I would suggest, in brief, that Gerald Murnane has written a first-rate, latter-day Gulliver’s Travels (Books Three and Four). The solemnity of tone with which many reviewers have treated The Plains makes me doubly suspicious. I would hate to sound frivolous about the book, but I’m not sure we don’t have a case of the Emperor’s new clothes. I suspect not many other reviewers had the same good fortune. A friend acquired a copy and was delighted to find he had scored two dust jackets, the brown and the blue. Other people may have thought so too, for the book (first edition, first printing) is also sold in a different, brown dust jacket. Upside down, as well as right side up, the blue cover lettering might well pass for Hebrew. A gentleman opposite asked if what I was reading had come from Israel. Then I found myself dallying with the novel in an eating-house. Most assiduously, during my trek, I closed my eyes to their signposts. There are apparently some gremlins in Australia Post determined to regulate the vagaries of our national reviewing.

In fact, the advanced state of spinal curvature is but a bagatelle to the numerous textual annotations and underlinings. My review copy reached me three months after the date of posting. It is a strange creature, to be approached with care. Want more Great Conversations? Go to 2ser.The Plains is a book for the critic, not the mere reviewer. It’s not always possible to use the full conversation live to air and this is your chance to discover more secrets and hidden gems about the books you love…įinal Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople Great conversations is a look back at some of the fantastic authors and writers we feature every week on Final Draft. Today’s Book Club features Wayne Macauley, author of Some Test and Simpson Returns in conversation with Andrew Pople. Later in the library of his benefactor a plains landowner we enter the world of his creative process and confront the strange realities that make up plains life. Haunting the local pub, talking with plainsmen about their world, our narrator seeks the patronage and influence that will allow him to realise his epic project. The Plains opens on an unnamed narrator arriving on the plains with the intention of making a film that will show the plains as they have never been seen. At eighty years old he has published widely beginning with his debut novel Tamarisk Row in 1974. The New York Times has described Gerald Murnane as ‘the greatest living English language writer you have never heard of’. It’s a great way to look back and discover great Australian Writing. Each episode features a panel of authors, editors, publishers and critics. The Australian Classics Book Club is a monthly exploration of Australian writing who we are, or perhaps aren’t, and what makes us tick. The Plains, from Gerald Murnane is the feature of our August Australian Classics Book Club.

The Plains by Gerald Murnane