“Hi Taylor,It was the first Chatwin I read, and I did that after hearing all the controversies regarding his accountability. Even with that judgmental mind, I found it as a brilliant read, with nothing much of a white man's bewilderment that I was afraid to see. Most part of the book seemed to me as unbiased reporting, in a very engaging manner. I believe it is necessary to understand the author to understand a book, as a book can only be the perspective of the author - fiction or non-fiction. In my case, a person who's born and brought up in India, I had to be conscious of the fact that it's a man, whose cultural background is alien to me, is writing about a culture that's alien to him. That helped a lot while reading, I guess. This book was written a decade after In Patagonia, and 7 years after The Viceroy of Ouidah, his most controversial works. And I think those years of traveling between the books has certainly helped him clear his world view.”
