That Hilarious Supplement: Gerald Murnane’s A Lifetime on Clouds

Abstract

Gerald Murnane's second novel, A Lifetime on Clouds, was published in 1976, only two years after Tamarisk Row. It is Murnane's last attempt at anything resembling a conventional novel, and also his most under-rated and least studied book. Appropriately enough for a story whose action takes place largely on suburban and country trains, A Lifetime on Clouds is a place where we can see Murnane's fictive intent switching tracks and setting off towards new objectives—objectives that could not have been approached from any other direction.

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Published 1 October 1992 in Volume 15 No. 4. Subjects: Imagery, Literary portrayal, Plot, Gerald Murnane.

Cite as: Salusinszky, Imre. ‘That Hilarious Supplement: Gerald Murnane’s A Lifetime on Clouds.’ Australian Literary Studies, vol. 15, no. 4, 1992, doi: 10.20314/als.be4b6adffc.