An unnamed narrator tells the story of Meissen porcelain collector/obsessive Kasper Utz. Set mostly in Prague, the narrator, who has only met Utz once, reveals his own obsession with the eccentric ‘trickster’ and his life, and on the way we learn a lot about the origins of porcelain as well as the tumultuous time in 1960s Prague.

Always with Chatwin one has to be aware that he was a mythologiser (as well as a self-mythologiser), and the complaint many have is that you can never know what element of his novels have some validity/fact/truth in them. It is not something that has ever bothered me. If I become fascinated with a subject he weaves a spell over, I go find a non-fiction book to learn. Like Tolstoy, I don’t think he himself called any of his books one thing or another, ie he never described any of them as novels per se. I’d recommend his essays (or some would say short stories).

As with his own life, when he became ill, he said that it was because he had eaten a thousand year old egg in China, when in actual fact he had HIV/AIDS. Even in pending death he wanted to embellish his life. I have never come away from any of his work without being spell bound by something he has written, and I have reread most of it several times. ( )

Leggere Chatwin era molto in voga nei primi anni '90, quelli immediatamente successivi alla sua scomparsa. Benché fossi nei miei anni più formativi quanto a letture (e benché qualcuno mi avesse regalato una maglietta con la scritta "what am I doing here"), ho sempre snobbato Chatwin archiviandolo nella categoria della letteratura di viaggio. A lui arrivo oggi grazie a Fredrik Sjöberg che in L'arte di collezionare mosche cita Utz per via dell'enfasi sul collezionismo e di una battuta su un menu di ristorante in cui l'inglese "carp" è reso come "crap", con tutte le conseguenze del caso. Arrivo quindi a questo libro sull'onda di una connessione letteraria (quale miglior modo?) senza aspettative precise e vi trovo un grandissimo piacere di lettura (che fa rimpiangere la brevità del libro), una struttura a incastri/digressioni perfetta e una scrittura pregevole. Leggendolo, penso a quanto la storia potrebbe prestarsi a un film; in seguito scopro che il film c'è già, del 1992 (lo cercherò). Scopro anche che questo è l'ultimo libro di Chatwin, scritto durante la malattia che lo avrebbe condotto alla morte, il che rende ancora più eccezionale e sorprendente la vitalità che emana da ogni sua pagina. ( )

It was, frankly, astonishing that Chatwin was able to achieve so much with so little. His novellas, including this and "The Viceroy of Ouidah", rival his travel writing for majesty and atmosphere. A great talent taken from us too early by far. ( )

> Babelio : https://www.babelio.com/livres/Chatwin-Utz/32331

In this jewel-box of a novella Bruce Chatwin eschews the artifice of his 'non fiction' writing but retains all of its finest features. The unnamed narrator shares Chatwin's authorial voice, his knowledge of art and history, and possesses the same magpie mind. Utz gives Chatwin a framework to discuss Meissen porcelain, the commedia dell'arte, the whims of Hapsburg nobles, the aims of alchemy and the history of Prague, all centred around the eponymous collector Baron Utz. As usual, Chatwin's prose is like Champagne: sparkling, acid and more than a little compulsive. Highly recommended. ( )