Anatomy of Restlessness: Selected Writings 1969-1989 [Paperback]

Bruce Chatwin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1997

A celebrated novelist and bestselling travel writer, Bruce Chatwin has been called the foremost literary traveler of his generation. In this collection of writings, Chatwin's enduring fascination with restlessness surfaces in every period and aspect of his career. From his wartime English childhood to his far-flung journeys, this collection shows Chatwin as masterful narrator, outspoken reviewer, and audacious essayist.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The dangling ends of Bruce Chatwin's writing career were posthumously tied together by Jan Borm and Matthew Graves in a collection of 17 previously neglected or unpublished essays, articles, short stories, and travel tales. They span 20 years of writing, yet common threads emerge: his compulsive storytelling, the endless lure of the remote, and his keen sense of place. Borm and Graves have compiled a wonderful gift for the many Chatwin fans who miss him.

From Publishers Weekly

Chatwin (In Patagonia), who died in 1989 at 49, was a brilliant writer of travel-related essays and fiction. This aptly titled posthumous volume brings together nearly all that remains of his uncollected writings. Even the book reviews fit Chatwin's passion for renunciation of anything tying one to a fixed abode. The collection scrapes the bottom of the barrel, for included is a long letter to his London publisher projecting a book on the nomadic life he would never complete. However, two essays intended for it follow, and they make the reader regret the decision to abandon the book. Two autobiographical pieces set his life in context, describing his beginnings as a writer and the background of his rejection of "things." Of the four short pieces characterized as fiction, at least two are also closely autobiographical. Chatwin quotes Robert Burton (The Anatomy of Melancholy) as claiming that everything we experience in nature teaches us "that we should ever be in motion." Whatever hampers mobility, Chatwin contends?and urban civilization is the chief obstacle?diminishes independence by attaching us to emotional and economic "anchors." These disparate pieces hang together thematically but will be attractive largely to Chatwin's legion of loyalists who want to learn more about him.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (August 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140256989
• ISBN-13: 978-0140256987
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #534,391 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Bruce Chatwin reinvented British travel writing with his first book, In Patagonia, and followed it with many travel books and novels, each unique and extraordinary. He died in 1989.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nicely mixed bag!, September 22, 2004

By 

B. Berthold "brad13" (Somewhere out west...) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Anatomy of Restlessness: Selected Writings 1969-1989 (Paperback)

Bruce Chatwin was one of those rarities in the world of English letters. An 'artiste.' A true craftsman of the word. His pristine, illuminous sentences are models of how the English language can and should be used. With nothing superflous, each word and each comma masterfully measured, Chatwin's style beams like an eternal sun amidst the often grey, turbid sky of English prose. Chatwin did for modern English prose what Larkin did for modern English poetry; he slayed the dragon of prolixity. He sped things up, showered them with lots of sun and then sent them on their way. A liberator with the pen.

This sprawling collection of miscellaneous stories, sketches and essays comprise some of Chatwin's best work. Unfortunately, mere beginnings, a glimpse into what could have been had Chatwin lived longer. The bio pieces like 'I Always Wanted to Go to Patagonia,' and 'A Place to Hang Your Hat,' poignantly examine the forces behind this brilliant wanderer. The obsession with exotic places and persons, a lonely, fatherless childhood and his insatiable curiosity are all laid bare with humor and pathos. With his essays on the 'The Nomadic Alternative,'(the strongest part of the collection) Chatwin extends his own incurable migratory needs into a well-argued case for the nomadic lifestyle. Chatwin claims that our most natural---and most desirable---state is that of constant migration, carrying little and not staying for long in any one place. With the building of cities, man became 'thing-oriented' and began to hoard his precious property behind walls to protect against the violent forces from without. Chatwin argues that if we hoarded less, we would evoke less greed, less aggression and thus, cause much fewer problems for ourselves. While Chatwin's arguments have their grey spots, they always manage to challenge the reader with something original.

The other parts of the collection, mostly stories and literary reviews, are enjoyable, even if not on the same level of the other pieces. Yet, Chatwin's style keeps you turning the pages even when the content doesn't. With his terse, energetic sentences, he shows a world virginal and ready for discovery.

While only genuine Chatwinophiles will get worked up about this collection, those interested in quality writing would be wise to take a rest stop here. And for those with pack and pen, ready to conquer the sunset, a finer model couldn't be found.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Vintage Chatwin, but not his best., June 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Anatomy of Restlessness: Selected Writings 1969-1989 (Paperback)

Fans of the great journeyman and travel writer Bruce Chatwin will not be disappointed by this collection of essays and short stories. Some of the fiction is quite nice, if esoteric (but very Chatwin); the essays on art are a little more digestable, if a little vague since they are removed from their original context.

Not the greatest of books, but certainly not a failure or something a big fan should miss.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A charming collection of half forgotten Chatwin texts, May 22, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Anatomy of Restlessness: Selected Writings 1969-1989 (Paperback)

If you accept the disadvantageous consequences of a collection of disjointed texts, and take this book for what it is, you'll definitely enjoy reading it.

And maybe this collection isn't so incoherent after all. The texts gain coherence from Chatwin's ever returning themes, a.o. restlessness and rootlessness (united in his preoccupation with Nomadism), and above all Chatwin's writing style, which is abundantly present in all texts. All texts benefit from a Chatwin flavour.

I really enjoyed this book. I can't imagine haven't read the autobiographical sketches `I always wanted to go to Patagonia' or `A place to hang your hat', the review `Abel the nomad' or the three texts gathered in part III "The Nomadic Alternative". These texts are classic Chatwin texts, if you would ask me.

The 'Songlines' might be more epic, 'In Patagonia' more odd, but 'Anatomy of Restlessness' is incontestable Chatwin's most charming book. Very charming, indeed.