image of person or book cover 3202590544061123418.jpg
Cover image courtesy of publisher.
y separately published work icon A Million Windows single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 2014... 2014 A Million Windows
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'This new work of fiction by one of Australia’s most highly regarded authors focuses on the importance of trust, and the possibility of betrayal, in storytelling as in life. It tests the relationship established between author and reader, and on occasions of intimacy, between child and parent, boyfriend and girlfriend, husband and wife. Murnane’s fiction is woven from images, and the feelings associated with them, and the images that flit through A Million Windows like butterflies – the reflections of the setting sun like spots of golden oil, the houses of two or perhaps three storeys, the procession of dark-haired females, the clearing in the forest, the colours indigo and silver-grey, the death of a young woman who had leaped into a well – build to an emotional crescendo that is all the more powerful for the intricacy of their patterning.' (Publication summary)

Notes

  • Epigraph: The house of fiction has in short not one window, but a million... –Henry James
  • Chosen as one of the  Conversation's best Australian books of the 21st century

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Artarmon, North Sydney - Lane Cove area, Sydney Northern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales,: Giramondo Publishing , 2014 .
      image of person or book cover 3202590544061123418.jpg
      Cover image courtesy of publisher.
      Extent: 192p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 14 June 2014
      ISBN: 9781922146533 (paperback)
    • New Hampshire,
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      David R. Godine ,
      2016 .
      image of person or book cover 5325708281842919079.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 192p.p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 19 January 2016
      ISBN: 9781567925555, 1567925553

Other Formats

  • Also large print.

Works about this Work

Landscape within Landscape : The Intertwining of the Visible and the Invisible in Gerald Murnane and Henry James Suzie Gibson , 2020 single work criticism
— Appears in: Gerald Murnane : Another World in This One 2020; (p. 109-126)
'At the 2017 “Another World in This One” symposium – held at Gerald Murnane’s beloved Goroke Golf Club – I could not pass up the opportunity of asking this Australian writer about Henry James, especially as his book A Million Windows (2014) pays homage to the preface of The Portrait of a Lady. ¹ I was keen to know what Murnane thought about such an influential Victorian novelist. To my surprise, he said that James’ novels “have no landscape”. This comment, presumably meant as a criticism, seemed logical at the time, uttered as it was in the rural context where Murnane was most at home. My immediate response was to agree, since Murnane’s writing contemplates sweeping vistas that contrast sharply with James’ crowded metropolitan spheres. But the more I thought about this comment the more I came to the conclusion that James’ novels do have landscape – just not the kind of terrain that Murnane prefers.' (Introduction)
y separately published work icon Grounded Visionary : The Mystic Fictions of Gerald Murnane Brendan McNamee , Oxford : Peter Lang , 2019 22038132 2019 multi chapter work criticism

'Grounded Visionary: The Mystic Fictions of Gerald Murnane is a reading of Australian writer Gerald Murnane’s fiction in the light of what is known as the Perennial Philosophy, a philosophical tradition that positions itself as the mystical foundation of all the world’s religions and spiritual systems. The essential tenet of that philosophy is that at a fundamental level all of life is a unity―consciousness and world are the same thing―and that it is possible, if extremely difficult, for the discriminating individual mind to experience this wholeness. Murnane’s work can be seen not to take its lead from writings in this philosophical tradition but rather to resonate with many of them through Murnane’s unique artistic expression of his experience of the world. The crux of the argument is that beneath their yearnings for landscapes and love, Murnane’s narrators and chief characters are all in search of the essential unity that the Perennial Philosophy postulates.

'Taking its cue from Murnane’s self-description as a "technical writer," this book examines each of the author’s works in detail to reveal how structures and themes are seamlessly woven together to create artworks that shimmer with mystery while at the same time remaining thoroughly grounded in the actual.

'Grounded Visionary is the first full-length study of Gerald Murnane’s work to tackle head-on his underlying mystical sensibility and is also the first to deal comprehensively with the author’s complete fictional output from Tamarisk Row to Border Districts. This book will be of interest to all lovers of modern literature and will be of special interest to students of Australian literature and those concerned with the interface between art and spirituality.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

What I’m Reading Emmett Stinson , 2018 single work column
— Appears in: Meanjin Online 2018;
The Neighbors Are Real Characters James McNamara , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: The New York Times Book Review , 19 June 2016; (p. 17)

— Review of A Million Windows Gerald Murnane , 2014 single work novel
Melbourne, City of Literature Jackie Lamoureux , 2016 single work essay
— Appears in: World Literature Today , March vol. 90 no. 2 2016; (p. 5)
Nothing is Quite What it Seems Singular View on Fiction's Truths Peter Craven , 2014 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 14 June (p. 22) The Sydney Morning Herald , 14-15 June 2014; (p. 32-33) The Age , 14-15 June 2014; (p. 32-33)

— Review of A Million Windows Gerald Murnane , 2014 single work novel
Markers of Lifetime Memory Geordie Williamson , 2014 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 19-20 July 2014; (p. 19)

— Review of A Million Windows Gerald Murnane , 2014 single work novel
Well Read Katharine England , 2014 single work review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 9 August 2014; (p. 25)

— Review of A Million Windows Gerald Murnane , 2014 single work novel ; Hergesheimer in the Present Tense Morris Lurie , 2014 selected work short story
Veiled Epiphanies Shannon Burns , 2014 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , August no. 363 2014; (p. 40-41)

— Review of A Million Windows Gerald Murnane , 2014 single work novel
Remote Viewing Emmett Stinson , 2014 single work review
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , September 2014;

— Review of A Million Windows Gerald Murnane , 2014 single work novel
Silence and Sound in the Sentences of Gerald Murnane’s A Million Windows Anthony Uhlmann , 2015 single work criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 15 no. 1 2015;
'This article develops a reading of Gerald Murnane's 2014 novel A Million Windows, focusing on the manner in which the novel interrogates the nature of meaning making in fiction. It looks at the paired ideas of sound and silence: the former producing sense through sentences proper to the sense they need to convey; the latter impressing itself as what needs to be understood.' (Publication abstract)
Melbourne, City of Literature Jackie Lamoureux , 2016 single work essay
— Appears in: World Literature Today , March vol. 90 no. 2 2016; (p. 5)
Landscape within Landscape : The Intertwining of the Visible and the Invisible in Gerald Murnane and Henry James Suzie Gibson , 2020 single work criticism
— Appears in: Gerald Murnane : Another World in This One 2020; (p. 109-126)
'At the 2017 “Another World in This One” symposium – held at Gerald Murnane’s beloved Goroke Golf Club – I could not pass up the opportunity of asking this Australian writer about Henry James, especially as his book A Million Windows (2014) pays homage to the preface of The Portrait of a Lady. ¹ I was keen to know what Murnane thought about such an influential Victorian novelist. To my surprise, he said that James’ novels “have no landscape”. This comment, presumably meant as a criticism, seemed logical at the time, uttered as it was in the rural context where Murnane was most at home. My immediate response was to agree, since Murnane’s writing contemplates sweeping vistas that contrast sharply with James’ crowded metropolitan spheres. But the more I thought about this comment the more I came to the conclusion that James’ novels do have landscape – just not the kind of terrain that Murnane prefers.' (Introduction)
What I’m Reading Emmett Stinson , 2018 single work column
— Appears in: Meanjin Online 2018;
y separately published work icon Grounded Visionary : The Mystic Fictions of Gerald Murnane Brendan McNamee , Oxford : Peter Lang , 2019 22038132 2019 multi chapter work criticism

'Grounded Visionary: The Mystic Fictions of Gerald Murnane is a reading of Australian writer Gerald Murnane’s fiction in the light of what is known as the Perennial Philosophy, a philosophical tradition that positions itself as the mystical foundation of all the world’s religions and spiritual systems. The essential tenet of that philosophy is that at a fundamental level all of life is a unity―consciousness and world are the same thing―and that it is possible, if extremely difficult, for the discriminating individual mind to experience this wholeness. Murnane’s work can be seen not to take its lead from writings in this philosophical tradition but rather to resonate with many of them through Murnane’s unique artistic expression of his experience of the world. The crux of the argument is that beneath their yearnings for landscapes and love, Murnane’s narrators and chief characters are all in search of the essential unity that the Perennial Philosophy postulates.

'Taking its cue from Murnane’s self-description as a "technical writer," this book examines each of the author’s works in detail to reveal how structures and themes are seamlessly woven together to create artworks that shimmer with mystery while at the same time remaining thoroughly grounded in the actual.

'Grounded Visionary is the first full-length study of Gerald Murnane’s work to tackle head-on his underlying mystical sensibility and is also the first to deal comprehensively with the author’s complete fictional output from Tamarisk Row to Border Districts. This book will be of interest to all lovers of modern literature and will be of special interest to students of Australian literature and those concerned with the interface between art and spirituality.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

Last amended 2 Oct 2024 07:15:14
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