[David Mason]

Let's see if this works--it's from the weekend edition of the WSJ:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...LE_Video_Third

Dave

[Janice D. Soderling]

Thanks, this goes on my wish list. Interesting review.

[David Mason]

It's an amazingly complex case because he really was a terrific writer. Re-reading The Songlines, his most famous book, I was a bit let down (I much prefer other books I mention in the review), and I would love to hear from OZ folk here what they thought of it...

[David Mason]

Just bumping this up...

[Cally Conan-Davies]

Dave,

Your article, and Chatwin, and The Songlines, raise so many issues, strum so many chords, touch so many nerves - all of which are so central to my personal life and projects at this time - that the fact you created this thread now seems wholly serendipitous to me.

The reason I can't react is because I am travelling right now - I am stopped on a dusty hot roadside - through the country that Chatwin wrote about. I have been doing this for over a year now ... oh, if I started to tell, it would not end, and the heat here is ferocious, so I must get back on the road.

I am intrigued to know what you make of Chatwin, your impressions when you met him. When Chatwin and/or The Songlines are mentioned, the two words that come instantly to my mind are specious and meretricious.

Alas, I really have no time now. Australia is hot and hard and vast. And I wouldn't look to The Songlines (there! I just corrected a typo where I had written The Songlies!!) to understand this land or the culture that grew out of it.

Chatwin himself is another story. As you say - he is a complex character, and I much prefer to think of his theories on nomad and settled societies out of the Australian context. These questions go to the heart of my life's preoccupations, only I take a more psychological view of it, rather than anthropological or philosophical.

Of course, a writer can be both meretricious and great. There was certainly some kind of powerful daimon alive in Bruce Chatwin.

This is a vast topic - and all the threads it throws out would take time to follow. In a way, it's my life's work - the nature of Australia and travel writing - so do forgive this brief and inadequate reply to a deeply challenging, often disturbing, topic. I did not want you to believe your article had gone unnoticed. It deserves to spawn a huge discussion.

When my present journey is done - this leg of it, at least - I hope to articulate some of my thoughts on things you've raised. But it's hot as hell here right now, Dave, and I need to get to the coast, to my island, and sink into the Coral Sea for a while.

Cally

[David Mason]

I really appreciate your taking the time on the road to write a response, Cally. Indeed, I suspected there was something not quite right when I re-read The Songlines, though the bits from his notebooks and the almost mystical notion of some human connection at the source of things are very attractive. But yes, I could guess it wasn't right about Australia and I'm eager to learn more of what you're working on in this regard--or any regard.

In person Bruce was simply quite charming and generous, at least with me--I was a young kid eager to be a writer, and in our brief meeting he took me seriously as a writer, and I think I owe him some small debt for that. But the letters demonstrate that in the years before I met him he could be a terribly selfish fellow--a narcissist, as I say in the review, but perhaps something worse. I do believe he matured, and I would strongly recommend the best of his books--for me On the Black Hill and Utz are the most satisfying, but others continue to praise [i]In [/I]Patagonia. Some of the journalism in What Am I Doing Here is very good.

Anyway, safe home to your island--you can't imagine how exotic that sounds to a guy in the mountains.

Dave

[Janice D. Soderling]

I'll just mention that Nicholas Shakespeare also wrote the authorized biography "Bruce Chatwin". I remember that I enjoyed it very much when I first read it, but B.C. was terra incognito then.

That was several year ago but after this thread appeared I pulled it off the shelf to reread prior to tackling the "letters".(When I've finished my current marathon read/re-read on Egypt.)

Looking forward to Cally's return on this subject.

[David Mason]

I think Shakespeare's bio is very good--doesn't shy from the dark side, either.

[Gail White]

I have to admit I don't know much about Chatwin (although the title "In Patagonia" rings a bell). But I know & love the works of Patrick Leigh Fermor, and was delighted to learn that he is still among us at 96.

For the record, I'm a great reader of travel books (especially by women, but I like all kinds) - & if you and Cally are working on such projects, I will follow with great interest.

[Cally Conan-Davies]

Gail - it means a great deal to learn of your interest! My PhD thesis was on travel writing—D.H. Lawrence's travel books, actually. Travel writing marries my passions: movement, geography, writing. And when I met Richard Holmes at Melbourne University a couple of years ago, and listened to what he had to say, I knew what I had to do, and I am now at the fascinating stage of exploring the ways of doing it! And never ceasing from travel, of course!

It's a wonderful spur for me to think of you as a potential reader. Could you tell me some of your favourite books of travel writing by women?

Cally