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Bruce Chatwin by: Nicholas Shakespeare

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Rating: - Must be one of the best biograhies I have ever read

I actually read this book three times because it contained so much well researched material. I knew nothing about this character, other than reading "On Black Hill" and had no idea that he was such a complex and fascinating person. Nicholas Shakespeare does not fall into the trap of many biographers by using boring material to 'pad out' chapters. Although Chatwin had some unpleasant character traits, he also had many loyal friends, who were with him to the end. Not just a recommended read, I would consider this a "must" read

Rating: - A superb book about a superb author and a terrible man

This is a masterful biography, penetrating yet never judgemental, complete but not clinical. The inspiration behind Chatwin's brutally clipped prose are laid bare, from Hemingway on, with the most excruciating detail about all aspects of his life from childhood to the gay nirvana that was late 70s and early 80s New York. For all those who have ever marvelled at his work's effortless evocation of atmosphere, its probably best not to read this as any illusion you may have had about him wil be irretrievably shattered. He was the centre of a cult of beauty and brittle sociality, fuelled by incredible egotism and arrogance, that left great literature on the upside, and a series of ruined lives and broken hearts on the down. Hitler was said to be a gifted watercolurist, after all, though I doubt that many would enthusiastically embrace his work. However, for all that, Chatwin's writing is staggering, and Nicholas Shakespeare's book should be lauded as THE example of what a modern biography ought to be: a great, eloquent, wide-ranging, well-expressed and truly epic tour de literary force. Outstanding.

Rating: - Unmasking the mythomane

Chatwin was a compulsive fantasist in his own life, unable to stop himself from using his considerable knowledge as a launchpad for his own inventions. At the same time, his writing was very clearly rooted in his own experiences, drawing considerably on the people he met and the places he visited. His own life was often as interesting as his books - and when it wasn't, he managed to invent a story to make it so.

As a result, Shakespeare had an uphill struggle to pin down a man who hated being pinned down more than anything else, and he largely succeeded. The result is a portrait of a terribly flawed man who still seemed to be able to touch people's lives even when his own behaviour was at its worst, illustrated best of all by the devotion his wife Elizabeth showed him even as he fled from her repeatedly.

The biography's only flaws are a tendency to trail in his wake, never quite wanting to acknowledge that Chatwin, while a brilliant writer, could also be a brilliant monster. However it does capture the one indisputable truth about Chatwin, that he desired more than anything else to be the central figure in his greatest work of fiction - his own life.

Rating: - Brilliant Biography of a Monster

I recently purchased this biography of Bruce Chatwin written by Nicholas Shakespeare. I probably did it to confirm my own prejudices (the sneaking suspicion that Chatwin was 'not a nice man') and on that level it delivered in spades. Shakespeare gives a magnificent warts-and-all portrait. Chatwin's friends and his apparently long-suffering wife could obviously see beyond the warts - all I saw was a monstrous egotistical carbuncle called Bruce Chatwin. I am pleased to have made his acquaintance via this biography; I would never have wanted to meet him in real life. I would have viewed him as a black hole - always taking, never giving. And in answer to another reviewer on this site, you can also meet real people in Waitrose - you don't always have to go chanting on some remote hillside...

Rating: - A Potrait of the Artist as a Not Very Nice Man

Nicholas Shakespeare has written a very impressive biography of an author who was as complex and elusive in his persona as his work is crystalline in its clarity. Those who like their heroes to be as inspiring as their prose should look elsewhere. Chatwin displayed all the ruthlessness of many creative artist as he exploited his friends, and most especially his devoted and long suffering wife, in the pursuit of his destiny. Shakespeare's biography is scrupuously fair, exhaustively researched and superbly written. I'm left wondering what my reaction to Chatwin's work would have been had I read this first.

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