In Patagonia
By: Bruce Chatwin
Penguin Classics
240 pages
240 pages
I read In Patagonia because one of my favorite writers, Rich Cohen recommended it. It is a travel book with stories of the region interwoven into it. The sentences in it cut like a breath of modern-day Hemingway, making me wonder if every sentence I write could be shorter and clearer. Some of the passages are so raw and descriptive, I found myself shaking my head at the beauty of the writing.
Two of my favorite quotes:
I ate at a green restaurant on the main street. A zinc counter ran the length of the room. At one end a glass vitrine displayed steaks and kidneys and racks of lamb and sausages. The wine was acid and came in pottery penguins.
Her legs were a mesopotamia of varicose veins. She still had the tatters of an extraordinary beauty.