Literary Eucalyptus by Murray Bail - Page 2

Bookpossum · 02-19-2016, 06:31 AM

Wow, that's serious snow! It is amazing the way things come back in spring after such severe cold, though I suppose the snow acts as a sort of blanket.

issybird · 02-19-2016, 07:19 AM

As you'll know, some flowering shrubs thrive on the cold. In spring, I miss the banks of azaleas of my childhood somewhat to the south of here, but the profusion of lilacs is compensation.

bfisher · 02-19-2016, 08:40 AM

I just finished the book, and what an excellent book it was.

Again, thanks for posting the pictures of the gum blossoms, Bookpossum. It really helped in understanding lines like where he brings the bunch of gum blossoms to Ellen "These demonstrated only too clearly how the eucalypt was named: the reproductive organs 'well covered'."

caleb72 · 03-08-2016, 06:52 AM

Unfortunately, this book did nothing for me. It was a chore to read and took much longer than expected given its size.

I know the book must be considerably better than my experience with it. I've been very distracted lately and have been having trouble focusing properly on any book, but into that distracted period, this book has found itself. Its meandering folkloric tales inside a folkloric tale, all of them similarly inconclusive, left me unsatisfied.

I liked aspects of it - particularly the daughter's observations of her father, the telling of Cave's slow but inevitable conquest over the Eucalypts, and the eventual revelation of the young man's identity - something I had already guessed. But on the whole, it just fell flat for me.

Bookpossum · 03-08-2016, 04:36 PM

Ah, sorry you didn't enjoy it more, caleb72. But of course we can't all like the same books all the time!

Good to know that you enjoyed it, bfisher.

AnotherCat · 04-02-2016, 08:16 PM

Hope I am not too late to comment on this book; I queue jumped it from the bottom of my to read list, which if I hadn't of meant it probably would never have got read, to around number five; because it is Australian. Overall I am glad that I did so.

I found all the characters very flat but I felt the book got by just fine with that being so and was probably an important part of its structure. The thing that took the gloss off for me was the use of the short stories from the mysterious young man. That is just me though and does not distract, in my view, from the merits of the book, I just don't enjoy short stories and never read them. So to have them cropping up in the book was a downside for me, however if they weren't there the author would have to contrive some other structure which may have been less successful. I probably lost some of the book because I tended to skim the mysterious young man's stories.

I was left a bit puzzled by the ending but that may have been because I missed some essential reference earlier in the book. I took it that we were left with Ellen 'getting her man' but the inference that was that he turned out to be the first with the identification of the trees within Holland's rules and that left me puzzled. I recalled the early scene where Ellen just sees the back of the neck of the young man while he is with Holland going through the list of labels but I took this as being that the list was Holland's and not one that the young man had prepared through his own identification of the trees. If that was the case I don't see how he could have been first.

The alternative that came to mind was that the young man labelled all the trees by himself and Ellen was meeting him while he was doing so. But to have completed that before Cave completed his identification of them would have mean that Cave would have had, at least by the end of his identifying, labels on the trees to read and so his task was trivial. It may have been that I missed something; there are a few things in the book that are only mentioned in a sentence or two but which, much later in the book, are important. For example the young man and Holland checking the labels early in the book is covered in one or two weak sentences but recollection of it is important to the ending.

But it may be that I just missed something that gives a sensible resolution to the understanding of the ending; I have had a couple of short skims to recheck, but with no result.

I feel it is a book that some will not find enjoyable and that through a weakness in the book rather than necessarily being the fault of those readers. Why I feel that it would be much the book's fault is that the basic story is a very simple one, it seems it is often referred to as a "fairy tale", but complicated by injection of the eucalypts, short stories, etc., in a structure that I think is one that will divide reader's impressions of its story telling. Which reminds me that there were some sentences that I felt were a bit lumpy reading for me and I ended up rereading them for understanding.

But for all that, as I said I am glad that I read it as the storyline was interesting for me, as was the exposure to the book's structure (even though, as I mentioned, the structure, by injecting short stories, was not entirely to my personal liking).

Bookpossum · 04-03-2016, 02:09 AM

Yes, I can see that the book wouldn't have universal appeal - but then, does any book?! I loved all the weaving of stories - it was part of the magical feel of the book.

As for fulfilling the requirements, he did that. On page 56 of my paperback copy, the wording is

Quote:

The man who correctly named every eucalypt on the property would win the hand of his daughter, Ellen.

So technically, that is exactly what he did.

And that is quite in keeping with the fairytale element of the book. The hero often wins the hand (note the appropriate fairytale wording in the "decree") through a trick.

I love the book, but then I love fairy tales and enjoyed the way Bail used the style of the genre.

By the way, for people who find them interesting, I highly recommend Marina Warner, especially From the Beast to the Blonde.

AnotherCat · 04-04-2016, 07:03 PM

Yes that is the passage that I meant when I referred to "Holland's rules".

As I understand it (and as I said I may have missed something) essentially the young man took a list of all the trees from Holland and made an aluminium name plate for each one. Now I see that as being no different at all from if he had just taken the list and copied it onto another piece of paper and said "There! I have named all your trees", and should he been aware of the prize then wanted to claim it. For myself I do not see copying Holland's list of trees constitutes "naming" them (that even if he helped compile it by getting it in tidy order, for example).

But, importantly, I am not trying to downgrade the merits of the book as I thought it of considerable merit, and an enjoyable and worthwhile read; I would not discourage others from reading it. It was just a point that struck me from my own personal perspective as being a bit weak and I suspect we all find such things in even the best written of books, and quite commonly in their endings.

Thanks for nominating it as I likely would never have been aware of it and so would not have read it.

04-02-2016, 08:16 PM	#21
AnotherCat .... Posts: 1,547 Karma: 18068960 Join Date: May 2012 Device: ....	Hope I am not too late to comment on this book; I queue jumped it from the bottom of my to read list, which if I hadn't of meant it probably would never have got read, to around number five; because it is Australian. Overall I am glad that I did so. I found all the characters very flat but I felt the book got by just fine with that being so and was probably an important part of its structure. The thing that took the gloss off for me was the use of the short stories from the mysterious young man. That is just me though and does not distract, in my view, from the merits of the book, I just don't enjoy short stories and never read them. So to have them cropping up in the book was a downside for me, however if they weren't there the author would have to contrive some other structure which may have been less successful. I probably lost some of the book because I tended to skim the mysterious young man's stories. I was left a bit puzzled by the ending but that may have been because I missed some essential reference earlier in the book. I took it that we were left with Ellen 'getting her man' but the inference that was that he turned out to be the first with the identification of the trees within Holland's rules and that left me puzzled. I recalled the early scene where Ellen just sees the back of the neck of the young man while he is with Holland going through the list of labels but I took this as being that the list was Holland's and not one that the young man had prepared through his own identification of the trees. If that was the case I don't see how he could have been first. The alternative that came to mind was that the young man labelled all the trees by himself and Ellen was meeting him while he was doing so. But to have completed that before Cave completed his identification of them would have mean that Cave would have had, at least by the end of his identifying, labels on the trees to read and so his task was trivial. It may have been that I missed something; there are a few things in the book that are only mentioned in a sentence or two but which, much later in the book, are important. For example the young man and Holland checking the labels early in the book is covered in one or two weak sentences but recollection of it is important to the ending. But it may be that I just missed something that gives a sensible resolution to the understanding of the ending; I have had a couple of short skims to recheck, but with no result. I feel it is a book that some will not find enjoyable and that through a weakness in the book rather than necessarily being the fault of those readers. Why I feel that it would be much the book's fault is that the basic story is a very simple one, it seems it is often referred to as a "fairy tale", but complicated by injection of the eucalypts, short stories, etc., in a structure that I think is one that will divide reader's impressions of its story telling. Which reminds me that there were some sentences that I felt were a bit lumpy reading for me and I ended up rereading them for understanding. But for all that, as I said I am glad that I read it as the storyline was interesting for me, as was the exposure to the book's structure (even though, as I mentioned, the structure, by injecting short stories, was not entirely to my personal liking). Last edited by AnotherCat; 04-02-2016 at 08:19 PM.

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02-19-2016, 06:31 AM	#16
Bookpossum Snoozing in the sun Posts: 10,137 Karma: 115423645 Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Melbourne, Australia Device: iPad Mini, Kobo Touch	Wow, that's serious snow! It is amazing the way things come back in spring after such severe cold, though I suppose the snow acts as a sort of blanket.

02-19-2016, 07:19 AM	#17
issybird o saeclum infacetum Posts: 20,210 Karma: 222235366 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: New England Device: H2O, Aura One, PW5	As you'll know, some flowering shrubs thrive on the cold. In spring, I miss the banks of azaleas of my childhood somewhat to the south of here, but the profusion of lilacs is compensation.

02-19-2016, 08:40 AM	#18
bfisher Wizard Posts: 1,638 Karma: 28483498 Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: Ottawa Canada Device: Sony PRS-T3, Galaxy (Aldiko, Kobo app)	I just finished the book, and what an excellent book it was. Again, thanks for posting the pictures of the gum blossoms, Bookpossum. It really helped in understanding lines like where he brings the bunch of gum blossoms to Ellen "These demonstrated only too clearly how the eucalypt was named: the reproductive organs 'well covered'."

03-08-2016, 06:52 AM	#19
caleb72 Indie Advocate Posts: 2,863 Karma: 18794463 Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: Melbourne, Australia Device: Kindle	Unfortunately, this book did nothing for me. It was a chore to read and took much longer than expected given its size. I know the book must be considerably better than my experience with it. I've been very distracted lately and have been having trouble focusing properly on any book, but into that distracted period, this book has found itself. Its meandering folkloric tales inside a folkloric tale, all of them similarly inconclusive, left me unsatisfied. I liked aspects of it - particularly the daughter's observations of her father, the telling of Cave's slow but inevitable conquest over the Eucalypts, and the eventual revelation of the young man's identity - something I had already guessed. But on the whole, it just fell flat for me.

03-08-2016, 04:36 PM	#20
Bookpossum Snoozing in the sun Posts: 10,137 Karma: 115423645 Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Melbourne, Australia Device: iPad Mini, Kobo Touch	Ah, sorry you didn't enjoy it more, caleb72. But of course we can't all like the same books all the time! Good to know that you enjoyed it, bfisher.

04-04-2016, 07:03 PM	#23
AnotherCat .... Posts: 1,547 Karma: 18068960 Join Date: May 2012 Device: ....	Yes that is the passage that I meant when I referred to "Holland's rules". As I understand it (and as I said I may have missed something) essentially the young man took a list of all the trees from Holland and made an aluminium name plate for each one. Now I see that as being no different at all from if he had just taken the list and copied it onto another piece of paper and said "There! I have named all your trees", and should he been aware of the prize then wanted to claim it. For myself I do not see copying Holland's list of trees constitutes "naming" them (that even if he helped compile it by getting it in tidy order, for example). But, importantly, I am not trying to downgrade the merits of the book as I thought it of considerable merit, and an enjoyable and worthwhile read; I would not discourage others from reading it. It was just a point that struck me from my own personal perspective as being a bit weak and I suspect we all find such things in even the best written of books, and quite commonly in their endings. Thanks for nominating it as I likely would never have been aware of it and so would not have read it.