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3.87 AVERAGE
3.87 AVERAGE
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.
A beautiful and moving novel of family, rural life and change. More people should know about it: it deserves a much bigger reputation than it has.
I'm a fan of quiet, contemplative, character-driven fiction. But this book is slow as a turtle with little more personality. I loved Chatwin's In Patagonia, no thanks to this one.
Beautifully written. An easy going, comforting read that I kept coming back to. Enjoyed reading about family life on the farm, during a difficult period in history (1900-1980s). You could really feel the deep connection between the twin brothers - can twins really sense when another brother is in danger? You also get to see this whole arc of the twins from children to men in their 80s, and how life on the farm shaped them.
Sembra strano che, proprio Chatwin, che ha passato la vita in giro per il mondo, abbia scritto un romanzo ambientato unicamente in una cosi piccola porzione di mondo, terra di confine tra Galles e Inghilterra.
In una fattoria, attraverso la quale passa proprio tale confine, si svolge l'intera vita dei due protagonisti, gemelli identici, uniti da un legame indissolubile, che li fa vivere come un'unica persona e condividere i propri pensieri e addirittura le sensazioni fisiche, fino a confondersi essi stessi l'uno con e nell'altro.
Eppure, nonostante la totale empatia che li lega e la simbiosi emotiva che quasi li incatena l'un l'altro, i fratelli hanno caratteristiche emotive e aspirazioni diverse : Lewis, il maggiore, coraggioso, più indipendente, che sogna l' avventura e ambisce alla vicinanza degli altri esseri umani, e che soffre fisicamente i dolori dei malanni che accadono al fratello ; e Benjamin, il minore, pauroso, diffidente, incapace di vivere lontano dal fratello, senza il quale sprofonda in una malinconia tossica e in una crisi d'identità che lo porta verso la morte. La sua omosessualità latente aleggia lungo tutto il romanzo senza mai venire chiaramente alla luce. Ossessionato dai sentimenti di possessività esclusiva che prova nei confronti del gemello, gli impedisce in tutti i modi di crearsi una vita al di fuori di quella che ha con lui, avvalendosi del suo profondo ascendente e tarpando sul nascere il desiderio di realizzarsi individualmente e di far parte di quel mondo che scorre a fianco al loro.
E così, fra i due, proprio colui che sembrava più debole riesce a manovrare l'altro, costringendolo in un cerchio sempre più stretto fatto di amore, ossessione e sensi di colpa.
Contemporaneamente avviene la narrazione di tutto ciò che accade nel resto del paesino in cui si svolge la vicenda, in cui la vita dei conoscenti e degli stessi familiari dei fratelli prosegue normalmente seguendo il corso del tempo e della storia. Un poco alla volta ci accorgiamo che questa narrazione si trasforma in una vera e propria saga familiare nella quale gli avvenimenti che accadono alle generazioni precedenti inglobano gli stessi gemelli, i quali per un buon tratto del racconto vengono relegati a figure marginali. È così che andiamo a conoscere prima i nonni, poi i genitori dei due, in particolare Mary, donna forte, colta, intelligente e sensibile, madre tanto amata in vita, quanto indimenticata e rimpianta da morta.
La sua scomparsa sembra sancire l'unione definitiva dei due fratelli che, come una attempata coppia di sposi, prendono possesso della stanza appartenuta ai genitori dormendo l'uno accanto all'altro, Benjamin finalmente acquietato nel suo desiderio di possesso e Lewis ormai rassegnato all' impossibilità di sfuggire a quel destino cannibale al fianco del fratello.
Seguire la vita dei due gemelli, della loro famiglia e della comunità che li circonda è come fare una passeggiata lungo il paesaggio che Chatwin descrive in modo così chiaro e accurato incontrando tratti pianeggianti, altri più collinosi e selvatici, altri ancora ameni e sereni. Non incontriamo grandi avventure o difficoltà particolari, ma il normale scendere e risalire, lo snodarsi lungo gli anni che è la vita stessa di Benjamin e Lewis; una vita passata sempre in disparte, immersa in ritmi più lenti del resto del mondo che li circonda e che, nonostante si svolga lungo quasi un intero secolo, ci sembra quasi ferma sempre allo stesso punto, immune ai cambiamenti che le scorrono attorno.
Al di sotto di questa apparente immobilità che impregna la vita dei fratelli, scorre però una vena di tristezza e insoddisfazione repressa, di ossessione e di sogni mancati.
Delle due vite dei gemelli, che hanno desideri e aspirazioni così diversi tra loro, ma che non riescono a vivere separati, solo una potrà essere realizzata a scapito dell'altra e delle sue aspirazioni. È proprio l'amaro di questa rinuncia che quando meno ce lo aspettiamo ci investe dalle pagine di questo bel romanzo in apparenza avviato su un tracciato sereno. Consigliato assolutamente!
In una fattoria, attraverso la quale passa proprio tale confine, si svolge l'intera vita dei due protagonisti, gemelli identici, uniti da un legame indissolubile, che li fa vivere come un'unica persona e condividere i propri pensieri e addirittura le sensazioni fisiche, fino a confondersi essi stessi l'uno con e nell'altro.
Eppure, nonostante la totale empatia che li lega e la simbiosi emotiva che quasi li incatena l'un l'altro, i fratelli hanno caratteristiche emotive e aspirazioni diverse : Lewis, il maggiore, coraggioso, più indipendente, che sogna l' avventura e ambisce alla vicinanza degli altri esseri umani, e che soffre fisicamente i dolori dei malanni che accadono al fratello ; e Benjamin, il minore, pauroso, diffidente, incapace di vivere lontano dal fratello, senza il quale sprofonda in una malinconia tossica e in una crisi d'identità che lo porta verso la morte. La sua omosessualità latente aleggia lungo tutto il romanzo senza mai venire chiaramente alla luce. Ossessionato dai sentimenti di possessività esclusiva che prova nei confronti del gemello, gli impedisce in tutti i modi di crearsi una vita al di fuori di quella che ha con lui, avvalendosi del suo profondo ascendente e tarpando sul nascere il desiderio di realizzarsi individualmente e di far parte di quel mondo che scorre a fianco al loro.
E così, fra i due, proprio colui che sembrava più debole riesce a manovrare l'altro, costringendolo in un cerchio sempre più stretto fatto di amore, ossessione e sensi di colpa.
Contemporaneamente avviene la narrazione di tutto ciò che accade nel resto del paesino in cui si svolge la vicenda, in cui la vita dei conoscenti e degli stessi familiari dei fratelli prosegue normalmente seguendo il corso del tempo e della storia. Un poco alla volta ci accorgiamo che questa narrazione si trasforma in una vera e propria saga familiare nella quale gli avvenimenti che accadono alle generazioni precedenti inglobano gli stessi gemelli, i quali per un buon tratto del racconto vengono relegati a figure marginali. È così che andiamo a conoscere prima i nonni, poi i genitori dei due, in particolare Mary, donna forte, colta, intelligente e sensibile, madre tanto amata in vita, quanto indimenticata e rimpianta da morta.
La sua scomparsa sembra sancire l'unione definitiva dei due fratelli che, come una attempata coppia di sposi, prendono possesso della stanza appartenuta ai genitori dormendo l'uno accanto all'altro, Benjamin finalmente acquietato nel suo desiderio di possesso e Lewis ormai rassegnato all' impossibilità di sfuggire a quel destino cannibale al fianco del fratello.
Seguire la vita dei due gemelli, della loro famiglia e della comunità che li circonda è come fare una passeggiata lungo il paesaggio che Chatwin descrive in modo così chiaro e accurato incontrando tratti pianeggianti, altri più collinosi e selvatici, altri ancora ameni e sereni. Non incontriamo grandi avventure o difficoltà particolari, ma il normale scendere e risalire, lo snodarsi lungo gli anni che è la vita stessa di Benjamin e Lewis; una vita passata sempre in disparte, immersa in ritmi più lenti del resto del mondo che li circonda e che, nonostante si svolga lungo quasi un intero secolo, ci sembra quasi ferma sempre allo stesso punto, immune ai cambiamenti che le scorrono attorno.
Al di sotto di questa apparente immobilità che impregna la vita dei fratelli, scorre però una vena di tristezza e insoddisfazione repressa, di ossessione e di sogni mancati.
Delle due vite dei gemelli, che hanno desideri e aspirazioni così diversi tra loro, ma che non riescono a vivere separati, solo una potrà essere realizzata a scapito dell'altra e delle sue aspirazioni. È proprio l'amaro di questa rinuncia che quando meno ce lo aspettiamo ci investe dalle pagine di questo bel romanzo in apparenza avviato su un tracciato sereno. Consigliato assolutamente!
This book won the Costa/Whitbred award and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1982, and is listed among the "1001 books you must read before you die" books. I don't get why.
This isn't a bad book, necessarily. It is the story of twin brothers born before WWI in rural Wales. They grow up to be bachelor farmers, in every way Garrison Keillor implies except they weren't Norwegian. But the stories remind me very much of those written about Father Tim from Blowing Rock, NC in Jan Karon's Miford series - nice to read, but not award winning by any means.
Maybe 1982 was a light year in publishing.
This isn't a bad book, necessarily. It is the story of twin brothers born before WWI in rural Wales. They grow up to be bachelor farmers, in every way Garrison Keillor implies except they weren't Norwegian. But the stories remind me very much of those written about Father Tim from Blowing Rock, NC in Jan Karon's Miford series - nice to read, but not award winning by any means.
Maybe 1982 was a light year in publishing.
I think I would have liked it without having read Nicholas Shakespeare's biography of Chatwin, but it helped to know all the inspirations for the novel. Chatwin is much better with scenery and sometimes his characters' motivations were a bit obscure, but as the novel goes on the writing warms up and it becomes very sweet.
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.
‘Twins, she said, play a role in most mythologies. The Greek pair, Castor and Pollux, were the sons of Zeus and a swan, and had both popped out of the same egg:
'Like you two!'
'Fancy!' They sat up.
She went on to explain the difference between one-egg and two-egg twins; why some are identical and others not.’ P201
I’ve often wondered what it would be like to be an identical twin, what that shared experience is, what feelings, thoughts and intuitions are common and shared and what is different. What one feels of the other when not present together and what that experience of living with someone who looks exactly the same is like…
I think Bruce Chatwin captures this experience in his poignant and personal meander through the lives of identical twins Benjamin and Lewis Jones in his novel, On the Black Hill.
On the Black Hill is set in rural Wales close to the English border near Hereford. It’s not a part of the world I’m familiar with however Chatwin ensures the reader is thoroughly familiar with this location and it’s changes and community over the first 80 years or so of the twentieth century.
He eloquently captures Benjamin and Lewis’ twin experience, and throughout the similarities and subtle differences are evident. Benjamin seems to be the most dependent on the twin-ness…
‘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.’ P88
Lewis on the other hand is completely immersed with his brother but you get the sense that he’s slightly held back in life…
‘How he'd loved Benjamin! Loved him more than anything in the world. No one could deny that! But he'd always felt left out ... 'Pushed out, you might say ...'
He paused: 'I was the strong one and him was a poor mimmockin' thing. But him was always the smarter. Had more grounding, see? And Mother loved him for it!'
'Go on!' she said. He was close to tears.
'Aye, and that's the worry! Sometimes, I lie awake and wonder what'd happen if him weren't there. If him'd gone off ... was dead even. Then I'd have had my own life, like? Had kids?
'I know, I know,' she said, quietly. But our lives are not so simple.' P203
Chatwin paints a beautiful, melancholy and incredibly moving portrait of these men as they navigate life. An aggressive abusive father, stubborn yet in so many ways beautifully caring, a mother who doted yet gave some space, neigbouring feuds, misplaced dreams and unrealized hopes.
Traversing two worlds wars that essentially go by almost unnoticed on the Black Hill, Lewis and Benjamin grow old, experience life together, live a sheltered yet somehow rich experience and ultimately become separated in only the way life can deal this.
This is a beautiful meditative 5 star read.
'Like you two!'
'Fancy!' They sat up.
She went on to explain the difference between one-egg and two-egg twins; why some are identical and others not.’ P201
I’ve often wondered what it would be like to be an identical twin, what that shared experience is, what feelings, thoughts and intuitions are common and shared and what is different. What one feels of the other when not present together and what that experience of living with someone who looks exactly the same is like…
I think Bruce Chatwin captures this experience in his poignant and personal meander through the lives of identical twins Benjamin and Lewis Jones in his novel, On the Black Hill.
On the Black Hill is set in rural Wales close to the English border near Hereford. It’s not a part of the world I’m familiar with however Chatwin ensures the reader is thoroughly familiar with this location and it’s changes and community over the first 80 years or so of the twentieth century.
He eloquently captures Benjamin and Lewis’ twin experience, and throughout the similarities and subtle differences are evident. Benjamin seems to be the most dependent on the twin-ness…
‘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.’ P88
Lewis on the other hand is completely immersed with his brother but you get the sense that he’s slightly held back in life…
‘How he'd loved Benjamin! Loved him more than anything in the world. No one could deny that! But he'd always felt left out ... 'Pushed out, you might say ...'
He paused: 'I was the strong one and him was a poor mimmockin' thing. But him was always the smarter. Had more grounding, see? And Mother loved him for it!'
'Go on!' she said. He was close to tears.
'Aye, and that's the worry! Sometimes, I lie awake and wonder what'd happen if him weren't there. If him'd gone off ... was dead even. Then I'd have had my own life, like? Had kids?
'I know, I know,' she said, quietly. But our lives are not so simple.' P203
Chatwin paints a beautiful, melancholy and incredibly moving portrait of these men as they navigate life. An aggressive abusive father, stubborn yet in so many ways beautifully caring, a mother who doted yet gave some space, neigbouring feuds, misplaced dreams and unrealized hopes.
Traversing two worlds wars that essentially go by almost unnoticed on the Black Hill, Lewis and Benjamin grow old, experience life together, live a sheltered yet somehow rich experience and ultimately become separated in only the way life can deal this.
This is a beautiful meditative 5 star read.