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Last Letter to a Reader - by Gerald Murnane (Paperback)

Last Letter to a Reader - by  Gerald Murnane (Paperback) - 1 of 1
$15.52 sale price when purchased online
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About this item

Highlights

  • In the first days of spring in his eighty-second year, Gerald Murnane - perhaps the greatest living writer of English prose - began a project that would round off his strange career as a novelist.
  • About the Author: Gerald Murnane is the award-winning author of such acclaimed works of fiction as Border Districts, Inland, Barley Patch, and The Plains, as well as the memoir Something for the Pain.
  • 144 Pages
  • Literary Criticism, Australian & Oceanian

Description



About the Book



"In the first days of spring in his eighty-second year, Gerald Murnane--perhaps the greatest living writer of English prose--began a project that would round off his strange career as a novelist. He would read all of his books in turn and prepare a report on each. His original intention was to lodge the reports in two of his legendary filing cabinets: in the Chronological Archive, which documents his life as a whole, and the Literary Archive, which is devoted to everything he has written. As the reports grew, however, they themselves took on the form of a book, a book as beguiling and hallucinatory, in its way, as the works on which they were meant to report. These miniature memoirs or stories lead the reader through the capacious territory Murnane refers to as his mind: they dwell on the circumstances that gave rise to his writing, on images and associations, on Murnane's own theories of fiction, and then memories of a deeply personal kind. The final essay is, of course, on Last Letter to a Reader itself: it considers the elation and exhilaration that accompany the act of writing, and offers a moving finale to what must surely be Murnane's last work, as death approaches. "Help me, dear one," he writes, "to endure patiently my going back to my own sort of heaven."" -- Provided by Publisher.



Book Synopsis



In the first days of spring in his eighty-second year, Gerald Murnane - perhaps the greatest living writer of English prose - began a project that would round off his strange career as a novelist. He would read all of his books in turn and prepare a report on each. His original intention was to lodge the reports in two of his legendary filing cabinets: in the Chronological Archive, which documents his life as a whole, and the Literary Archive, which is devoted to everything he has written.

As the reports grew, however, they themselves took on the form of a book, a book as beguiling and hallucinatory, in its way, as the works on which they were meant to report. These miniature memoirs or stories lead the reader through the capacious territory Murnane refers to as his mind: they dwell on the circumstances that gave rise to his writing, on images and associations, on Murnane's own theories of fiction, and then memories of a deeply personal kind. The final essay is, of course, on Last Letter to a Reader itself: it considers the elation and exhilaration that accompany the act of writing, and offers a moving finale to what must surely be Murnane's last work, as death approaches.



Review Quotes




'Has any writer ever paraded his aesthetic privacies so shamelessly? It doesn't matter. These are the ravings of a genius. Ignore them if you dare, literature-besotted unraveller.' Peter Craven, Australian Book Review



'The best book about Murnane's books that anyone is ever likely to write.' Shannon Burns, The Monthly



'When looking over the endless paddocks of his fictions, one is also looking out at the mysterious landscape of the soul.' Dustin Illingworth, New York Times Book Review




About the Author



Gerald Murnane is the award-winning author of such acclaimed works of fiction as Border Districts, Inland, Barley Patch, and The Plains, as well as the memoir Something for the Pain. Murnane lives in the remote village of Goroke in the northwest of Victoria, near the border with South Australia.

Dimensions (Overall): 7.7 Inches (H) x 5.0 Inches (W) x .5 Inches (D)
Weight: .3 Pounds
Suggested Age: 22 Years and Up
Number of Pages: 144
Genre: Literary Criticism
Sub-Genre: Australian & Oceanian
Publisher: And Other Stories
Format: Paperback
Author: Gerald Murnane
Language: English
Street Date: May 3, 2022
TCIN: 91358290
UPC: 9781913505424
Item Number (DPCI): 247-12-6375
Origin: Made in the USA or Imported
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Shipping details

Estimated ship dimensions: 0.5 inches length x 5 inches width x 7.7 inches height
Estimated ship weight: 0.3 pounds
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