Chatwin writes beautiful sentences as he charts the cradle to grave journey of two Welsh farmer twins. Some may find the resolute narrowness of Lewis and Benjamin's lives, wed to their farm "The Vision", boring. The only event of the outside world that impinges on their lives is whether one or both might be sent to fight in the blood-bath of World War I. The language, a prose style that isn't showy, yet is (seemingly) effortless in its flow, carried me through the pages with its understated beauty.
Yet the story, with the psychically linked twins, various melodramatic moments such as a veteran left out in the rain and feuding family, seems some how awkward and ill-judged in comparison to the top-flight prose. From reading Songlines I have the sense that Chatwin intuitively organized his books. On the Black Hill generally follows the twins through their entire lives, but in the last section dealing with their old age it suddenly jumps, for a time, on to another character and her life. The twins reappear but the focus is lost and the rest of the book peters out. So I wasn't that impressed with Chatwin's fictional efforts, but as a crafter of language I will read on happily.
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