The Pages [Import] [Hardcover]

Murray Bail (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2, 2008

Murray Bail’s first novel since Eucalyptus is a beguiling meditation on friendship and love, on men and women, on landscape and the difficulties of thought itself.

What are THE PAGES?

On a family sheep station in the interior of Australia, a brother and sister work the property while their reclusive brother Wesley Antill, spends years toiling away in one of the sheds, writing a philosophy. Now he has died.
Erica, a philosopher, is sent from Sydney to appraise his work. Accompanying her is Sophie who needs a distraction from a string of failed relationships. Her field is psychoanalysis. These two women, each with a different view of the world, meet a situation they have not experienced before — with surprising results.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Australian novelist of ideas Bail (Eucalyptus, 1998), known for critiquing his native land, here posits that the development of modern Australia was too problem-free to provide a welcome environment for philosophy; on the contrary, psychology “and its vine-like offshoot, psychoanalysis” came to thrive there. So he intertwines the two contrasting disciplines in this tale, in which Erica Hazelhurst is sent from her Sydney university philosophy department to evaluate the work of the late Wesley Anthill and takes along her friend, psychoanalyst Sophie Perloff. Interspersed with the changing relationship between the two women is Anthill’s story and his years of solitary work on a “theory of the emotions,” during which he was supported by his sister and brother, who shared the family homestead. Bail’s prose is elegant, precise, and eminently quotable, but this short novel—which concludes with the distillation of pages of Anthill’s lifework—seems more a discursive finger exercise by a master of the language. --Michele Leber --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Review

“One of the great and most surprising courtships in literature.”
— Michael Ondaatje

“A most unusual, enchanting work . . . a novel of most beguiling originality.”
— Daily Telegraph

“The novel’s pleasures . . . mostly reside in its formal arrangement and Bail’s brilliantly distilled and witty prose.”
— Times Literary Supplement

“Complicated, enigmatic, interesting fiction.”
— The Times

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Harvill Secker (September 2, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1846552168
• ISBN-13: 978-1846552168
• Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 0.8 x 8.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,179,506 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Life is the intruder on thought...", September 27, 2009

By 

Friederike Knabe (Ottawa, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Pages (Paperback)

At the time of his death, Wesley Antill, son of a wealthy sheep farmer and self-declared philosopher, had left his rambling thoughts in big heaps of scattered, handwritten notes all over his shed-study. His siblings, Lindsey and Roger, having looked after the farm while intellectual Wesley pondered life and philosophy, are tasked with publishing his work. To assess the value and validity of Wesley's notes as having the makings of a "philosophy" Erica Hazlehurst, herself an established philosopher from Sydney, arrives with her psychoanalyst friend Sophie in the remote Australian Outback. Two city women in the wilds - the challenges start there. Ten years after the award winning Eucalyptus: A Novel, Bail's new novel has been greatly anticipated. The least one can say that this slim volume provided much encouragement for reflection on the meaning of "thought", "self", "philosophy", and some lighter, humorous fare as "life intrudes".

Bail tells the story from two related perspectives alternating throughout the narrative. First, Erica's exposure to Wesley's writing, but more poignantly, to the Antills and their enormously different life from one that she is familiar with and, even more important, and to the power of the bare and empty countryside. These aspects are beautifully evoked by the author. Interleaved are Wesley's unstructured accounts and musings of his version of a modern Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship: first in Sydney, then in England and Europe. Some pages of writing contain only a few sentences or words, pinned on a line across the room... are these to be interpreted as element of his philosophy? Erica - and the reader - struggles to piece anything coherent together. "It will take months" to work through the wealth of material. Without doubt, the author enjoys toying with the reader's creative imagination. Intriguing thought elements hint at deeper analysis, if Erica could only find those bits of paper, leaving more questions than providing answers. For example, why the Australian landscape and climate are not conducive to philosophical thought...

The beauty of Australian landscapes, in particular the dry and sparse surroundings of the sheep farm, are exquisitely conveyed. Bail is well known for his talent in this regard and for his ability to create atmospheres that reflect the intense impact the landscape can have on people living in it or suddenly exposed to it. The relationships between the four protagonists, on the other hand, while well set up initially, drawing the reader into a range of complexities, are not fully realized and leave the reader hoping for more exploration. Erica with her own reflections on philosophy and changing perspectives make her the more interesting character. While Bail has been counted among the post-modernist authors, the novel could have benefited for more detail and depth. All in all not a fully satisfying reading experience. [Friederike Knabe]