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On the Black Hill
Alternate Cover Edition for ISBN:0330281240 / ISBN13:9780330281249.
On the Black Hill is an elegantly written tale of identical twin brothers who grow up on a farm in rural Wales and never leave home. They till the rough soil and sleep in the same bed, touched only occasionally by the advances of the 20th century. In depicting the lives of Benjamin and Lewis and their interactions with their small local community Chatwin comments movingly on the larger questions of human experience.
On the Black Hill is an elegantly written tale of identical twin brothers who grow up on a farm in rural Wales and never leave home. They till the rough soil and sleep in the same bed, touched only occasionally by the advances of the 20th century. In depicting the lives of Benjamin and Lewis and their interactions with their small local community Chatwin comments movingly on the larger questions of human experience.
249 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1982
About the author
Bruce Chatwin
40 books619 followersCharles Bruce Chatwin was an English novelist and travel writer. He won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his novel On the Black Hill (1982).
In 1972, Chatwin interviewed the 93-year-old architect and designer Eileen Gray in her Paris salon, where he noticed a map of the area of South America called Patagonia, which she had painted. "I've always wanted to go there," Bruce told her. "So have I," she replied, "go there for me." Two years later in November 1974, Chatwin flew out to Lima in Peru, and reached Patagonia a month later. When he arrived, he left the newspaper with a telegram: "Have gone to Patagonia." He spent six months in the area, a trip which resulted in the book In Patagonia (1977). This work established his reputation as a travel writer. Later, however, residents in the region contradicted the account of events depicted in Chatwin's book. It was the first time in his career, but not the last, that conversations and characters which Chatwin presented as fact were alleged to have been fictionalised.
Later works included a novel based on the slave trade, The Viceroy of Ouidah, which he researched with extended stays in Benin, West Africa. For The Songlines (1987), a work combining fiction and non-fiction, Chatwin went to Australia. He studied the culture to express how the songs of the Aborigines are a cross between a creation myth, an atlas and an Aboriginal man's personal story. He also related the travelling expressed in The Songlines to his own travels and the long nomadic past of humans. Winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, his novel On the Black Hill (1982) was set closer to home, in the hill farms of the Welsh Borders. It focuses on the relationship between twin brothers, Lewis and Benjamin, who grow up isolated from the course of twentieth century history. Utz (1988), was a novel about the obsession that leads people to collect. Set in Prague, the novel details the life and death of Kaspar Utz, a man obsessed with his collection of Meissen porcelain.
Chatwin was working on a number of new ideas for future novels at the time of his death from AIDS in 1989, including a transcontinental epic, provisionally titled Lydia Livingstone.
In 1972, Chatwin interviewed the 93-year-old architect and designer Eileen Gray in her Paris salon, where he noticed a map of the area of South America called Patagonia, which she had painted. "I've always wanted to go there," Bruce told her. "So have I," she replied, "go there for me." Two years later in November 1974, Chatwin flew out to Lima in Peru, and reached Patagonia a month later. When he arrived, he left the newspaper with a telegram: "Have gone to Patagonia." He spent six months in the area, a trip which resulted in the book In Patagonia (1977). This work established his reputation as a travel writer. Later, however, residents in the region contradicted the account of events depicted in Chatwin's book. It was the first time in his career, but not the last, that conversations and characters which Chatwin presented as fact were alleged to have been fictionalised.
Later works included a novel based on the slave trade, The Viceroy of Ouidah, which he researched with extended stays in Benin, West Africa. For The Songlines (1987), a work combining fiction and non-fiction, Chatwin went to Australia. He studied the culture to express how the songs of the Aborigines are a cross between a creation myth, an atlas and an Aboriginal man's personal story. He also related the travelling expressed in The Songlines to his own travels and the long nomadic past of humans. Winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, his novel On the Black Hill (1982) was set closer to home, in the hill farms of the Welsh Borders. It focuses on the relationship between twin brothers, Lewis and Benjamin, who grow up isolated from the course of twentieth century history. Utz (1988), was a novel about the obsession that leads people to collect. Set in Prague, the novel details the life and death of Kaspar Utz, a man obsessed with his collection of Meissen porcelain.
Chatwin was working on a number of new ideas for future novels at the time of his death from AIDS in 1989, including a transcontinental epic, provisionally titled Lydia Livingstone.
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August 26, 2024
LE VIE DEI PASSI
Chatwin era un nomade, credo per sua stessa ammissione, sicuramente per quella di sua moglie, alla quale la malattia che lo portò alla morte lo aveva avvicinato al punto da indurre Salman Rushdie a dire che si era davvero innamorato di lei e avrebbe voluto scrivere un romanzo sulla famiglia di lei che abbracciava Parigi, Mosca, New York.
Ma c’era un posto che spinge il suo biografo Nicholas Shakespeare a scrivere che si sentiva
in esilio in qualsiasi posto, tranne le Black Mountains, l’unico posto in cui tornava di continuo..
Chatwin considerava quest’area geografica di confine tra Galles e Inghilterra, frequentata e amata sin dall’infanzia, uno dei “centri emotivi” della sua vita.
E proprio qui, in una fattoria che nel romanzo si chiama “Vision”, visione - località effettivamente esistente ma in posizione leggermente diversa - all’interno della quale, sotto le scale che conducono al primo piano, fa passare la linea che separa Wales (Galles) e Inghilterra, è ambientato questo suo secondo, e premiato, romanzo pubblicato nel 1982: la storia della vita di due gemelli omozigoti nell’arco di ottant’anni, dalla loro nascita a fine Ottocento attraverso gran parte del Novecento fino a poco prima dell’uscita del libro. Esistenza che, contrariamente a quella di chi ha scritto il romanzo, si svolge tutta nell’arco ristretto di poche miglia. Che difficilmente avrebbe potuto avere raggio più ampio perché questo avrebbe significato separarsi: e i gemelli nati dallo stesso ovulo sono notoriamente inseparabili.
E per quanto poco scalfiti dagli eventi storici, mi pare comunque che i due gemelli sentano l’effetto della Grande Guerra ben più di quanto il loro creatore Bruce abbia sentito il colpo di stato in Cile e la dittatura di Pinochet che se ricordo bene nel suo celebre esordio In Patagonia rimangono semplicemente fuori campo.
Lo scorrere della storia è trasmesso da questo piacevolissimo raffinato narratore onnisciente attraverso dettagli, come l’introduzione di automobili, trattori, aerei.
Ma il personaggio di gran lunga più bello è quello della madre, ennesima dimostrazione, qualora ce ne fosse bisogno, che se ci fossero più donne nei posti che contano il mondo sarebbe un luogo più piacevole di ora. Donna bella, educata, coltivata, intelligente, innamorata dell’India e della Terra Santa, conserva capacità e voglia di ridere anche quando il matrimonio le rivela che ha sposato un uomo alquanto ottuso e stupido, e purtroppo anche brutale e manesco.
Ma quello che mi ha davvero colpito è la capacità di Chatwin, che io conosco solo come narratore di viaggio, di scrivere un romanzo classico, squisitamente ottocentesco (Thomas Hardy?), con lingua moderna, iniezioni di ironia soffusa e diffusa, descrivendo il mondo del secolo che lo ha preceduto come se lo avesse davanti, come se lo avesse attraversato: oggetti, vestiti, colori, cibi, profumi, abitudini, attività di lavoro, tutto trasporta in maniera nitida ed esatta indietro di decine di anni. Chapeau Mr Chatwin, non la facevo così bravo.
La Black Hill del titolo, parte delle Black Mountains.
Una valle delle Black Mountains.
Chatwin era un nomade, credo per sua stessa ammissione, sicuramente per quella di sua moglie, alla quale la malattia che lo portò alla morte lo aveva avvicinato al punto da indurre Salman Rushdie a dire che si era davvero innamorato di lei e avrebbe voluto scrivere un romanzo sulla famiglia di lei che abbracciava Parigi, Mosca, New York.
Ma c’era un posto che spinge il suo biografo Nicholas Shakespeare a scrivere che si sentiva
in esilio in qualsiasi posto, tranne le Black Mountains, l’unico posto in cui tornava di continuo..
Chatwin considerava quest’area geografica di confine tra Galles e Inghilterra, frequentata e amata sin dall’infanzia, uno dei “centri emotivi” della sua vita.
E proprio qui, in una fattoria che nel romanzo si chiama “Vision”, visione - località effettivamente esistente ma in posizione leggermente diversa - all’interno della quale, sotto le scale che conducono al primo piano, fa passare la linea che separa Wales (Galles) e Inghilterra, è ambientato questo suo secondo, e premiato, romanzo pubblicato nel 1982: la storia della vita di due gemelli omozigoti nell’arco di ottant’anni, dalla loro nascita a fine Ottocento attraverso gran parte del Novecento fino a poco prima dell’uscita del libro. Esistenza che, contrariamente a quella di chi ha scritto il romanzo, si svolge tutta nell’arco ristretto di poche miglia. Che difficilmente avrebbe potuto avere raggio più ampio perché questo avrebbe significato separarsi: e i gemelli nati dallo stesso ovulo sono notoriamente inseparabili.
E per quanto poco scalfiti dagli eventi storici, mi pare comunque che i due gemelli sentano l’effetto della Grande Guerra ben più di quanto il loro creatore Bruce abbia sentito il colpo di stato in Cile e la dittatura di Pinochet che se ricordo bene nel suo celebre esordio In Patagonia rimangono semplicemente fuori campo.
Lo scorrere della storia è trasmesso da questo piacevolissimo raffinato narratore onnisciente attraverso dettagli, come l’introduzione di automobili, trattori, aerei.
Ma il personaggio di gran lunga più bello è quello della madre, ennesima dimostrazione, qualora ce ne fosse bisogno, che se ci fossero più donne nei posti che contano il mondo sarebbe un luogo più piacevole di ora. Donna bella, educata, coltivata, intelligente, innamorata dell’India e della Terra Santa, conserva capacità e voglia di ridere anche quando il matrimonio le rivela che ha sposato un uomo alquanto ottuso e stupido, e purtroppo anche brutale e manesco.
Ma quello che mi ha davvero colpito è la capacità di Chatwin, che io conosco solo come narratore di viaggio, di scrivere un romanzo classico, squisitamente ottocentesco (Thomas Hardy?), con lingua moderna, iniezioni di ironia soffusa e diffusa, descrivendo il mondo del secolo che lo ha preceduto come se lo avesse davanti, come se lo avesse attraversato: oggetti, vestiti, colori, cibi, profumi, abitudini, attività di lavoro, tutto trasporta in maniera nitida ed esatta indietro di decine di anni. Chapeau Mr Chatwin, non la facevo così bravo.
La Black Hill del titolo, parte delle Black Mountains.
Una valle delle Black Mountains.
March 10, 2021
This will be the first time Bruce Chatwin’s first novel has been published in e-format, making it available for e-tablet readers. This edition also contains an “illustrated biography of Bruce Chatwin, including rare images and never-before-seen documents from the author’s estate.”
“He never thought of abroad. He wanted to live with Lewis for ever and ever; to eat the same food; wear the same clothes; share a bed; and swing an axe in the same trajectory. There were four gates leading into The Vision; and, for him, they were the Four Gates of Paradise.”
Identical twins Lewis and Benjamin Jones have shared most of their days of their lives together since they were born. They live in a house together, sleep in their parent’s old bed together, work the farm together. Their lives are more interdependent than most married couples, each one completely dependent upon the other. The trials they’ve endured in their lives have changed each of them in different ways, they are no longer the mirror images of the other, inside and out.
“Because they knew each other’s thoughts, they even quarreled without speaking.”
Benjamin is the softer, gentler one, he cooks, and he loves delivering the baby lambs. Lewis is physically stronger, but a dreamer of other lands. Their mother factors heavily in their memories as they go through their days, through their lives. Their father factors in, not as heavily in their hearts, perhaps, but in the storytelling. Beginning with their father’s youth through their entire lives, this little book covers a rather extensive period of history.
Set in rural Wales, in a tiny little spot on the map, Chatwin is at his best when describing the landscapes and other cultures. The twins rarely leave their farm, and the town is much like you’d expect from any small town where the people rarely change, living is routine and never easy. These residents not only can’t imagine living anywhere else, they are comfortable in their routines. Knowing the quirks and annoying behaviors of each resident they feel protected by that knowledge.
“Most Radnorshire farmers knew chapter and verse of the Bible, preferring the Old Testament to the New, because in the Old Testament there were many more stories about sheep-farming.”
While reading this, I sometimes felt torn between the occasionally lovely prose, the quirky charm of the characters, and the overall bleakness of the setting as it often crossed that line into bleak and depressing. I recommend this book with that caution.
Published: 18 Oct 2016
Many thanks to Open Road Integrated Media, and to NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy for reading and review.
December 27, 2016
This one blew me away. So simple; so complex. So small; so big. I finished it a week ago, but I've been holding off on reviewing it until I could find the right words. I still haven't. Until I do, I'll just leave these stars here and tell you: this is one is pure gold.
October 25, 2023
I've never read Chatwin before but his name immediately brings to my mind voyages and creates beguiling images of distant lands. Meanwhile in On the Black Hill we receive ordinary though unusual in its simplicity story, set on the farm called "The Vision " on the english-wales border. Chatwin effortlessly and with great charm and discreet humor painted hymn to the unchanging rhythm of life, hard work and carefully cultivated Welsh separateness. With keen eye described the small, closed community, unwilling to changes taking place in the world.
The protagonists are twin brothers Lewis and Benjamin Jones. When we meet them they are in their eighties and spent together practically almost whole life. We get to know theirs father, simply, sometimes violent peasant and his wife Mary, educated and fragile pastor's daughter. We're witnesses nearly the whole century on the Black Hill. We see, unusual even for twins, intimacy. Violent quarrels with neighbours, love for the farming, beauty of the countryside, two world wars, economic progress, tractors, planes. All this runs through the book.
And on the Black Hill two old childless men are to make over the farm to their sister's grandson.
Masterpiece.
December 29, 2016
A warm-hearted and somewhat bleak tale of identical twin brothers, Benjamin and Lewis, living out their lives together on a rural farm on the border of Wales and England. The initial scenes of their comfortable routines in their 80’s are followed by a step back to the origin of their lives soon after the marriage of their parents at the end of the 19th century. They settle into the life of tenant sheep farmers, fixing up an old farmhouse they call “The Vision” close by the beautiful “Black Hill”.
We get a vision of an idyllic life for the twins growing up on this farm, which they would almost never leave. Lewis is more physical and likes girls; Benjamin was more sensitive and spiritual, loves to tend to the lambs and wants only to be with Lewis forever. The light would literally go out of his eyes when separated from Lewis. They are almost separated when Lewis falls for a local girl and when Benjamin gets drafted for the Great War, but fate seems to intercede. Their father, before he dies, works out a way to purchase the farm. With Lewis’ brawn and Benjamin’s talent for business, they make a go of keeping their little paradise going despite any upheavals in the distant world. After their mother dies, they keep everything in the house the same. Their main concession to changing times is to adopt a tractor for plowing.
Thus the tale is a bit of a fairy tale of resilience to change and keeping family bonds alive and the life of a place called home forever. I was moved by the little dramas in their life and that of villagers in their community. I mentally place this book among other admired stories that I consider “biography of place”. I loved Chatwin’s effortless capturing of the rhythms of nature at the farm, as here reflected in the senses of the twins’ mother Mary:
The winter was hard. From January to April the snow never melted off the hill and the frozen leaves of foxgloves drooped like dead donkeys’ ears. Every morning she peered from the bedroom window to see if the larches were black or crisped with rime. The animals were silent in the deep cold, and the chatter of the sewing machine could be heard as far as the lambing paddock.
I loved the subtle humor bordering on satire about class relations. For example,
Mrs. Bickerton was a frail fair-skinned woman in her later thirties. As a girl, she had devoted herself to painting, and had lived in Florence. Then, when her talent seemed to desert her, she married a handsome but brainless cavalry officer, possibly for his collection of Old Masters, possibly to annoy her artist friends.
‘I like the Welsh,’ Mrs, Bickerton went on. ‘But they do seem to get so angry, later. It must be to do with the climate.’
The twin’s father Amos does harbor a temper bottled up inside his inarticulate self. At first, he kept in check, along with his tender feelings:
He treated her as a fragile object that had come by chance into his possession and might easily break in his hands. He was terrified of hurting her, or letting his hot blood carry him away. The sight of her whalebone corset was enough to unman him completely.
But Mary’s attempts at creativity and cooking based on her readings did not fare well. For his constipation, she began to plan for some healthy vegetables in the garden:
But when she suggested planting an asparagus bed, he flew into a towering rage. Who did she think she was? Did she think she’d married into the gentry?
The crisis came when she experimented with a mild Indian curry. He took one mouthful and spat it out. ‘I want none of your filthy Indian food,’ he snarled, and smashed the serving dish on the floor.
Almost all my friends on Goodreads rate this book higher. But my “B” rating is relative to the wonderful books on rural life and coming of age that I have sought out, driven in part by my origins from a place in Oklahoma where our nearest neighbor was a mile away. Among these other reads I am most attracted to ones that capture the necessary personal transformations or the surpassing of hardships that make one capable of dealing with the larger adult world. Just as with a rare book on utopia, a tale devoted to preservation of the good life hooks me less than ones where the character must deal with a dystopian society or a dysfunctional family through a pathway of tough moral choices. An example of such a book for me is McMurtry’s “The Last Picture Show”. The nostalgia aspects of this book are close to that of “My Antonia” and “Jayber Crow”, but the former excels for me by incorporating more personal change and the latter by capturing the vitality of a community. The closest in plot is Haruf’s “Plainsong”, which also features a pair of bachelor farmer brothers, but their taking in a pregnant teenager opens the door to substantial change in their lives.
This book was provided by the publisher as an e-book through the Netgalley program.
We get a vision of an idyllic life for the twins growing up on this farm, which they would almost never leave. Lewis is more physical and likes girls; Benjamin was more sensitive and spiritual, loves to tend to the lambs and wants only to be with Lewis forever. The light would literally go out of his eyes when separated from Lewis. They are almost separated when Lewis falls for a local girl and when Benjamin gets drafted for the Great War, but fate seems to intercede. Their father, before he dies, works out a way to purchase the farm. With Lewis’ brawn and Benjamin’s talent for business, they make a go of keeping their little paradise going despite any upheavals in the distant world. After their mother dies, they keep everything in the house the same. Their main concession to changing times is to adopt a tractor for plowing.
Thus the tale is a bit of a fairy tale of resilience to change and keeping family bonds alive and the life of a place called home forever. I was moved by the little dramas in their life and that of villagers in their community. I mentally place this book among other admired stories that I consider “biography of place”. I loved Chatwin’s effortless capturing of the rhythms of nature at the farm, as here reflected in the senses of the twins’ mother Mary:
The winter was hard. From January to April the snow never melted off the hill and the frozen leaves of foxgloves drooped like dead donkeys’ ears. Every morning she peered from the bedroom window to see if the larches were black or crisped with rime. The animals were silent in the deep cold, and the chatter of the sewing machine could be heard as far as the lambing paddock.
I loved the subtle humor bordering on satire about class relations. For example,
Mrs. Bickerton was a frail fair-skinned woman in her later thirties. As a girl, she had devoted herself to painting, and had lived in Florence. Then, when her talent seemed to desert her, she married a handsome but brainless cavalry officer, possibly for his collection of Old Masters, possibly to annoy her artist friends.
‘I like the Welsh,’ Mrs, Bickerton went on. ‘But they do seem to get so angry, later. It must be to do with the climate.’
The twin’s father Amos does harbor a temper bottled up inside his inarticulate self. At first, he kept in check, along with his tender feelings:
He treated her as a fragile object that had come by chance into his possession and might easily break in his hands. He was terrified of hurting her, or letting his hot blood carry him away. The sight of her whalebone corset was enough to unman him completely.
But Mary’s attempts at creativity and cooking based on her readings did not fare well. For his constipation, she began to plan for some healthy vegetables in the garden:
But when she suggested planting an asparagus bed, he flew into a towering rage. Who did she think she was? Did she think she’d married into the gentry?
The crisis came when she experimented with a mild Indian curry. He took one mouthful and spat it out. ‘I want none of your filthy Indian food,’ he snarled, and smashed the serving dish on the floor.
Almost all my friends on Goodreads rate this book higher. But my “B” rating is relative to the wonderful books on rural life and coming of age that I have sought out, driven in part by my origins from a place in Oklahoma where our nearest neighbor was a mile away. Among these other reads I am most attracted to ones that capture the necessary personal transformations or the surpassing of hardships that make one capable of dealing with the larger adult world. Just as with a rare book on utopia, a tale devoted to preservation of the good life hooks me less than ones where the character must deal with a dystopian society or a dysfunctional family through a pathway of tough moral choices. An example of such a book for me is McMurtry’s “The Last Picture Show”. The nostalgia aspects of this book are close to that of “My Antonia” and “Jayber Crow”, but the former excels for me by incorporating more personal change and the latter by capturing the vitality of a community. The closest in plot is Haruf’s “Plainsong”, which also features a pair of bachelor farmer brothers, but their taking in a pregnant teenager opens the door to substantial change in their lives.
This book was provided by the publisher as an e-book through the Netgalley program.
December 6, 2019
At the start, On The Black Hill immediately attracted me. The prose is what drew me. I liked how what we were being told was expressed. The descriptions of places, people and things are well done. We are told, for example, that the village where the story is set is located on the border between Wales and Herefordshire, England, and that the borderline passes right through the middle of houses! What a great way of saying that the town has a cultural mix.
The story is about identical twins—Lewis is the one a few seconds older, a little bit more dominant, a little bit more of an extrovert. He is not satisfied to just sit at home. Girls tantalize him. Benjamin is the other twin. It is he who is the homebody and it is he whom is favored by their beloved mother.
We learn about the twins’ grandparents first and then their father and mother. It is indicated at the start that the twins are now in their eighties and that they were born at the turn of the 20th century. Immediately I was intrigued by the twins’ mother—she had traveled and spent time in the Middle East and India. What was she doing here, married into a rather ordinary family of Welsh ancestry? My interest was piqued. I wanted to know more.
The story is then told as a flashback—sometimes skipping years, until we are again at the present with Lewis and Benjamin eighty.
The book is about being identical twins. It is also about life in a remote, rural, agricultural, Welsh / English community during the 20th century. It shows the passage of time and how world events play out in the village and the area. As such, it is a book of historical fiction.
That stated above is undisputable. The problem is that questions arise as to what conclusions the author is attempting to draw. I am befuddled. I do not know what Bruce Chatwin is trying to say!
One is pulled in different directions. Is he saying something about religion? Perhaps that is not his intention at all. What is he saying about the modernization of society? Or about the two world wars? Or pacifism? Is he saying something about urban versus small town lifestyles? Or is he just plain drawing how the events of the 20th century played out in this community, and nothing more?! Maybe he is not trying to say anything else! Perhaps there is absolutely no need to analyze the question further! In any case, it seems to me that he is critical in his assessment of the townspeople and of the human race in general.
Chatwin hints at a possible homosexual attraction between Benjamin and Lewis. For me, the story circles more around the ability of identical twins to read each other’s thoughts and feelings than homosexuality per se.* When Lewis and Benjamin were young, they had difficulty grasping the words “yours” versus “mine”. For them the two words meant the same thing. The brothers saw themselves as one, indivisible from each other! We are told, “Because they knew each other's thoughts, they even quarreled without speaking.” I do not think Chatwin was inferring homosexuaity. One can perhaps play with the idea that all people have male and female characteristics within them, and just leave it at that! As with the other unresolved issues, what Chatwin is actually saying is not clear.
I am somewhat disappointed. Even if I do like how Chatwin puts together his words, the story itself is too loose ended, half-baked. What Chatwin is trying to say with this story is too diffuse. Ultimately, is the story about the 20th century or is it about being a twin? Has the bond between them been a blessing or a curse? At the book’s end Lewis is most happy . When we have become old, is this what matters most?
Writing this review has helped me sort out my thoughts. Maybe, maybe, the book could be worth three stars……..but just maybe. I am leaving my rating at two. It is more OK, than good.
Steffan Rhodri narrates the audiobook. He uses different intonations for different characters, and he does this well, but I personally prefer less dramatization. I have given the narration three stars. I believe others may like it more than me.
*Do keep in mind though that Bruce Chatwin was homosexual. He died in 1989 from AIDS.
**************************
*On The Black Hill 2 stars
*In Patagonia 2 stars
The story is about identical twins—Lewis is the one a few seconds older, a little bit more dominant, a little bit more of an extrovert. He is not satisfied to just sit at home. Girls tantalize him. Benjamin is the other twin. It is he who is the homebody and it is he whom is favored by their beloved mother.
We learn about the twins’ grandparents first and then their father and mother. It is indicated at the start that the twins are now in their eighties and that they were born at the turn of the 20th century. Immediately I was intrigued by the twins’ mother—she had traveled and spent time in the Middle East and India. What was she doing here, married into a rather ordinary family of Welsh ancestry? My interest was piqued. I wanted to know more.
The story is then told as a flashback—sometimes skipping years, until we are again at the present with Lewis and Benjamin eighty.
The book is about being identical twins. It is also about life in a remote, rural, agricultural, Welsh / English community during the 20th century. It shows the passage of time and how world events play out in the village and the area. As such, it is a book of historical fiction.
That stated above is undisputable. The problem is that questions arise as to what conclusions the author is attempting to draw. I am befuddled. I do not know what Bruce Chatwin is trying to say!
One is pulled in different directions. Is he saying something about religion? Perhaps that is not his intention at all. What is he saying about the modernization of society? Or about the two world wars? Or pacifism? Is he saying something about urban versus small town lifestyles? Or is he just plain drawing how the events of the 20th century played out in this community, and nothing more?! Maybe he is not trying to say anything else! Perhaps there is absolutely no need to analyze the question further! In any case, it seems to me that he is critical in his assessment of the townspeople and of the human race in general.
Chatwin hints at a possible homosexual attraction between Benjamin and Lewis. For me, the story circles more around the ability of identical twins to read each other’s thoughts and feelings than homosexuality per se.* When Lewis and Benjamin were young, they had difficulty grasping the words “yours” versus “mine”. For them the two words meant the same thing. The brothers saw themselves as one, indivisible from each other! We are told, “Because they knew each other's thoughts, they even quarreled without speaking.” I do not think Chatwin was inferring homosexuaity. One can perhaps play with the idea that all people have male and female characteristics within them, and just leave it at that! As with the other unresolved issues, what Chatwin is actually saying is not clear.
I am somewhat disappointed. Even if I do like how Chatwin puts together his words, the story itself is too loose ended, half-baked. What Chatwin is trying to say with this story is too diffuse. Ultimately, is the story about the 20th century or is it about being a twin? Has the bond between them been a blessing or a curse? At the book’s end Lewis is most happy . When we have become old, is this what matters most?
Writing this review has helped me sort out my thoughts. Maybe, maybe, the book could be worth three stars……..but just maybe. I am leaving my rating at two. It is more OK, than good.
Steffan Rhodri narrates the audiobook. He uses different intonations for different characters, and he does this well, but I personally prefer less dramatization. I have given the narration three stars. I believe others may like it more than me.
*Do keep in mind though that Bruce Chatwin was homosexual. He died in 1989 from AIDS.
**************************
*On The Black Hill 2 stars
*In Patagonia 2 stars
April 29, 2017
I mostly read this during our trip to Hay-on-Wye earlier in the month, and feel it is worthy of being called a modern classic. It has echoes of D.H. Lawrence and especially Thomas Hardy, and it’s a pleasantly offbeat look at the developments of the twentieth century as seen through the lives of Welsh identical twins Benjamin and Lewis Jones. Opening in the 1980s, when the brothers are eccentric old gents sleeping side by side in their late parents’ bed, the book then retreats to the beginning: at the turn of the last century ornery Amos Jones fell for an educated rector’s daughter and their volatile relationship played out at The Vision farm. One son was caught up in the First World War, one had love affairs; neither “ever strayed further than Hereford.” Through sickness, community scandal, and the rise and fall of fortunes, they remain wedded to Welsh village life.
I especially loved Chatwin’s descriptions of the natural world (he’d visited Radnorshire as a boy and considered it a kind of spiritual home), and the glimpses he gives into the twins’ preternatural closeness:
(Clearance book from Blackwell’s in Oxford.)
Originally published with images on my blog, Bookish Beck.
I especially loved Chatwin’s descriptions of the natural world (he’d visited Radnorshire as a boy and considered it a kind of spiritual home), and the glimpses he gives into the twins’ preternatural closeness:
Lewis and Benjamin gambolled ahead, put up grouse, played finger-football with rabbit-droppings, peered over the precipice onto the backs of kestrels and ravens and, every now and then, crept off into the bracken, and hid. They liked to pretend they were lost in a forest, like the Twins in Grimms’ fairy-tale, and that each stalk of bracken was the trunk of a forest tree. … They lay on their backs and gazed on the clouds that crossed the fretted patches of sky … they would press their foreheads together, each twin losing himself in the other’s grey eye.
(Clearance book from Blackwell’s in Oxford.)
Originally published with images on my blog, Bookish Beck.
February 4, 2012
This is a nice, quiet little novel to pick up when you don't want anything upsetting or scary or suspenseful to read. It's very much place-driven and character-driven rather than dependent on an exciting plot. Chatwin covered 80 years in 250 pages, so there's no excess prose or boring passages. The beauty of the book is the way the author carries you away to a sheltered little farming community on the border of Wales and England. With very few words he richly creates all the small-town provincial characters you'd expect for that time and place. There's the gossip, the crazy person, the greedy one, the pious one---and then all the interlopers "from off" that the locals don't trust because they're new. The landscape and seasons and lifestyle are also vividly created with few words.
The story follows the lives of Benjamin and Lewis Jones. They are identical twins who are so attached to each other that they're more like one person than two. Born in 1900, they spend their entire lives on their farm, with only one holiday away at the age of ten. Sounds boring, but the book has its own special charm.
The story follows the lives of Benjamin and Lewis Jones. They are identical twins who are so attached to each other that they're more like one person than two. Born in 1900, they spend their entire lives on their farm, with only one holiday away at the age of ten. Sounds boring, but the book has its own special charm.
July 10, 2010
Take Haruki Murakami's novel, Kafka on the Shore. A delight to its juvenile readers, and why wouldn't it? Lots of props here: cats talking to humans, frogs falling like rain from the sky, a son having sex with his mother, a brother-and-sister love scene, killings, ghosts. Even the title hints of fantasy. After reading it, however, you feel empty. Like you've spent new year's eve all alone, you've watched the fireworks in the sky consume themselves, then you sleep with no remembrance of any joy.
Now look at this. Not a single one of such props whatsoever. Bruce Chatwin even chose the most boring place, the most ordinary characters, the simplest plot, and an unpretentious title. Near the end of the 19th century the story starts, a farm on the English-Welsh border called "The Vision", near a place called the Black Hill. There's the father Amos and his wife Mary. Their first born were twins, Lewis and Benjamin. They have a younger daughter who later ran away with a man and never came back. Amos tended their farm, the twins grew up to be farmers too. They never married or had children. Lewis lost his virginity to a girl when he was already past the age of 30, Benjamin appears to have never had sex with anyone although it was hinted that he may have been sexually abused by men during his stint as a drafted soldier during the first world war where he refused to fight and was dishonorably discharged. After their parents died, and their sister had ran away, the twins continued tending to their farm, acquiring additional land every now and then. They slept side by side in their parents' bed for 42 years, never changing anything inside their house. They grew old, past the age of eighty. Just that. No trips to purgatory, no battles fought, no enigmas, strange coincidences or troubling dreams.
Boring, boring, boring you might say. But you know what? Unlike Kafka on the Shore which fell flat despite all it pyrotechnics, this novel FLEW. And at that point where it takes you to flight, you'd feel like crying.
Another discovery from the 1001 list. Bruce Chatwin..."died outside Nice, France, on January 17, 1989" the book's blurb says. Never heard of you before, Mr. Chatwin. But now I see you!
Now look at this. Not a single one of such props whatsoever. Bruce Chatwin even chose the most boring place, the most ordinary characters, the simplest plot, and an unpretentious title. Near the end of the 19th century the story starts, a farm on the English-Welsh border called "The Vision", near a place called the Black Hill. There's the father Amos and his wife Mary. Their first born were twins, Lewis and Benjamin. They have a younger daughter who later ran away with a man and never came back. Amos tended their farm, the twins grew up to be farmers too. They never married or had children. Lewis lost his virginity to a girl when he was already past the age of 30, Benjamin appears to have never had sex with anyone although it was hinted that he may have been sexually abused by men during his stint as a drafted soldier during the first world war where he refused to fight and was dishonorably discharged. After their parents died, and their sister had ran away, the twins continued tending to their farm, acquiring additional land every now and then. They slept side by side in their parents' bed for 42 years, never changing anything inside their house. They grew old, past the age of eighty. Just that. No trips to purgatory, no battles fought, no enigmas, strange coincidences or troubling dreams.
Boring, boring, boring you might say. But you know what? Unlike Kafka on the Shore which fell flat despite all it pyrotechnics, this novel FLEW. And at that point where it takes you to flight, you'd feel like crying.
Another discovery from the 1001 list. Bruce Chatwin..."died outside Nice, France, on January 17, 1989" the book's blurb says. Never heard of you before, Mr. Chatwin. But now I see you!
April 24, 2017
Twin boys, Lewis and Benjamin Jones, were born in 1900 on a farm on the border of Radnorshire, Wales and Herefordshire, England. The identical Welsh twins spent more than eighty years together with the stronger Lewis doing the heavier work on the farm, while Benjamin handled the finances and birthing the lambs. Their one push into the modern world was buying a tractor. They had a telepathic relationship, knowing the other's thoughts and feeling the other's pain.
The book is composed of experiences of the twins, their parents, and their neighbors in a small village. It does not have much of a plot, but has a marvelous sense of place, occasional humor, and lovely writing. It immerses the reader in the rural life of a Welsh village where the residents live close to the land in what is often a bleak existence. Lewis died first, but Benjamin cannot be separated from his twin. He spends time every day sitting on the tomb, "a block of shiny black granite one half with an inscription, the other left blank."
The book is composed of experiences of the twins, their parents, and their neighbors in a small village. It does not have much of a plot, but has a marvelous sense of place, occasional humor, and lovely writing. It immerses the reader in the rural life of a Welsh village where the residents live close to the land in what is often a bleak existence. Lewis died first, but Benjamin cannot be separated from his twin. He spends time every day sitting on the tomb, "a block of shiny black granite one half with an inscription, the other left blank."
February 25, 2016
The story of a Welsh farming family focusing especially on twin brothers, Lewis and Benjamin. Having recently read a biography of Chatwin by N Shakespeare, I had already encountered several of the “characters” here. L&B are based upon two farming brothers introduced to Chatwin by his friend, Penelope Betjeman. Similarly, some of the other characters evolved in this way. It was therefore difficult for me to see this always as a work of fiction.
Beautifully written in spare clear prose it is entirely absorbing and the characters are well drawn. I now want to find the DVD of the film based on the book and see how they compare. Recommend.
Beautifully written in spare clear prose it is entirely absorbing and the characters are well drawn. I now want to find the DVD of the film based on the book and see how they compare. Recommend.
September 28, 2018
I felt like I was luxuriating in the language of this beloved novel about a family living in a house that straddles the Welsh-English border. It covers about 80 years in the life of the Jones Family, which particular emphasis on the identical twins Benjamin and Lewis who are so close they can feel each other's pain although they are different in many ways. It's a beautiful look at identity, siblings, family history, class, and place. I loved it.
May 11, 2013
Nabokov once states that all great stories are fairy tales in the sense that each work of fiction was a magical creation of a new world, 'On The Black Hill' is broadly speaking a "realistic" work of fiction but Chatwin is able to imbue it (especially the depiction of the Jones brothers childhood) with a magic, not with the magic of fiction but the magic of life. 'On The Black Hill' is the story of the lives of two twins in rural Wales. Nothing much happens in their lives, neither travel further than 100 miles from their village, although their lives are cushioned between two world wards and a world undergoing rapid industrialisation neither of these events have a huge impact on the characters lives as they live on the periphery of the industrialised world. None of the characters are particularly intelligent, kind or brilliant, instead the novel chronicles some dozen or so "normal" people, normal people with their kindness, quirks, insecurities and cruelties. The novel is imbued with seemingly mundane details of life in rural Wales, yet it is this detailed description that gives the novel its magic, its fairy tale element comes from its very ordinariness, as we come to learn about and care for the Jones twins and the other characters who live on the periphery of their lives, it celebrates instead the miracle of every human life no matter how superficially mundane it may seem.
November 1, 2020
This took a while to grow on me. I expected to be about two twin men aged 80, but actually it's about from before they were born up until they're 80, and the farming community they live in, and so has to move very speedily through the years without much pause to look around and reflect. And that's what I found difficult; it was only by the time the book finished that I got used to this speed. It's full of odd characters which I loved, the kind of people I remember from my rural childhood, tramps and loners, eccentrics and naturalists.
June 13, 2024
Set on a farm in Wales near the border with England, this book is the story of the lives of twin brothers, Lewis and Benjamin Jones, spanning eight decades (approximately 1900 to 1980). It is quiet and slow-moving, reflecting the rural life they lived. They have a close relationship with their mother and a more distant association with their father. Younger sister Rebecca plays a supporting role. There is not much of a plot – just the story of a family who resists change and tries to avoid interactions with the outside world, even though this time-period included the First and Second World Wars. The characters are well developed but there is not much going on. I liked it well enough, but I doubt it will stay with me for long.
May 10, 2012
This was a novel of almost unutterable beauty. Chatwin's writing is beyond lyrical and has a real rooting in time and place. Oh, to be in Wales at the turn of the last century! I can just imagine how bleak the winters were, and how spectacular the summers.
It was poignant to view the passing of time and the changes it wrought. This story felt different because of the time span covered. I've read plenty of novels set in the rural 1900s, but have not yet seen one modernise this world as Chatwin did, ending his novel in the 1980s. To me it was really interesting to watch the world become familiar (and to watch it become foreign to the novel's inhabitants). I felt sad that the times were changing, but amazed, at the same time, and connected again with the old world as a result. It was very beautiful.
The characters were all brilliantly realised and gave great spirit to the countryside. I loved Meg the Rock and Theo the Tent. I especially loved the twins, Lewis and Benjamin, and I think they were brilliantly crafted by Chatwin. I'd love to read this novel again, perhaps in twenty years or so. It was marvellous.
It was poignant to view the passing of time and the changes it wrought. This story felt different because of the time span covered. I've read plenty of novels set in the rural 1900s, but have not yet seen one modernise this world as Chatwin did, ending his novel in the 1980s. To me it was really interesting to watch the world become familiar (and to watch it become foreign to the novel's inhabitants). I felt sad that the times were changing, but amazed, at the same time, and connected again with the old world as a result. It was very beautiful.
The characters were all brilliantly realised and gave great spirit to the countryside. I loved Meg the Rock and Theo the Tent. I especially loved the twins, Lewis and Benjamin, and I think they were brilliantly crafted by Chatwin. I'd love to read this novel again, perhaps in twenty years or so. It was marvellous.
January 21, 2021
This might be a perfect book. After 12 years, I wasn't sure if I would find it as brilliant as the first time, but I did.
September 10, 2014
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 29, 2023
First fiction from Bruce Chatwin who usually writes non fiction travel, this is a nostalgic book spanning most of the 20th century. Lewis and Benjamin, identical twins who have never left their Welsh farming community, they feel each others pain and sleep in their deceased parents bed. Colourful characters as well as the twins, its a modern day Thomas Hardy in many ways.
August 4, 2024
An unusual novel marking Bruce Chatwin's debut as an author of fiction, Chatwin is best known as a writer of travelogues from countries that were extremely distant to most people in the UK during the 1970's and 1980's. Far Journeys, the one other book of his I have reviewed so far, being a good example.
"On the Black Hill" tells the story of the 20th century as experienced by Welsh twin brothers who rarely leave the village they were born in. One brother does get drafted in World War 1, mind you, but he performs so poorly in training he gets dishonourably discharged and sent back home because there is no way the Royal Army would let him anywhere near the frontlines!
Every page of "On the Black Hill" drips with nostalgic romanticism full of picturesquely bleak landscapes, eccentric locals, lovingly described old architecture and weird anecdotes. The other denizens of the tiny Welsh village are as important characters as the twins to be honest, as are the entire landscape and its "genius loci", since the entire atmosphere is as much the point of the book as the things that do happen. It's not pure nostalgia, though, because the darker aspects of life on Earth start creeping into the story as the 20th century goes on. Examples include an incident when an army officer returning from WW1 dies of exhaustion during the victory celebration, or when the protagonists get tasked with raising a little girl whose parents murdered each other in a dispute - as well as certain things that happen later in her life, which I will not spoil.
Some of the 20th century's tumultous changes do impact the village and with it the twin brothers' lives. For example, the US Army sets up a base there during WW2 and the twins get tasked with monitoring a German prisoner-of-war... who is so impressed by their treatment of him, that he voluntarily moves there after the war. Then we have the bohemian artist couple moving to the village, bringing a more modern outlook on life (in particular gender roles) than everyone else there resulting in a significant culture clash. In the 1970's, a hippie commune moves into the village as well, with one of them eventually marrying the twins' adoptive daughter. I guess Chatwin's exact choices of which aspects of modernity do intrude on the fictional Welsh village says something about what he considered the most important changes in British society during the century?
As I pointed out earlier, "On the Black Hill" is not a book you read for the plot or the characterisation as much as the one you read for the distinctive nostalgic atmosphere with a tinge of darkness under it which I described before. If you enjoy that entire aesthetic you will really like reading "On the Black Hill", if not you will probably find it the literary equivalent of nails on chalkboard.
"On the Black Hill" tells the story of the 20th century as experienced by Welsh twin brothers who rarely leave the village they were born in. One brother does get drafted in World War 1, mind you, but he performs so poorly in training he gets dishonourably discharged and sent back home because there is no way the Royal Army would let him anywhere near the frontlines!
Every page of "On the Black Hill" drips with nostalgic romanticism full of picturesquely bleak landscapes, eccentric locals, lovingly described old architecture and weird anecdotes. The other denizens of the tiny Welsh village are as important characters as the twins to be honest, as are the entire landscape and its "genius loci", since the entire atmosphere is as much the point of the book as the things that do happen. It's not pure nostalgia, though, because the darker aspects of life on Earth start creeping into the story as the 20th century goes on. Examples include an incident when an army officer returning from WW1 dies of exhaustion during the victory celebration, or when the protagonists get tasked with raising a little girl whose parents murdered each other in a dispute - as well as certain things that happen later in her life, which I will not spoil.
Some of the 20th century's tumultous changes do impact the village and with it the twin brothers' lives. For example, the US Army sets up a base there during WW2 and the twins get tasked with monitoring a German prisoner-of-war... who is so impressed by their treatment of him, that he voluntarily moves there after the war. Then we have the bohemian artist couple moving to the village, bringing a more modern outlook on life (in particular gender roles) than everyone else there resulting in a significant culture clash. In the 1970's, a hippie commune moves into the village as well, with one of them eventually marrying the twins' adoptive daughter. I guess Chatwin's exact choices of which aspects of modernity do intrude on the fictional Welsh village says something about what he considered the most important changes in British society during the century?
As I pointed out earlier, "On the Black Hill" is not a book you read for the plot or the characterisation as much as the one you read for the distinctive nostalgic atmosphere with a tinge of darkness under it which I described before. If you enjoy that entire aesthetic you will really like reading "On the Black Hill", if not you will probably find it the literary equivalent of nails on chalkboard.
December 7, 2015
Se este romance tivesse menos oitenta personagens, talvez o relato dos oitenta anos de vida dos gémeos Jones fosse muito mais interessante.
January 22, 2020
Questo libro di Chatwin è un viaggio lungo un secolo che descrive la vita di una piccola comunità gallese di campagna.
Le sue descrizioni mi hanno ricordato i quadri dei paesaggisti inglesi della prima metà dell'Ottocento, dove squarci di luce penetrano la vita campestre e addentrano il fascino della natura. Su questo sfondo si stagliano i gemelli Jones e il particolare rapporto di simbiosi che li caratterizza. Le esperienze dell'uno non possono non coinvolgere l'altro, neanche la distanza riesce a separarli, neanche i disaccordi o le discussioni. I grandi eventi storici che percorrono il secolo non riescono a cambiare sostanzialmente le loro vite legate alla terra e alle tradizioni. In particolare Benjamin non accetta il progresso tecnologico che alleggerisce il lavoro ma al tempo stesso lo trasforma. Lewis, il più forte dei due, paradossalmente è il più succube nel loro rapporto. La sua vita si piega alle esigenze del fratello apparentemente più debole, ma che dimostra di essere il più tenace.
Una storia molto bella e particolare che esplorare le terre, per me sconosciute, del Galles.
Le sue descrizioni mi hanno ricordato i quadri dei paesaggisti inglesi della prima metà dell'Ottocento, dove squarci di luce penetrano la vita campestre e addentrano il fascino della natura. Su questo sfondo si stagliano i gemelli Jones e il particolare rapporto di simbiosi che li caratterizza. Le esperienze dell'uno non possono non coinvolgere l'altro, neanche la distanza riesce a separarli, neanche i disaccordi o le discussioni. I grandi eventi storici che percorrono il secolo non riescono a cambiare sostanzialmente le loro vite legate alla terra e alle tradizioni. In particolare Benjamin non accetta il progresso tecnologico che alleggerisce il lavoro ma al tempo stesso lo trasforma. Lewis, il più forte dei due, paradossalmente è il più succube nel loro rapporto. La sua vita si piega alle esigenze del fratello apparentemente più debole, ma che dimostra di essere il più tenace.
Una storia molto bella e particolare che esplorare le terre, per me sconosciute, del Galles.
February 4, 2022
Read this some years back, and must reread one of these days now that I’ve moved to within striking distance of its setting.
A Welsh poet friend of mine tells me that Bruce Chatwin was staying with his (Chatwin’s) friend Penelope Chetwode at her home in the Welsh/English border country when she suggested to him it was time he wrote something about somewhere nearer to home, and promptly introduced him to two elderly farmers (brothers, but not twins) who lived nearby.
Apparently he based some of his story on some of their lives, and my poet friend visited the brothers’ graves recently.
A Welsh poet friend of mine tells me that Bruce Chatwin was staying with his (Chatwin’s) friend Penelope Chetwode at her home in the Welsh/English border country when she suggested to him it was time he wrote something about somewhere nearer to home, and promptly introduced him to two elderly farmers (brothers, but not twins) who lived nearby.
Apparently he based some of his story on some of their lives, and my poet friend visited the brothers’ graves recently.
May 30, 2014
Always I have associated Bruce Chatwin's work with travel to far-off places. This time, with On the Black Hill, he threw me for a loop. We the a whole lifetime lived in one place, on the border between Radnor (in Wales) and Hereford (in England). The lifetime is of a pair of twins named Lewis and Benjamin Jones, two bachelors who slept with each other in their mother's bed on the old farm called The Vision.
Because I had a suspicion of what the book was about, I did not expect to like it. Not only did I wind up liking it, but I thought it was by far the best of Chatwin's three novels, despite being so un-Chatwinlike in its subject.
The only character I thought reminded me of Chatwin was a nomad from South Africa called Theo the Tent, because he live in a yurt:
I have always loved Chatwin's work. Now I have read everything except his letters and those scattered essays not reprinted in books. I still think he was one of the lights of the late 20th Century. It was a pity he died so young.
Because I had a suspicion of what the book was about, I did not expect to like it. Not only did I wind up liking it, but I thought it was by far the best of Chatwin's three novels, despite being so un-Chatwinlike in its subject.
The only character I thought reminded me of Chatwin was a nomad from South Africa called Theo the Tent, because he live in a yurt:
And he had come to believe that all men were meant to be wanderers, like them, like St Francis, and by joining the Way of the Universe, you could find the Great Spirit everywhere -- in the smell of bracken after rain, the buzz of a bee in the ear of a foxglove, or in the eyes of a mule, looking with love on the blundering movements of his master.One must remember that Chatwin's first book was to have been called The Nomadic Imperative, of how men were meant to be nomads. He had run into so much criticism when he circulated his drafts that he in the end dropped the project altogether. Except, he tried to live the life of a nomad.
I have always loved Chatwin's work. Now I have read everything except his letters and those scattered essays not reprinted in books. I still think he was one of the lights of the late 20th Century. It was a pity he died so young.
March 3, 2012
Chatwin had a beautiful way of writing, usually described as spare. I collect sentences that please my ear and write them out by hand in a hard-backed notebook. I read On the Black Hill in 1982, when it was published, and among the half-dozen or so sentences I copied were the following:
"Crossing the pasture one evening, he watched the swallows glinting low over the dandelion clocks, and the sheep standing out against the sunset, each one ringed with an aureole of gold--and understood why the Lamb of God should have a halo."
"Perched on the tractor mudguard, he would watch the plough-share bite into the stubble, and the herring-gulls shrieking and swooping over the freshly-turned furrow."
"He came to a stream in a copse of hazels, where the water combed over a rock, and there were piles of bleached bones brought down by the winter flood."
In novels like The Marquis of Ouidah, which is about the West African slave trade, Chatwin captures the exotic. In Under the Black Hill he captures the everyday lives of Welsh hill farmers, and makes them equally extraordinary. As was his own talent.
"Crossing the pasture one evening, he watched the swallows glinting low over the dandelion clocks, and the sheep standing out against the sunset, each one ringed with an aureole of gold--and understood why the Lamb of God should have a halo."
"Perched on the tractor mudguard, he would watch the plough-share bite into the stubble, and the herring-gulls shrieking and swooping over the freshly-turned furrow."
"He came to a stream in a copse of hazels, where the water combed over a rock, and there were piles of bleached bones brought down by the winter flood."
In novels like The Marquis of Ouidah, which is about the West African slave trade, Chatwin captures the exotic. In Under the Black Hill he captures the everyday lives of Welsh hill farmers, and makes them equally extraordinary. As was his own talent.
May 22, 2016
From BBC Radio 4 - Book at Bedtime:
Iestyn Jones reads from Bruce Chatwin's novel about the lives of identical twin brothers Lewis and Benjamin Jones, on their farm in the Welsh Marches.
1/5. The courtship and marriage of the brothers' parents: Mary, their literate and well-travelled mother, and their ill-tempered, inarticulate father Amos.
2/5: From earliest childhood, the twins seem to feel each other's happiness and pain, and often speak in a private language. By adolescence, differences begin to emerge but the brothers' bond is stronger than ever.
3/5: Benjamin is called up to fight in WWI and Lewis is drawn to young Rosie Fifield, but neither love nor war can separate the boys for long.
4/5: After the war the twins turn their attention even more towards each other and their home. But tension erupts when Lewis has an encounter with Joy Lambert, the wife of a local artist.
5/5: The twins continue to enjoy farm life, shunning modernity and sharing their parents' bed. Then Mrs Redpath arrives with news that will change everything.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00fgh3c
Iestyn Jones reads from Bruce Chatwin's novel about the lives of identical twin brothers Lewis and Benjamin Jones, on their farm in the Welsh Marches.
1/5. The courtship and marriage of the brothers' parents: Mary, their literate and well-travelled mother, and their ill-tempered, inarticulate father Amos.
2/5: From earliest childhood, the twins seem to feel each other's happiness and pain, and often speak in a private language. By adolescence, differences begin to emerge but the brothers' bond is stronger than ever.
3/5: Benjamin is called up to fight in WWI and Lewis is drawn to young Rosie Fifield, but neither love nor war can separate the boys for long.
4/5: After the war the twins turn their attention even more towards each other and their home. But tension erupts when Lewis has an encounter with Joy Lambert, the wife of a local artist.
5/5: The twins continue to enjoy farm life, shunning modernity and sharing their parents' bed. Then Mrs Redpath arrives with news that will change everything.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00fgh3c
November 13, 2022
A very satisfying reading experience about the lives of twin brothers, Benjamin and Lewis, who live on an isolated farm on the Welsh border country. They avoid participating in World War One. Their father is hot headed, mistreating his educated wife. A feud between neighbours lasts many years. The twins take over the running of the farm as their father gets older. A number of interesting characters come into and leave the twins lives. They live a hard working, frugal existence.
The novel begins, “For forty-two years, Lewis and Benjamin Jones slept side by side, in their parents’ bed, at their farm which was known as ‘The Vision’.”
This book was first published in 1982.
The novel begins, “For forty-two years, Lewis and Benjamin Jones slept side by side, in their parents’ bed, at their farm which was known as ‘The Vision’.”
This book was first published in 1982.
March 30, 2016
2.5 stars - Metaphorosis Reviews
Brothers, twins in body and spirit, spend much of their lives together on a farm at the Welsh-English border.
I've not read Bruce Chatwin before, but have heard of him mainly as a travel writer. Certainly, in On the Black Hill, his prose is simple and unembroidered. However, he demonstrates that it is also possible to be too plain. The events of the book, tangled and of great potential interest, pass by like notes in an almanac. On this day, this happened; on the next, that happened. While the book follows the lives of the two brothers in great detail, it never roused my interest in either of them. While a few other colorful characters come in and out, others are summarily dealt with in a few paragraphs.
The novel has a fairly clumsy start - after a chapter on the twins late life, the book suddenly and without warning drops back to a time before their birth, to give the history of the farm itself. In fact, while seeming to be about the men, the book could just as easily be seen as about the farmhouse itself - a view probably better fitting its cool, dry voice.
If the book engendered any real feeling in me, it was one of frustration - the twins are curiously passionless, despite a family and neighbours steeped in passion. They drift, and seldom do much. In part, Chatwin's intent is to explain just that, but the story comes across less as a novel than as an almost clinical look at what one might take for a true story. Chatwin is known as a travel writer, and perhaps that was his true calling. The descriptions in the book are colorful and interesting. I wish the characters had been as well.
Brothers, twins in body and spirit, spend much of their lives together on a farm at the Welsh-English border.
I've not read Bruce Chatwin before, but have heard of him mainly as a travel writer. Certainly, in On the Black Hill, his prose is simple and unembroidered. However, he demonstrates that it is also possible to be too plain. The events of the book, tangled and of great potential interest, pass by like notes in an almanac. On this day, this happened; on the next, that happened. While the book follows the lives of the two brothers in great detail, it never roused my interest in either of them. While a few other colorful characters come in and out, others are summarily dealt with in a few paragraphs.
The novel has a fairly clumsy start - after a chapter on the twins late life, the book suddenly and without warning drops back to a time before their birth, to give the history of the farm itself. In fact, while seeming to be about the men, the book could just as easily be seen as about the farmhouse itself - a view probably better fitting its cool, dry voice.
If the book engendered any real feeling in me, it was one of frustration - the twins are curiously passionless, despite a family and neighbours steeped in passion. They drift, and seldom do much. In part, Chatwin's intent is to explain just that, but the story comes across less as a novel than as an almost clinical look at what one might take for a true story. Chatwin is known as a travel writer, and perhaps that was his true calling. The descriptions in the book are colorful and interesting. I wish the characters had been as well.
May 2, 2016
(To be clear - I listened to the abridged reading on BBC radio, not the book itself. )Difficult to describe this! About closeness and loneliness all at the same time - can that be? It felt as if something sad was always imminent, a suspended state of unease- the brothers were real enough to me that I worried about them! Don't think I can write a proper review without having read the full book, though.
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June 9, 2023really very bleak and delightful and excellently spare PAStORAL , I think the Sunset Song people will like this one. It's lovely to see Wales this way & I've not read enough
the cascade of the last 50 pages, is rly something else. the last line is one of my new favourite last lines in literature, I think because it's so delicately & mightily predicated on everything that came before
the cascade of the last 50 pages, is rly something else. the last line is one of my new favourite last lines in literature, I think because it's so delicately & mightily predicated on everything that came before
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