The Plains by Gerald Murnane

The Plains by Gerald Murnane is an Australian modern classic about a man who goes to the Plains region of Australia for a filmmaking project. But, first, he must get to know the Plainsmen and what makes them tick. He finds a patron, a wealthy landowner willing to pay him to spend time reading diaries and documents on the Plains to research his film.

~~~Warning: This next paragraph may contain spoilers. Skip it if you are planning to read The Plains and want to be surprised, please!~~~ 

The storyline in The Plains is predictable, at least in part, but still managed to surprise and tickle me. It's told in three parts. In the first part, the narrator travels to the Plains and hangs out where the Plainsmen do, hoping to learn about them and understand them enough to create his film. At the end of the first section, he finds his patron. In the second part, the narrator (I don't recall whether or not he was ever named) is living with his patron, admiring the patron's wife, and spending most of his time in the library of the patron's estate. In the final section, years have passed and the narrator realizes he has become a Plainsman, himself. But, I won't tell you what happens to his filmmaking process because it's worth discovering if you're at all interested in reading the book. And, it's quite funny.

It's safe, now. 

I got of whiff of the slyness of the author's sense of humor when the narrator made a comment about not knowing quite when he left Australia. That's like saying you aren't quite sure when you left America as you entered Kansas. But, I think it's likely I would have missed out on a lot of the subtle humor if I hadn't read the introduction, which was written by a writer who was so impressed by The Plains when he first read it that he started corresponding with the author. I highly recommend reading the intro, if you have this copy of the book.

I found the beginning and the last section of The Plains a little difficult until I stopped thinking so hard about what the author was trying to say. Oddly, The Plains made more sense when I put less effort into figuring it out.

Recommended with a note - The Plains is a very Australian book and you have to kind of shift your mindset to get it if you're not Australian. It's best to embrace the quirkiness. It's not often I read a book that's more difficult the harder you try to understand it but this is definitely that kind of book.

Side note: The Plains caught my eye in an Australian bookstore because I grew up on the American Plains and have a fondness for wheat, which would get blown into our yard during storms when I was young; there was a wheat field not far from us at the time (it eventually became a Walmart, ugh). I didn't buy a copy when I was in Australia but my husband went back there on business, after we vacationed Down Under, and I sent him with a list. The Plains was at the top. He tried to read it and found it a little too weird.

Reminder: I've gone to every-other-week Monday Malarkey posts, so there will be a Malarkey post next week.

©2020 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Sydney Bridge Upside Down by David Ballantyne

There was an old man who lived on the edge of the world and he had a horse called Sydney Bridge Upside Down. He was a scar-faced old man and his horse was a slow-moving bag of bones, and I start with this man and his horse because they were there for all the terrible happenings up the coast that summer, always somewhere around.

So begins Sydney Bridge Upside Down, a New Zealand classic. When the book opens, there are two boys playing near a cliff. Neighbors in a tiny hamlet that used to be a bustling village, the boys argue and then wrestle and one goes over the cliff. You don't find out for quite a while that the one who went off the cliff was uninjured. Now and then, he'll bring it up and nobody is particularly interested. That is a vague hint at the oddities to come.

It's summer and the boys are out of school. Robert, the narrator and one of the boys, spends much of his time doing chores for his one-legged father, playing with his brother and best friend. They climb on the remains of a former slaughterhouse, play on the shore and in a nearby cave, and run around the house naked. Sometimes, Robert thinks about his absent mother and the teacher, both of whom have gone into the city. When an older female cousin comes for a visit, the boys are dazzled by her beauty and puzzled by her behavior. Robert feels like he must protect her from the older men who show interest in her.

Sydney Bridge Upside Down seems very much like a "boys being boys" type of book, a snapshot of one summer in their lives, at first. But, then the first death occurs and the book takes a sinister turn. You know who saw the person alive, last, but was the death an accident? If not, it's clear who is responsible. And, then there's a second death under similar circumstances. This time, a strange dream-like sequence bleeds with guilt.

Recommended - Sydney Bridge Upside Down is very dark. What at first appears to be the story of three innocent young boys having fun takes an odd turn when the beautiful cousin shows up and becomes ominous when the first person dies. From there on, it becomes a bit of a horror, but one so carefully crafted that you aren't entirely certain if your suspicions are true. In the end, all is revealed. While I'm not a huge fan of novels that fall on the darker end of the spectrum, it was obvious why Sydney Bridge Upside Down is a classic, from the beginning. There's an authenticity to the writing that is impressive. Truly a fascinating tale. I love the author's miminalist style; he does an exceptional job of telling you just enough to keep the story intriguing.

©2016 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.