The Songlines [Paperback]

Billed as a 'travel book,' Bruce Chatwin's 'Songlines' is that in name only. Following in the steps of other literateurs who were also originally pigeonholed as mere travel writers ie. Conrad, Greene, etc...Chatwin magically transforms a place, the Australian outback, and a people, the 'aboriginals,' into the characters of a majestic cosmic play. In truth, Songlines is really an accessible and persuasive treatise on the nature of man, hiding under the guise of a travel book.

Chatwin's thesis is simple: that human beings are migratory--'nomadic' is his catchy phrase--in their most natural (read here, best) state. To support this thesis, Chatwin follows the ancestral songlines of the Australian aboriginals who believe the world and all its creations were sung into existence by their semi-divine 'ancestors.' To reaffirm their identity, their place in this world and the 'world' itself, today's Aboriginals retrace the routes their ancestors walked across the continent, re-singing everything back into life. In mapping out this moving creation myth, Chatwin enlists the help of aboriginal 'expert,' Arkady, erudite son of Ukrainian exiles. With vibrant color, humor and sun-drenched clarity, Chatwin recounts their memorable encounters with the sometimes freakish, always original, denizens of the Australian outback.

To support his claim of man as migratory animal, Chatwin interrupts these gem-like anecdotes with a vast array of historical and anthropological aphorisms, facts and commentary. While their placement sometimes appears rather arbitrary, these tidbits spice up the whole and provide a pleasant balance to the stories that surround them.

Songlines is hard to put down as the effortless, pristine style carries the reader along on a voyage all its own. Nicholas Shakespeare wasn't far off the mark in crowning Chatwin as the 'greatest stylist writing in England today.' Even if you don't buy the idea the book is selling, the writing itself is enough to recommend it. Especially for writer wannabes. Every sentence is a cut and polished gem. Terse, tight and clean, all the fat has been cut off, leaving the choicest morsels. And what morsels! Not only does Chatwin say it exquisitely, he also has something to say. That's not just fine writing, that's art.

And if the writing isn't enough, the seeds of thought that Songlines plants are tough stuff and unlikely to blow away all that easily. Chatwin makes a strong case that when humans decided to 'settle' down---to civilize themselves---they actually caused more evil than good. Settling down meant holding onto things and marking out borders of possession. And because our natural restlessness became inihibited, we learned to covet more things and wider boundaries. Not only that, but by settling down we lost something profoundly important to our physical and spiritual makeup: our connection with the earth itself and with its other inhabitants, who, unlike us, seem content to take only what they need and then move on.

Songlines' greatest message is that life itself is a journey. Therefore, we should live it as one, constantly moving, constantly growing to the next level of existence, learning to let go of that which was never 'ours' to possess.

Those who are looking for such a journey into the human condition won't regret picking up Songlines!

The first parts of this book concentrate on Chatwin's experiences with the people of outback Australia be they Aboriginal or white. He seems to find truly remarkable people, each unique and even wild in their own way. Typical of Australia, it is full of people from all the world, such as his friend Arkady of Russian extraction. Chatwin has a fascinating background with his experiences of other cultures often allowing him access to other more conservative people who are suspicious of the outsider. Using this technique he breaks down their resistence and writes with compassion and depth of his experiences. Unfortunately two aspects come to light which I believe are not advantageous to the reading of the book. The first is his tendency to both promote and justify the practise of travelling or the nomadic lifestyle which he himself practises. The second is the habit of filling out the rest of the book with too many quotations from others rather than making use of his experiences with their beauty and uniqueness due to the meeting of people as he travels and the sense of the land which formed the backbone and pure joy of the earlier parts of the book.

Nonetheless an exceptional book and a joy to read. A very human book.