Barley Patch

October 1, 2011

Why do we write? Why do we read? What is fiction? These questions haunt Murnane's inventive yet maddening stream-of-consciousness narrative. A man who may or may not be the author reflects on his reading life, where he was, and how he felt while deep in any one of thousands of novels. He reveals a penchant for inserting himself into a story until the line between reality and imagination is blurred. If our narrator is to be believed, his family moved from place to place as Dad gambled away his paychecks on horse races, Mom compensated through storytelling, and our young man grew into an adult more comfortable around books than people. Though a nonbeliever, he entered a monastery seeking the solitude to write fiction and poetry, a dalliance of short duration, but one that set him on the path to an impressive literary output. VERDICT Australian writer Murnane has received the Melbourne Prize and a Patrick White Award. His prose is alluringly evocative, his sense of humor sly and dry, but only some will have the patience to sift through the gimmickry that gives readers the uncomfortable feeling that the author is having them on.--Sally Bissell, Lee Cty. Lib., Ft. Myers, FL

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