In Tasmania
by Nicholas Shakespeare
The Harvill Press $310
British novelist Nicholas Shakespeare went to Tasmania to get Bruce Chatwin out of his system, after working for seven years on his biography. One of the attractions of Tasmania was that Chatwin never went there. Shakespeare was tired after seeking 'from the dead what they did not reveal in life'. He wanted a fresh start and, after being plagued elsewhere by questions about his relationship with the famous namesake playwright, was pleased to be in a place where his surname prompted people to ask if he was related to the local who sold fishing tackle.
He found a whole hamlet of Chatwins, but also a house and a story of his own about two forebears who had settled in Tasmania. That forced him to search archives and old letters to ferret out their secrets. And, despite his intentions, Chatwin's influence remained strong. The title of the book which results from more than three years lived partly in Tasmania recalls Chatwin's In Patagonia. Moreover, like Chatwin, Shakespeare uses contemporary episodes as a springboard for historical excursions.
The investigation of his forebears would have made a unified volume. He adds a section on the return of those, sometimes blue-eyed and fair-haired, claiming to be Tasmanian Aborigines, after widespread deploration of their extinction. Again, he moves from the personal to the historical, but it's no longer a family story, as was those of his forebears, and the reader wonders why he doesn't take a similar in-depth look at other current issues, such as the felling of ancient forests for commercial purposes.
