Page "The Songlines" Paragraph 3

Sometimes defined as a travelogue, the text has been criticised for being masculist, colonialist, simplistic and therefore unreliable as both a source on European Australians and Aboriginal culture.

Other critics have praised it, and Chatwin in the book is vehemently opposed to the image of the inferiority of the Aboriginals ; others also see the author as a proponent of postmodern writing, challenging traditional forms of linear narrative.