The Vintage edition of In Patagonia refers to it as "the book that redefined travel writing." I'm not sure I would characterize it as travel writing at all. It's certainly not a book to read to learn about the country or its people. Chatwin approaches Patagonia as a mythical land that attracts restless wanderers and displaced Europeans.
The landscape descriptions are short and tend to the primary colors. Nearly everyone Chatwin meets is European: Welsh in the north, English in the south, with Germans in the middle. The indigenous population plays a decidedly supporting role in the stories he tells about people trying to recreate home in a remote part of the world. There's far more about Butch and Sundance than about gauchos; the ringleaders in the Socialist rebellions were exiled Russians.
The landscape descriptions are short and tend to the primary colors. Nearly everyone Chatwin meets is European: Welsh in the north, English in the south, with Germans in the middle. The indigenous population plays a decidedly supporting role in the stories he tells about people trying to recreate home in a remote part of the world. There's far more about Butch and Sundance than about gauchos; the ringleaders in the Socialist rebellions were exiled Russians.
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