The Songlines (Penguin Classics) Paperback – June 26, 2012

Chatham clearly writes this book in a hurry. The publisher did so too; my copy (1988 I think) duplicates pages 171-234. But this is a fascinating and brilliant read looking backwards in time on Chatwin's speculations. As an evolutionist mnay of his speculations have born fruit. It is absolutely stunning to read his thinking post-Dart and Lorenz on the impact climate (and population bottlenecks) have (probably) had upon the human species. If you are looking for some insight in the oldest existing human culture on the planet, this read has some problems as it is limited to primarily central Australia. Nonetheless the recent dehydration deaths of two Aboriginal "Elders" in the Kimberly's, when their car ran out of gas, possibly because they couldn't read the songlines to water in the area through which they were traveling, underscores one the major and important themes Chatwin's discusses. Chatwin wasn't an anthropologist and I think the reviews that criticize him on his book because of this, miss the point of the book. This is a speculative treatise on the human species and Chatwin's interjections of other thinkers on human origins only greatly enrich your reading of this book. I only sorry I read the book ten years after my own trip to Australia.

Hard to feel worthy enough to judge this . it is a Remarkable journey between fact and fiction. I was so humbled to go on the journey.

The Songlines is a somewhat difficult book to characterize.It is to some degree a travel book but Chatwin routinely fictionalized his narratives and the book is in some places referred to as a novel.After a while it veers off into being a collection of (interesting) quotes and occasionally flirts with being a linguistic or anthropological treatise( the least interesting part of the book).It proves to be a quick and enjoyable read.It's set mostly in Australia, with a lot of detours to Africa.Chatwin's voice is distinctive and engaging but i'd be cautious about he's theorizing.By the time I finished with it, I still had no idea what a Songline is.(It was funny .I tried to see if I could formulate it on the basis of what Chatwin reports.Couldn't do it).

I had no idea what I was ordering when I chose this book. After a couple of chapters, I still wasn't sure that it would hold my interest. It is an ancient culture and way of life carried down through the ages by the Aborigine people of Australia. I found it confusing but fascinating. The story telling style is great and the characters are entertaining. I learned of things that I had no idea existed.

I purchased this book hoping to learn more details about Aboriginal Songlines. It does contain some information, however, much of the book involves stories of other travels and I came away feeling that the author did let me down somewhat. It should be titled The Songlines and other tales of my travels.The copy of the book that I received was as advertised in quality. It was in good shape and from that standpoint it was a good buy. If you are interested in a memoir of travels through Australia, Africa, and other locations; you may find it to be a good read.

Book is in Excellent condition. It looks untouched. Arrived when promised. I purchased as a gift and am very happy to give it.

I read this book twice before (each time my impression of Chatwin is diminished as an amateuristic attempt of theorizing and its "style" as not really holding with the passage of time) but I would like to comment the narration of this new offer (2019) of an audio version. I really enjoyed the narrator. He does makes some mistakes with the pronunciation of places but he keeps the flow very well.

Mr. Chatwin provides an interesting look into the "Aboriginals" of Australia. It is a fascinating culture.Frequently, the author goes off on a tangent and one wonders what has happened to the story line,but then he manages to connect the piece with the rest of the dialogue.It is a most interesting adventure he takes us on...the people and the landscape are incredible.

Excelente libro

This is a truly brilliant book when looked at in the context of 1980s travel writing. It was like a breath of fresh air at the time, and I still dip into it every few days as a reminder of how good Chatwin was (What Am I Doing Here is a terrific collection of his shorter pieces). A lot of reviewers here don't seem to get the fact that the 'Bruce' in The Songlines isn't Chatwin, but a fictional character that probably contains some elements of Chatwin's view of himself. During covid lockdown I attended an online book club organised by my employer. The Songlines was the book choice and our manager launched into an excruciatingly embarrassing tirade about how much she hated Chatwin, mixing him up with the character in the book. I realised then that his writing is useful as a barometer of whether I'll like someone or not! There's a very good biography of BC by Nicholas Shakespeare which puts his writing into context.

Fascinating stories about life in the outback and aboriginal mythology..

Purchased this for a friend; he loved it!

The Songlines is ground-zero. Aboriginal culture has been taken out as an unintended consequence of the fictional jottings of a British travel writer in the late 1980s. The destruction was almost certainly unintentional. How could Chatwin know that a generation of cultural activists would like his casually penned version of Aboriginal culture better than the careful recordings of 200 years of ethnographers and anthropologists? Regrettably, he died shortly after the book was published so he never witnessed the damage or set the record straight. Chatwin's view of Aboriginal life was a few short weeks spent mostly in the culturally corrupt vicinity of Alice Springs. He was desperate to deliver another book, having abandoned a recent effort to write on the nomadic groups he already knew. He brought notebooks to Australia with his collected anecdotes and jottings of nomadic life elsewhere in the world. And he brought a yearning to wrap his life's experience roaming the World up into some grander theory of the importance of movement to human development. This hodgepodge of unresolved ideas became The Songlines. It's a good yarn - up to the point where he runs out of steam and decides to pad the book out with slabs of his collected notebook entries. Despite this, the book was successful, sold well and promoted an exotic (albeit fictional) view of the Australian Aboriginal and their cultural beliefs. The apparent realism of his writing readily transported his readers to a foreign land, a colourful adventure, and a compelling view of a stone age culture struggling for survival. Except that little of it was accurate. The complex cultural world of Aboriginal songs (ceremonial, informational and entertaining) was transmogrified into a wayfinding system. And now, due to the uncaring bowerbird eclecticism of art and museum custodians and post-modern cultural warriors, a mishmash of cultural junk is being carelessly pasted over the authentic core, like unsupervised children turning the Ark of the Covenant into a decoupage project. Given the effect that The Songlines has had on the contamination of Aboriginal culture, it is essential reading for those seeking a clearer understanding. Its casual travelogue of the degraded circumstances and dissolute behaviour of town dwelling Aborigines in the 1980s has some authenticity. But all pronouncements of the operation and detail of traditional Aboriginal culture should be considered fiction until tested against more reliable sources. It gets five stars because it's a good yarn with a collection of thought-provoking anecdotes on the nature of human development and because it's become essential reading to understand Aboriginal cultural politics.