Songlines

Many years ago, I read Chatwin's In Patagonia, and found it, I suppose, hard work and a little tiresome. And so I waited a long time before I picked The Songlines off my shelf. I had looked through some reviews before reading it - and found that they were polarising. In very general terms, those who enjoy a more philosophical or whimsical read tended to rate high and enjoy it; those who had read it to learn details about the Aboriginal culture were disappointed. On this basis, with my antipathy for philosophical ramblings, I was quite prepared to give it 50 pages, DNF and move on, having cleared a small space on a shelf, quite happy to sell this book on or give it away.

This book was a surprise. It was not at all what I expected, and up to page 182 (my edition), I enjoyed it a lot. Then, it became and jumble of fragmented thoughts, collected over years of travel in far flung places, all sort of themed and sort of connected. This blew apart the narrative we were tracking on, interrupted the flow, and caused me to skim and skip, seeking out the short sections which continued the story.

I wasn't expecting the primary narrative to be almost a diary of ‘what Chatwin did' while in Western Australia. A catalogue of his interactions, observations, conversations and thoughts, but that is exactly what is was. How much of it is true, in context, and without omissions we will never know, but I found it a very easy read, largely very amusing, and reasonably legitimate sounding when it came to the Aboriginal information. It couldn't have been less academic; the style was casual.

There is little more I want to cover in this review. Up until the narrative was interrupted, I was five stars into this book. Having to skip through looking to clean up the last crumbs of the story lost it a star. It felt experimental - if it was, it was a failure for me. This was despite some of the tidbits being interesting - they just didn't fit in the location they were inserted.

so 5 stars, losing 1.
4 stars.