He expects his sons to pass the whole thing onto a library and says it holds no dark confessions to shock a future biographer. He has written 50,000 words on "people who might have loved me", a history of his bowel movements since the constipated, white-bread '40s, a file of "miracles", and a "shame" file that documents his gaucheries. Ostensibly, the story follows a filmmaker who arrives in a place known as ‘the plains’, where people live quite differently to. It is a strange bird that Murnane has created in The Plains and even after reading it, I’m unsure what exactly it meant. As his story unfolds, the novel becomes, in the words of Murray Bail, a mirage of landscape, memory, love and literature itself. However, the most intriguing parts of his colour-coded collection are kept for his own satisfaction. Apparently, he lived a modest life, creating works of beauty about the Australian landscape. A nameless young man arrives on the plains and begins to document the strange and rich culture of the plains families. Perhaps there's a closet show-off inside Murnane. Once I realised the thing could have monetary value I added even more - even an application letter for reserve seats at the Caulfield Cup."
"But it grew to the point where it's become almost an obsession that my life has to be recorded, a time-consuming thing. For each book he has manuscripts, proofs, reviews and correspondence. What you see is extremely neatly organised mess." There are stories and poems written as a child, and a journal begun at 18 about girls and dreams of being a writer. Also, "I am a person who needs to be in control of things.
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