Bruce Chatwin (Paperback)

And so with Nicholas Shakespeare's lovely masterpiece of a biography of Bruce Chatwin. Chatwin's own works are scoured for biographical data, but most of Shakespeare's research involved 8 years of painstaking interviews and worldwide travels to Afghanistan, India, Patagonia, New York and elsewhere. Simply put, this is a more enjoyable book than anything Chatwin himself ever wrote, and maybe it's better than anything Chatwin could write.

The parallels to Hemingway can be expanded. Chatwin's life was more varied and exciting than anything he was able to commit to his tight, crystallised prose. He was a much greater man than the sum of his works, and he's a very very lucky dead author indeed to have had someone like Nicholas Shakespeare take the first crack at a full-length treatment of the Chatwin life.

Again like Hemingway, Chatwin was brilliant, charismatic, generous--and often supercilious, nasty and a downright selfish bastard. He was so dedicated to his craft that he appears never to have felt a pang of guilt over his readiness to sponge off friends and his long-suffering wife. Anyone who thinks he wants Chatwin as a role model will give the idea second thoughts before finishing this marvelous book!

But Chatwin was a man who generated almost magical interest in those he came in contact with, and like myself, through reading his work, although he kept himself well out of it. Having read most of the Chatwin ouevre, I found the biography doubled as a reference aid too, as it cleverly described the background work and processes Chatwin was engaged in before he set out to write a particular book.

More importantly, it managed to shed more light on the development of Chatwin's complex character, his unconventional marriage and his secret sexuality. It was also intriguing to read about the struggle and sacrifices he had to make to produce his beguiling art. Shakespeare has managed to unearth everything imaginable: from ideas jotted down by Chatwin himself in his safeguarded moleskin notebooks, to interviewing endless family, friends and acquaintances from all over the world.

The transformation of Chatwin from a Sotheby's high-flyer to a restless writer is the driving force behind the book. It is a joy to read, but the final chapters describing his falling victim to AIDS are ultimately the most fascinating, and are penned with careful dignity. It is still hard to believe that he was only 48 years old, having died only a decade ago. Nevertheless, the weighty 550 pages make a relatively light, but highly absorbing read when his life is injected into them.

For those of you who need yet to discover the real Bruce Chatwin, this biography could be read as a possible starting point. It will give you a thorough insight into one of the most colourful and intriguing literary figures of the late twentieth century. And believe me, after having read it, it will spark your interest to read Bruce Chatwin's own dazzling output of work, which are all very different in their own right.