ON THE BLACK HILL BY BRUCE CHATWIN

I imagine that Bruce Chatwin’s career as a travel writer and prior to that as a director at Sotheby’s gave him the necessary attention to detail that allowed him to produce a novel like ON THE BLACK HILL.

This story of twin brothers, Lewis and Benjamin Jones, who grow up in the Welsh countryside takes place in a relatively small area but is still a sprawling epic covering World War I and II, the 60’s, hippies, religious prejudice, poverty, class struggle, the treatment of the Welsh by the English and any number of other topics.

What impresses me the most about this book is Chatwin’s description of interiors, what makes up the living room of a dilapidated farmhouse for example….He lavishes loving attention on the description of old furniture and baked goods, sweaters, and scarves and jackets.

I also like how he lets the narrative flow without trying to strangle it….An important character might turn up in the last 20 pages whereas another character introduced in the beginning might turn out not to be so important after all….It feels like how life naturally goes.

In addition, he throws in all manner of other details about the neighbors, other people in the village even that one of the brothers might be homosexual….He does this so nimbly and within the relatively short length of 250 that the book flew by and I was done before I realized it.

It flows so fast sometimes I had a hard time remembering who was who but that’s a small complaint for such a well put together book….I definitely plan on reading some of Chatwin’s travel writing.