Under the Sun in America
27/02/11 17:02
The Letters have just been released in the US. A round up of reviews below:
“One of the pleasures of a good book of letters is watching a voice develop and ripen over time, and Chatwin’s does. It grows lovelier, grainier, more confident, more wicked.”
The New York Times
“Chatwin's real subject, however, was not nomadism but himself.”
Washington Post
A “jumble-box of arcana”.
Wall Street Journal
“His letters, alas, reflect little of this charming writer's soul. They are, in fact, among the least revealing of authors' letters that I've ever read, which surely must have been intentional on Chatwin's part. They are frustratingly superficial.”
Chicago Tribune
“Readers of the biography will be familiar with much of it, but addicts will want it all.”
Salon
“This 500-page selection of the writer’s letters provides not revelation but evasion; not features but a mask. Except that evasion is heart’s blood; the mask, his countenance.”
Boston Globe
“One of the pleasures of a good book of letters is watching a voice develop and ripen over time, and Chatwin’s does. It grows lovelier, grainier, more confident, more wicked.”
The New York Times
“Chatwin's real subject, however, was not nomadism but himself.”
Washington Post
A “jumble-box of arcana”.
Wall Street Journal
“His letters, alas, reflect little of this charming writer's soul. They are, in fact, among the least revealing of authors' letters that I've ever read, which surely must have been intentional on Chatwin's part. They are frustratingly superficial.”
Chicago Tribune
“Readers of the biography will be familiar with much of it, but addicts will want it all.”
Salon
“This 500-page selection of the writer’s letters provides not revelation but evasion; not features but a mask. Except that evasion is heart’s blood; the mask, his countenance.”
Boston Globe