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Eucalyptus

Murray Bail

3.53 · Rating details · 4,950 ratings · 407 reviews

The gruff widower Holland has two possessions he cherishes above all others:

his sprawling property of eucalyptus trees and his ravishingly beautiful daughter, Ellen.

When Ellen turns nineteen Holland makes an announcement: she may marry only the man who can correctly name the species of each of the hundreds of gum trees on his property.

Ellen is uninterested in the many s ...more

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Paperback, 264 pages

Published September 2nd 1999 by Mariner Books (first published 1998)

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Feb 08, 2016 Phrynne rated it really liked it

I found this to be an enjoyable modern day fairy tale written in a rather unusual way. The prose is outstandingly beautiful and needs to be read slowly and carefully but at the same time the central story demands the reader's attention and there is an urgency to get to the end and find out what happens! Then the author introduces a character who tells stories. These are necessary to the overall story but at the same time I was a little annoyed at having to take constant diversions. But then ther ...more

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Nov 20, 2011 Pat Settegast rated it did not like it

Nothing else, I guess Eucalyptus lives up to its title. It’s about a man whose wife dies while giving birth to their daughter. The man collects the life insurance, moves to a small town in western New South Wales, and plants eucalypts… lots of them. Apparently there are over 200 specie of this plant. Once his daughter is of a marriageable age he makes an Atalantan (as in the golden apple/race myth) deal to marry her off to the first suitor who can name all the various eucalypts on his land. That Nothing else, I guess Eucalyptus lives up to its title. It’s about a man whose wife dies while giving birth to their daughter. The man collects the life insurance, moves to a small town in western New South Wales, and plants eucalypts… lots of them. Apparently there are over 200 specie of this plant. Once his daughter is of a marriageable age he makes an Atalantan (as in the golden apple/race myth) deal to marry her off to the first suitor who can name all the various eucalypts on his land. That process is basically Act II of the book, and it’s about as exciting as it sounds. Oh, and each chapter is named for a specie of Eucalypt.

This was ultimately a very frustrating book. I mean I love eucalyptus trees about as much as a kola bear does. But, we’re talking a predictable plodding plot. And, sexist?—oh honey, it’s all that—in a way that defies direct implication (beautiful inactive frequently naked daughters, grotesque obsessive delinquently powerful men, arranged marriages, little snipes here and there like in speaking of the outback “…let’s not forget the isolation, the exhausted shapeless women…” which as a hiccup might almost appear benign but consolidated turns into this constant goat-getting action, etc).

What’s truly maddening is that Murray Bail is a capable writer. He has a great ear for tone and a masterful ability with sentences. Sentences. This is the tragedy of the sentence. In other words, I feel like I’m circling a beef with, like, sentences critically, and I suppose it is this… when all else fails—theme, conscience, geometry, plot—as readers, we fall back on the sentence. If the writer can lay down an inviting sentence… we tend toward trust. The problem is great sentences have been called on to propound dreadful stuff. There’s a tangle that results between sentence as sign and sentence as signifier—or something along those lines. See, the Noun Verb Object trick can actually wind up implicating writer and reader both in as far as they become complicit with said sentence’s nefarious values. I don’t know. I suppose I’m only saying this: a series of great sentences cannot be an end in itself… somewhere along the line ethics slips in, and in the absence of their careful weight even the best grammatical clauses fall to pieces.

If ya need an example, check these Bail-isms out: “It may not be exaggerated to say that the formidable instinct in men to measure, which is often mistaken for pessimism, is counterbalanced by the unfolding optimism of women, which is nothing less than life itself; their endless trump card. It is shown in miniature by the reverence women have for flowers, at its most concentrated when they look up and in recognition of their natural affinity accept flowers.” Lovely sentences, rotten meaningless ideas. ...more

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Oct 05, 2012 Ceecee rated it did not like it

Recommends it for: Australians? Botanists?

Recommended to Ceecee by: that misleading blurb

Shelves: life-is-too-short, not-my-cup-o-tea

There go those blurbs again, tricking me into thinking that I could actually enjoy the book.

"Best courtship story", it said. "New York Times Notable Book of the Year", it said.

Holland acquires a land, and then eventually becomes obsessed with planting eucalyptus trees in it. His daughter, Ellen, grows up to be a beauty, and he decides he will let the man who can name all species of eucalypti in his land marry his daughter. Dozens of suitors tried to no avail. Until Ellen meets a mysterious man u ...more

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Oct 27, 2007 Shannon rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, book-club, favourite, re-read

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. After getting a hefty insurance cheque because he wagered his wife would have twins (one is still born), Holland buys an almost treeless property in western New South Wales. His wife has passed away; he has only his little girl, Ellen.

He's no farmer. He starts planting eucalyptus trees on the farm and it soon turns into a hobby, then an obsession. Holland, son of a baker and a boiled-lolly-maker, becomes a "leading expert in the field", and has managed to get a specimen of all the species, and ...more

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Jul 02, 2012 Kate rated it it was amazing

Eucalyptus is a fairy tale and contains all the elements you would expect in a fairy tale, recast in a rural Australian setting – there’s mythical beauty, a princess trapped in her castle, suitors from distant lands and an enchanted forest. Whether it’s the Australian setting or Bail’s cleverly created characters, the story comes across as wholly believable (which in itself is magical).

Each chapter is named after a species of eucalypt and includes a string of short, intricate and seemingly inco ...more

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Sep 10, 2013 Lyn Elliott rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2016-best, fiction, australia, favorites, prize-winners

Jan 2015:
I've recently read this for the third time and relished the opportunity to slow down and enjoy Bail's language, and the slow and intricate windings of the multiple stories which make up this treasure of a book.
The main narrative line is a clever and gentle adaptation of a traditional folk tale form transformed in its relocation to an isolated Australian farm. The seemingly impossible quest set by a father for suitors of his daughter is to name all the Eucalyptus trees he has planted on Jan 2015:
I've recently read this for the third time and relished the opportunity to slow down and enjoy Bail's language, and the slow and intricate windings of the multiple stories which make up this treasure of a book.
The main narrative line is a clever and gentle adaptation of a traditional folk tale form transformed in its relocation to an isolated Australian farm. The seemingly impossible quest set by a father for suitors of his daughter is to name all the Eucalyptus trees he has planted on his property. Unwelcome suitors arrive and fail. No heads lost, they are just sent packing.
All the while, the unassuming eventual winner is present, and sets out to woo the daughter herself rather than the father by telling stories inspired by the trees. Very nicely, I thought, the father has previously warned his beautiful daughter to ‘beware of any man who deliberately tells a story. …’it’s worth asking, when a man starts concocting a story in front of you. Why is he telling it? What does he want’ (pp52-53).
When the stranger appears and starts to tell stories, they are so unlike anything Ellen has heard before that she is entranced.
The stranger’s stories are all inspired by the eucalyptus trees, - their names (ironbark, bloodwood, fuchsia gum), their flowers, the shapes of their leaves and their habit – drooping/weeping, upright, a guard or sentinel.
Ellen ‘took little notice of the eucalypts behind the stories; she allowed the world, which was his and far beyond, to come to her. His roundabout way of telling one story after another depended on imagination and a breadth of experience, and meant he was spending hours with her and her alone, revealing a little of himself at a time – only to disappear whenever he felt like it. Sometimes with just a brief wave. To be then left surrounded by nothing but grey trunks, and a near-absence of anything stirring, added a scratchy, unsatisfied quality to the silence.
Eucalypts are notorious for giving off an inhospitable, unsympathetic air’.p159.

But as the determined, unwanted suitor approved of by her father nears the end of his task, Ellen becomes ‘overwhelmed with an elaborate, flowing looseness’ and turns to her bed; lies there for days, gradually fading. She turns over the stories told her by the still unnamed stranger. ‘The way the stories began in a time-worn way had relaxed her. “There was an old woman who lived at the foot of a dark mountain…” “The quality of miracles has declined over the years…”…”Off the coast of Victoria was a wife of a lighthouse keeper who became addicted to kite flying.”(p219).

The stories are elaborate, elliptical, unexpected in their twists and turns. Ellen sees that ‘Many were about daughters; or women almost requiring a man for themselves. A woman finds a man and something unfortunate happens. It doesn't last. There were certainly more stories about women than men, she could see. It wasn't necessary to count them up. A daughter can never become a separate woman, not really. Fathers had strong and impassive positions in the world of stories too. Many of his stories concerned a father, or how he’s clean forgotten his daughter, thereby introducing a note of real sadness…. The women seemed to be searching or waiting for something else, something almost indefinable but extra nevertheless, such as a solution somewhere else or with someone, she at once saw and recognised. These were women who followed the idea of hope. It seems to be their greatest obedience.

None of the stories is conventional. Some are poignant, some simultaneously unhappy and funny (the couple who dislike each other, and speak to each other only through their dog). Some are about women trapped in a situation they wish to escape, and sometimes a means of escape is offered. They are integral to the progress of the central story, the story of Ellen, her father and the suitors.

Michael Hulse in the Spectator called 'Eucalyptus' a masterpiece. Of the other review comments I have read, this comment from the Judging Panel of the Miles Franklin Literary Award is beautifully succinct:
'In his characteristically elegant and deceptively sparse manner, Bail demonstrates the importance of narratives, of story telling, as a way of acquiring and learning about one's self and one's place. It reconstitutes traditional romance conventions (the father setting an impossible task for those who would win the hand of his daughter) and rewrites them for Australia, so that it is simultaneously local and universal in its orientation.'
http://www.milesfranklin.com.au/about...

Eucalyptus won the 1999 Miles Franklin, which is Australia's major annual literary award.

...more

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Jan 27, 2020 Bren Let the sea enamor you rated it it was ok

Recommends it for: People who like Eucalyptus trees.

Shelves: educational, historical, read-and-reviewed, romance, better-or-worse-than-expected

“A person meets thousands of different people across a lifetime, a woman thousands of different men, of all shades, and many more if she constantly passes through different parts of the world. Even so, of the many different people a person on average meets it is rare for one to fit almost immediately in harmony and general interest. For all the choices available the odds are enormous.The miracle is there to be grasped.”
― Murray Bail, Eucalyptus
___________________________________________________ ...more

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Dec 22, 2008 Angela marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: to-read-ebook

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. There's a very fairy-tale-like quality about this book that I liked a lot, and the very Australian flavor of the narration made it a highly unusual read for me as well. I have some issues with the passivity of the heroine (which isn't a terribly surprising thing given the heavy fairy-tale flavor of the story), but found it a worthwhile read anyway.

This novel's all about how a man named Holland in Australia has planted hundreds of species of eucalyptus trees on his ranch, and how he proclaims tha There's a very fairy-tale-like quality about this book that I liked a lot, and the very Australian flavor of the narration made it a highly unusual read for me as well. I have some issues with the passivity of the heroine (which isn't a terribly surprising thing given the heavy fairy-tale flavor of the story), but found it a worthwhile read anyway.

This novel's all about how a man named Holland in Australia has planted hundreds of species of eucalyptus trees on his ranch, and how he proclaims that the man who names them all will win the hand of Ellen, his beautiful daughter. Very definitely a fairy-tale sort of task, and with that laying the groundwork for the plot, we get several other things you'd expect in a fairy tale as well--the remote location, the nearby tiny village, dozens of dauntless suitors who fall by the wayside, a challenger at last who Ellen does not want and who breezes through the task as if he were born to it. And of course we have a mysterious wanderer, who captures Ellen's heart by spinning her dozens of stories, and whose disappearance sends Ellen spiraling into a decline until he finally returns at the end to prove himself victorious over her father's challenge.

All very nice, and overall I really had only two small issues with the story. One was that sometimes the narration was too self-aware, making comments about paragraphs and full stops and such. While it was generally to make a point about something going on in the story, such as comparing paragraphs to paddocks, more often than not it came across to me as too roundabout. At least twice, it made me think "for fuck's sake, get on with it!" And I'm generally a very patient reader.

Now that said, it did indeed eventually Get On With It, and I also acknowledge that there was a certain art and style to Bail's prose that I do have to appreciate. It fit in with the whole idea of Telling a Story, an art which he clearly loves, since the hero of this tale was himself a storyteller. Telling stories orally is an art in and of itself, even separate from telling them in the written word, and Bail blended them well here. It helped me a lot, I think, to start imagining the voice of the narrator with an Australian accent, and suddenly the rhythm of the words started coming together for me.

My other quibble was with Ellen, who had a passivity about her that irritated me. Sure, this is kind of classic when you're dealing with fairy tales--certainly Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and even my beloved Rapunzel don't do much to uphold the virtues of feminine spine. And sure, the setting of the story, fairly modern though it came across, had a sort of timeless quality about it that seemed to encourage the fairy tale tropes. But not once did Ellen ever actually object to her father's scheme of marrying her off to a man who could name all of his trees. Not once did she actually vocalize any objections to Cave, the challenger who systematically worked his way through the entire plantation, rattling off the names of the trees and proceeding closer and closer to the prize--her. Instead of actually telling her father, "Look, Dad, about this whole marriage thing--I actually really like this guy I've been talking to out in the trees," instead of telling anybody anything, she just lays down and pines herself sick. Very classic fairy tale princess behavior. But to me, a modern feminist-inclined reader, irritating nonetheless.

There are remarks made here and there all throughout the story about how Holland is rumored to "have his daughter locked up", but really, he's done nothing of the kind. Ellen's movements aren't constrained, and Holland in his way comes across as a father who's just anxious to make sure that if he has to hand off his daughter to anybody, it'll be to a man he can respect. I just wish that once Ellen would have asserted herself, because while I wanted to like her, I didn't respect her.

Now as to stuff I really, really liked... the Storyteller (we never get his name) was very, very cool. I loved how he wove stories to capture Ellen's fancy, and I loved the way he wandered in and out of them, sometimes leaving off just when your attention is hooked and you're anxious to know what the hell happens next. I liked his interactions with Ellen even when he wasn't actively telling a story as well, and I especially liked the scene where he comes across her naked, and very solemnly, very respectfully helps her back into her clothes. Every word in that scene was charged with tension, and the beauty of it is that at no point does Bail ever come right out and say that our boy would really rather be taking Ellen's clothes off of her. It doesn't need to be said. The words chosen to describe his actions convey that beautifully.

And I did not see it coming that he actually won the challenge before Cave did--because he was the one who brought all the nameplates for the trees to the plantation. I loved that. And I loved that the Sprunt sisters (fancifully referred to in passing as 'witches', adding to the fairy tale nature of the story) clued him in about where Ellen would be likely to wander, and that he went looking for Ellen to win her directly rather than going to her father first.

Even aside from the limp dishrag of a heroine, I'm glad I read this book just to enjoy Murray Bail's prose, very full of character, and very much an example of the art of telling a Story. ...more

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May 21, 2012 PattyMacDotComma rated it it was amazing

Shelves: award-win-listed, australian-author, favourites-adult

This peculiar, unique book really appealed to me, and when I finished, I considered starting it all over again.

It's a physically short book (I don't know how many words), but the mix of short anecdotes, little stories and botanical information that pop up unexpectedly actually don't interrupt the flow of the main story, they add depth.

I'm never going to remember all the interesting bits - I WILL have to read it again someday.

Disclaimer: I have lived among the eucalypts of NSW for most of my a ...more

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Jun 18, 2007 Suzanne rated it did not like it

2 hour trip to botanical gardens: fun and interesting.
200 page book about every eucalyptus known to man: dreadful.

woman allowing father to marry her off to stranger who wins an insufferable tree-naming contest...

...in a fairy tale: quaint.
...in modern society: substantially irritating.

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Mar 19, 2019 notgettingenough rated it really liked it

Shelves: australian, modern-lit

I was given this by Kirsten after she’d spent some time wandering around the suburban streets in our area. They still feature many beautiful specimens of the eucalyptus, developers and other anti-tree people not withstanding. It would help me know them, she said.

This is a botanic guide, embedded with a fairy story, which, like all fairy stories, I guess, is hard to pin down. I felt like it was ‘olden’ and yet from time to time modernity sneaks in. Did this matter? Probably not, maybe it’s the po ...more

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Jan 06, 2020 My Reading Days rated it liked it

Oh this book disappointed me. I read the first half with such joy - looking up each Eucalyptus tree mentioned in my tree reference book and enjoying the planting of all of these trees as if I was there. And then we moved into the supposed love story and that was when I realised that the lovely tree talk was the only thing holding me to this book.

The major lack of character depth is my real problem with this book. And because I felt like I didn't know the whys behind the two main characters, I di ...more

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Feb 25, 2016 HomeInMyShoes rated it really liked it

Shelves: romance, australia, 2016-booklist

A very nice read. The story almost gets lost in the stories. A book like Damascus Nights by Rafik Schami where the stories teach us about the character. I enjoyed this a lot. ...more

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Feb 07, 2016 Eleanor rated it it was amazing

Shelves: literary-fiction, book-club, 2016-books

This was a reread for me and I loved it just as much as I did some years ago when I first read it. Funny and charming - it is entrancing. I can't recommend it highly enough. ...more

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Jan 29, 2018 Hermien rated it really liked it

Shelves: australia, audiobooks

Lovely gentle story.

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Mar 03, 2011 Heather Pearson rated it really liked it

Recommended to Heather by: borrowed from my sister Shelley

Several years ago, a good friend in Australia sent me a package of Bush Tea. When I opened it, the pack contained a number of bags of black tea and a bunch of eucalyptus leaves. The idea being to brew a pot of tea and add a leaf to the pot. These were about 4 inch long skinny leaves. I have no idea what type of eucalyptus they were from, but there sure were aromatic. I loved the tea. No one else in my house did, so I didn't have to share.

Shortly after relating this story to my sister, so sent me Several years ago, a good friend in Australia sent me a package of Bush Tea. When I opened it, the pack contained a number of bags of black tea and a bunch of eucalyptus leaves. The idea being to brew a pot of tea and add a leaf to the pot. These were about 4 inch long skinny leaves. I have no idea what type of eucalyptus they were from, but there sure were aromatic. I loved the tea. No one else in my house did, so I didn't have to share.

Shortly after relating this story to my sister, so sent me a copy of the book Eucalyptus by Murray Bail. my mouth watered the whole time I was reading it, wishing I had a pot of bush tea sitting beside me.

This is the story of Holland and his lovely daughter Ellen. When Ellen is young, Holland moves to a rural area in Australia and for some un-explained reason, he begins to plant assorted Eucalyptus. By the time Ellen is of marriagable age, there are over 500 different eucalypts growing on the property. One day Holland announces that his daughter will marry the man who can correctly name all the eucalypts growing on his property. This is a challenge taken up by men from near and far.

While this may seem an unusual method of determining the suitability of a potential mate, people have used worse. Parents have arranged marriages when their children are but infants. Others defer to a matchmaker etc..

The story is also filled with short, unfinished tales. These are told by one of the suitors. I likened them to the trees. There are all yet unfinished; they have much growing and unfolding to do. Ellen listened to all these tales and was left wondering, how did they end, who were all those people and how did they relate to each other. I still don't really understand the inclusion of all those tales.

I did enjoy reading about the variety of the eucalypts. Some as tiny of shrubs and others some of the largest trees on earth. Colours that ranges a whole spectrum and truncks that could be as smooth as a baby's skin or a rough and ragged as a stone field.

It seems to me that Holland related better to his trees than he did to his daughter. Neither of them were much for conversation. I enjoyed reading this unusual story even if I didn't understand all the parts of it. I am left wanting to know more about eucalyptus.

...more

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Nov 12, 2012 Meghan rated it did not like it

The author obviously knows nothing of women. I personally do not know of any women who stand around naked holding their breasts all the time. I mean all the time!! And what is this fascination with peeing? I mean really! I did not like this book at all! And by the end you would think that maybe the ending would even be a bit satisfying? Nope!

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Dec 04, 2018 Nicole P rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: z-2018-wheel-a-thon-iii, back-in-the-day, z-2018-book-count-challenge, teach-me-something-new, z-2018-cf-reading-goals, z-2018-rrrc-reading-addicts

I learnt more about the different types of eucalypti than I thought possible. Interesting modern day fairytale. Struggled to follow at times with the constant changing POVs.

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Aug 12, 2012 David rated it liked it

Shelves: listening

I listened to this book. I really enjoyed listening to it, but I don't think I would have kept up with it had I read it. It did remind me of the beauty of the Eucalyptus and that I need a few more up in the backyard. The Corymbia (Eucalyptus) ficifolia is flowering around Wodonga at the moment; I think I will have to plant a few.

Years ago, I'm talking 1989 so my memory is a little sketchy, I travelled a few countries with a couple of mates. We spent 2 days in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. I don't recall ...more

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Feb 11, 2014 Marianne rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Eucalyptus is the third novel by prize-winning Australian author, Murray Bail. A man called Holland comes into money and buys a property in NSW, west of Sydney. The previous owners spent much time clearing paddocks (“On the curvaceous back paddocks great gums slowly bleached and curled against the curve as trimmings of fingernails. Here and there bare straight trunks lay scattered and angled like a catastrophe of derailed carriages.”), but Holland soon changed that.

His young daughter, Ellen, ca ...more

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Sep 04, 2012 Angela Young rated it really liked it

A friend of mine recommended this book to me because she knows just how much I love stories within stories. And I loved it. It's a fable, or a fairy story, but in the real sense (not airy-fairy but psychologically accurate about the way we are which is, of course, the reason so-called fairy tales have lasted down the ages). And the fact that the young woman's suitor has to earn his right to ask for her hand by learning the names and attributes of one hundred different kinds of eucalyptus makes f ...more

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Jun 17, 2012 Ruthy rated it really liked it

This book is beautifully written. However, I imagine that the aspects of this book that I found whimsical and charming may seem dull and arduous to those that are not biologist or lovers of the Australian landscape. If you are neither of these, I invoke you to work past these to find an enchanting story. I particularly loved the stories told within the main story.

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Sep 04, 2012 Laura Walin rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: australiana, contemporary

This book was not an easy read. In the beginning I did not appreciate the style jumping here and there and requiring an immense amount of concentration to follow the story. But somehow it all came together in the middle, when the stories took over and were better woven into the main plot. And thank you Murray Bail for the ending, anything else would have been a disappointment.

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Jun 30, 2016 Deborah Sheldon rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Have I just been pranked? For tree-lovers only.

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Jul 08, 2021 Doug rated it it was amazing

The premise is brilliant, so I’ll start there, at a ranch in Australia where the father of a beautiful young girl, Helen, declares that whoever can name all the hundreds of varieties of trees on his property can have his daughter’s hand in marriage. People come from all over. Her beauty is legendary. All fail, with the exception of Mr. Cave, her father’s age, who takes his time, who grows more repugnant to Helen as the days pass by. But then she is met by a mysterious stranger on the property, w The premise is brilliant, so I’ll start there, at a ranch in Australia where the father of a beautiful young girl, Helen, declares that whoever can name all the hundreds of varieties of trees on his property can have his daughter’s hand in marriage. People come from all over. Her beauty is legendary. All fail, with the exception of Mr. Cave, her father’s age, who takes his time, who grows more repugnant to Helen as the days pass by. But then she is met by a mysterious stranger on the property, whom she mistakes as just another suitor. But for every tree, the stranger tells her a story.

In Salman Rushdie’s Haroun and the Sea of Stories, stories, even the slightest of them, are political expression. In Chaucer, stories are reflection of character, or society. In Spenser’s The Faerie Queen, they are there for the sheer delight of complexity, stories within stories within stories, daring us to keep track.

In Eucalyptus (one of the benefits of this book is that I finally learned to spell Eucalyptus) stories are a form of courtship. They are a lesson on how to woo. Mr. Cave goes about simply naming trees, hardly paying any attention to his prize, and it’s as sexy as it sounds. The mysterious stranger, in contrast, earns her intimacy with remarkable stories told for her pleasure, leaving her hanging on just the right note, and shows us the art of seduction, makes clear that lovers are to be won over, not just won.

The prose is, as it should be, almost hypnotically beautiful. It’s a novel I could read again and again just to listen to Bail’s way with words, rapturous, but always moving the story forward.

The stories are plentiful. At times I agreed with Helen, that the stories were unfinished, that they needed more closure. Many end on mysterious notes, or end completely unresolved. At other times the ambiguity felt perfect. And let’s face it, Murray Bail is only human. It’s not as if he’s going to be able to produce a hundred or so miniature masterpieces for us in a single tome. The Arabian Nights took centuries to compile! So some stories are remarkable, others are just a trifle, but the overall effect is of breathtaking epic-ness, especially for a novel that isn’t really that long.

One review here on Goodreads said she preferred the descriptions of trees to the stranger’s stories. While the trees are fun for a while, I have to disagree. After a while, I was impatient for the story to get underway.

Another reader complained that the characters are slight, which is often true of fairy-tales like this. I didn’t find them all that slight, or maybe the slightness didn’t bother me. But it's true, if you’re looking for characters of profound psychological depth, this isn’t the book for you. This is a book for those who love fable-like stories told with style.

My complaint: The story takes a while to get going. I might have edited down some of the backstory, which turns out to be largely irrelevant, or Mr. Cave and some of his tree-naming. But once the stranger arrives, the novel takes off.

Frankly, I didn’t know I was such a romantic. I didn’t even like Love in the Time of Cholera with its overemotionalism. But Eucalyptus won me over. I feel unnervingly feminine the way I’ve been swept off my feet! In my defense, it’s impressive how the novel is so swooningly romantic without being sugar-coated or stickily sentimental.

Australians are turning out to be just as masterful at magical realism as South Americans – Walkabout, Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Book Thief, Boy Swallows Universe, The Living Sea of Waking Dreams. Eucalyptus may not fit the definition of magical realism exactly – but the spirit seems awfully Marquez to me, as well as awfully 1001 Arabian Nights.

It's not a perfect novel, nor it is for everyone. My threshold for a 5 star review is simply whether it’s a novel I would happily read again. In this case, as soon as I finished the audiobook, I jumped online and ordered a paper copy to have and hold for my very own.

Breathlessly awaiting the package.
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May 14, 2018 Justin Evans rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

I suspect that this book has fallen between two stools: if you're looking for a classic love story, you're likely to be annoyed that the plot gets going by having a man offer his daughter to any man who can name all the species of gum tree on his property. If you're looking for clever reflections on anything, you're likely to be irritated by the cheesiness of the courtship and the extra, super-duper cheesiness of the conclusion. I am of the latter. Other reasons to be annoyed by Murray Bail wast ...more

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May 20, 2010 Shannon rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction

I spent most of this book wishing I had someone there to explain it to me. As it was, I think I got about a fourth of what the author was trying to say. Bail doesn't ever just say something, first he tells a story or gives a detailed description of a specific eucalyptus tree, and expects you to extrapolate. When he was telling stories they were odd; a man who spends his life planting every kind of eucalyptus, a girl who is beautiful because she is covered in moles... And like all of the stories ...more

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Feb 18, 2018 Mike Histand rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: dede

Recommended to Mike by: dede

A delightful story of stories built around a collection of eucalypti on a spread in NSW. Part adult fairy tale but full of tales many of which get lopped at the tip. For some reason a forward momentum prevails in the telling and the reader lurches into a series of truncated tales from the enigmatic story teller. Wonderful images intertwine with the genus and species names of eucalypts as various visitors endeavor to identify the trees to acquire the hand of the lovely spotted daughter of the col ...more

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Aug 18, 2010 Roberto rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Normally fables are compelling because they have a sort of magic that rivets us. In this case , soon enough ( too soon) the magic runs out and what we thought it was an interesting premise ( to win the hand of a freckled beauty , the suitor has to name all the eucalypts planted in her father´s property) becomes a dull tale. Such a pity. I was really expecting something more from this novel...

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Jul 04, 2012 Julia rated it liked it

There were many lovely things about this book, and it certainly takes the reader to a place (Australian outback) very effectively. However I found the female character to be tiresomely passive ....and a real drag on the plot, and so the three stars.

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About Murray Bail

Murray Bail

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Murray Bail (born 22 September 1941) is an Australian writer of novels, short stories and non-fiction.

He was born in Adelaide, South Australia. He has lived most of his life in Australia except for sojourns in India (1968–70) and England and Europe (1970–74). He currently lives in Sydney.

He was trustee of the National Gallery of Australia from 1976 to 1981, and wrote a book on Australian artist Ia ...more

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“Some people, some nations, are permanently in shade. Some people cast a shadow. Lengths of elongated darkness precede them, even in church or when the sun is in, as they say, mopped up by the dirty cloth of the could. A puddle of dark forms around their feet. It's very pine like. The pine and darkness are one. Eucalypts are unusual in this respect: set pendulously their leaves allow see-through foliage which in turn produces a frail patterned sort of shade, if at all. Clarity, lack of darkness-these might be called 'eucalyptus qualities'.” — 4 likes

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