Notebooks 1970 - 2003 [Hardcover]

Murray Bail (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Harvill; First Edition edition (2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1843432773
• ISBN-13: 978-1843432777
• Product Dimensions: 4.8 x 7.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,279,290 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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5.0 out of 5 stars How a writer sees the world, January 5, 2009

By 

Steven Reynolds (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Notebooks 1970 - 2003 (Hardcover)

This is an edited collection of extracts from the working notebooks of Australian writer Murray Bail (b.1941) when he was an unknown living in London from 1970-74, and then from a series in Sydney 1988-2003 during which time he published his award-winning masterpiece "Eucalyptus" and other work. It contains overheard conversations, aphorisms, observations of people and places, musings on art, literature and landscape, and fragments of books and stories. These include some insightful observations from short trips he made to Europe, Africa and North America. All of this will probably prove most fascinating for Bail fans and literary archaeologists who enjoy seeing the genesis of a writer's short stories and novels (one of which has only just been published). But for any student of creative writing, it's worth reading to observe the writer's ear and eye at work, to notice the things he notices. Bail's instinct for the small details of physical appearance or behaviour that can be used to conjure a character is immense, and his sense of story and significance is tremendously sharp - the way he can sniff out the mythological / archetypal / universal in the everyday event.