent Bruce Chatwin was. The world of literature is so much the poorer for his tragic early death. His only other work I have read is "In Patagonia", an enthralling account of his travels in that area. "On the Black Hill" is a very different work showing his great versatility and his great knowledge of country lives.
The book covers the lives of two brothers who are identical twins. They are born on a farm where they continue to live out their hardworking lives. Their lives inextricably woven together. Chatwins skill lies in his ability to make this unpromising material so immensely readable. He is so believable. I have lived and worked among such people all my life. My own Grandfather whose trousers were held up by a binder twine belt would have recognised the twins. They are rural characters seen across the length and breadth of our Country and no doubt in other country's also. At last they have an author who has captured them. The minutiae and detritus of their lives encapsulated in this brief book. No words are wasted here. Many will say "but what about Hardy". My own experience is that he left me cold. Too morbid and too distant for my personal tastes. But the brothers I warmed to. They are truly painted and it is as honest a work as I have come across. It has been a revelation to me and a breath of fresh air. If I could write I would love to write like this. If you truly wish to know how many rural people lived in isolated farms across the Country in the last century, then reading this book will enlighten you. If I seem a little over the top in my adulation I make no apologies. This little book deserves all the plaudits and more. My efforts here will not have been wasted if I convince only one person to read it. That thought would make me extremely happy.

Compelling literature, 07 Feb 2008
Had this one on the shelf for years and was slightly put off after reading the Songlines and finding it a bit mystifying.This book however is totally different in every way.Although the subject matter may not be appealing at first the attention to detail and the emotions of the characters draw you in so completely I could not put it down.I'm not a fast reader by some standards but this was one of the only books I've read cover to cover in two sittings its that good.As a debut novel its astounding and I don't think he ever came close again to this.

A Beautiful, moving novel , 23 Mar 2007
A lovely - if rather sad book, the story of identical twin brothers Lewis and Benjamin on the hill farm on the English Welsh boarder where they live their whole lives. It's a touching story of a traditional welsh commuinity, farming and a brotherly devotion - that often feels disabling. The prose is eloquent, and through the eyes of these memorable characters, we see, and feel so much. I loved this book so much - a beautiful, moving novel.

An eloquent celebration of the quiet life., 14 Oct 2003
On the Black Hill is an elegantly written homage to the inelegant life of rural Wales, a life in which no one ever strays far from the farm--there are few opportunities and little motivation to do so. Spartan lives are enriched by stories and gossip, slights are never forgotten, feuds reach epic intensity, and bottled-up frustrations simmer till they explode. Through rich and vivid descriptions of the minutiae of daily existence, we come to know twin brothers Lewis and Ben Jones as they grow up and are shaped by their family and their small community. The townspeople become our own friends or enemies, depending on their behavior towards the twins, and we empathize with them as they use their limited resources to struggle with the big questions which concern us all--questions of love, spirituality, death, cruelty, justice, and ultimately, happiness. By paring life to the bone here, Chatwin gives us a classic example of the adage, "Less is more."

A great read, 09 May 2002
Chatwin is unusual in that he is often very accessible and easy to read but also an intelligent writer. This book is not as intellectually stimulating as, say, "Utz", but it feels like a book written with love. If you have any feeling for the countryside and British history you will be entranced by this book. There is a feeling of D H Lawrence, without his sexual obsessions plus a sense of humour ! There is also a wonderful lyricism here and a sense of continuity with the past which is perhaps unrealistic - but who cares !

Fascinating combination of travel experiences and erudition, 06 Jan 2002
In an effort to leave a testifying legacy of his memories and mesmerizing knowledge, Mr Chatwin shares with the reader a careful selection of his numerous travels and adventures, which lead us with him to the beautiful and the bizarre.
The stories are cleverly intertwined with recollections of his encounters with key contemporary thinkers and personalities.
This gives him a platform to also reveal his vast erudition and to touch on cultural and philosophical reflections.
He may sometimes verge on a certain intellectual arrogance, but one can only forgive the precise writer and the well-travelled thinker.
My favourite story? His encounter with Andre Malraux. How about yours?

Wonderful, 25 May 1999
A number of delightful short stories from one of our most erudite, charming and complex writers penned shortly before he died so tragically. Chatwin's immense spirit and unflagging interest in the World around him leap from the pages.

A beautifully crafted piece, 02 Jul 2008
This book, like one of its main subjects - porcelain dolls - it petite, fragile, and crafeully formed. Its other main theme is Prague under communism in the 60s and 70s, and how in these times the intelligensia were forced to take on menial work, while anyone with collections of any value was made to fret over them.
Chatwin strings together a series of tiny chapters, many as short as a page long, to tell the story of porcelain collector Utz through his narrator, an English art historian. Propelled into Utz's life for little more than 9 hours, he is somehow drawn into the mystery of the man's life, which he tries to unravel, but is never sure if he really has.
Chatwin's unravelling of the tale is just as dextrously performed as the hero's own, in this untterly engrossing book.
Historically and psychologically - the mindset of collectors - this book is a rare treasure.

A delight, 01 Jul 2008
An exquisite novel, but Alas, too short!

And yet, it conjures unforgettable characters and evokes Prague in a way that makes you recognize it even if you've never been there.

It isn't just the main characters that are memorable, but all of the characters in this story, no matter how small a space they take up. Characters such as Orlik, the paleontologist who studies house-flies and who asked the narrator to examine Dutch and Flemish still-lifes of the seventeenth century "to check whether or not there was a fly in them", or the temperamentful ex-soprano who lived under Utz's apartment, or the man whose job was emptying garbage trucks, but who spoke English and was a writer, or the Ludvik and Zitek, other "garbage collectors" who were actually poets, writers, philosophers and out-of-work actors.

While most of the characters in the book seem unfazed by the restrictions imposed upon them by the regime in former Czechoslovakia, they do, however, express themselves in constantly enigmatic terms such as "maybe yes, maybe no", "maybe it is, maybe it is not", "maybe they are alive, maybe they are not"... whether that is the only deference to circumspection they are willing to offer, or whether it is
due to a need to inject mystery into their lives to compensate for its grimness and predictability, we do not know for sure..

The world of the story seems divided into several "parallel universes" that coexist side-by-side, that of the characters versus that of the figurines, whom "Utz", the protagonist, regards as living entities, as well as that of the communist regime versus the people, who find ways to navigate around it with the least confrontation and maximum benefit possible.

The question of the fate of the collection remains unanswered in the end, with the narrator offering a wild guess that is neither confirmed nor denied. The story ends at the sight of the one character that could give him the answers. We, however, do not learn what those answers are.

Maybe because the uncertainty of a "maybe-maybe not" is the only answer there is?

There is, however, one certainty about this book: its characters shall remain with you for a long time after you put it down.

Why?!, 30 May 2007
We read this for our book club and we were all puzzled as to why the book has received good reviews. The story is bizarre and dull.

Salvation in small things, 16 Mar 2004
This was for me the first Chatwin, and a great surprise.
Not just a novel, not just a travel story in the last years of the soviet regime in the Czech Republic, but also a delicate essay of some marginal aspects of XVIII century life: the art of white Meissen ceramics.... With many delicious detours in the labyrinths of mittleeuropean culture and in the psychology of the collector (be him of books, of stamps or whatever).
A book of enormous erudition almost concealed in small details and witty remarks.
And not just learning, but also humanity and a mild observation on the cases of human life under despotism - the meaning freedom, the many faces of opportunism (the one in the oppressed citizen, the one of the intellectual who "freely" criticizes from his warm "western" deck the grey dull soviet regime).
No one get salvation, but Baron Von Utz, who seems able in the mediocrity of ordinary life, of prevarications, of despotism, to resist the nausea of life in the contemplation of his collection.
The perfect world theorised by Leibnitz is perceived as in a glimpse in the eternal stillness of his Meissen figures.
A truly great book!

I love reading and even more sharing and discuss my opinions. Feel free to write me!

An exquisite story of an obsessive collector., 15 Nov 2000
Bruce Chatwin was an extraordinary observer of all that is curious. This was the impetus for all his works, culminating in his last novel written shortly before he died in 1989 - Utz, the story of a compulsive collector of Meissen porcelain in communist Prague.

Shortlisted for the 1988 Booker Prize, the book tells the story of Utz, a master of subterfuge.

Running his own private commedia, he outwits the Czech authorities to secure the safety of his treasure. The melancholic mood of Prague weighs heavy on the pages, relieved by the brevity of Chatwin's style. While Stalin's regime reigns horror outside of Utz's house, inside Utz "lifts the characters of the Commedia from the shelves, and placed them in the pool of light where they appeared to skate over the glass of the table, pivoting on their bases of gilded foam, as if they would forever go on laughing, whirling, improvising."

Utz introduces the reader to his family of anthropomorphised clay, the spaghetti eater, Pulchinella, with coils of spaghetti "poised eternally, destined to plunge into his nostrils", ladies of the court, "with frozen smiles and swaying crinolines"; monkey musicians wearing "ruffs and powdered wigs" and the seven figures of Harlequin, the trickster, arch-improviser, 'master of the volte-face'.

At the heart of any Chatwin story is a myth. With the book Utz, it is the Hebrew golem, that of the uncreated and unformed. It was on an archaeological pursuit in Prague, that Chatwin sought out the mythology of golems. When fire is breathed into the glutinous clay mud, the golem comes to life.

Thirteen years after his death, Bruce Chatwin remains one of the most inspirational writers in the UK.

Travelling toward the exotic, Chatwin collected anecdotes, rearranged them with a dash of fact and served up a delicious blend of fact, fantasy and folklore.

Utz flirts with the fantastic, paying meticulous attention to detail, reminding one of that other great illusionist, Borges. Both have the same clipped style, where conciseness illuminates the object and the reader is aware of authorial control.

Like the character Utz, Chatwin was an obsessive collector, had a sexually never defined and needed to return as much as roam.

Utz, given the option of exile, returns repeatedly to his collection. A victim of his collection, he fails to liberate himself from objects.

Chatwin himself spent his last days in an art frenzy, adding to his collection from the London galleries.

Chatwin once wrote in an essay, 'The Morality of Things', "Do we not all long to throw down our altars and rid ourselves of our possessions? Do we not gaze coldly at our clutter and say, 'If these objects express my personality, then I hate my personality."

Chatwin, it is said, 'holds a conversation with his reader that has the ring of midnight.' As his first editor (and current theatre critic) Susannah Clapp said, 'With Bruce, it was always midnight.'

Great picture of what Africa has been in 19th, 28 Feb 1999
I've never been very attracted by Chatwin journals but this novel really convinced me of his qualities as a writer. The book sheds light on a region of the world we often discover for the violence of its riots and revolts. The plot is intriguing; what remains, though, is the portrait of a land where different populations and cultures never made an effort to really comprehend each other. Really intense.