Something For The Pain: A Memoir of the Turf - Softcover

Murnane, Gerald

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1925240371 ISBN 13: 9781925240375

Publisher: The Text Publishing Company, 2015

Synopsis

A SPECTACULARLY ORIGINAL MEMOIR ABOUT THE AUTHOR'S LOVE FOR HORSE RACING

One of Australia's most important and imaginative contemporary authors opens up about a life spent obsessed by racing.

I never met anyone whose interest in racing matched my own. Both on and off the course, so to speak, I've enjoyed the company of many a racing acquaintance... I've read books, or parts of books, by persons who might have come close to being true racing friends of mine if ever we had met. For most of my long life, however, my enjoyment of racing has been a solitary thing: something I could never wholly explain to anyone else.

As a boy, Gerald Murnane became obsessed with horse racing. He had never ridden a horse, nor seen a race. Yet he was fascinated by photos of horse races in the Sporting Globe, and by the incantation of horses' names in radio broadcasts of races. Murnane discovered in these races more than he could find in religion or philosophy: they were the gateway to a world of imagination.

Gerald Murnane is like no other writer, and SOMETHING FOR THE PAIN is like no other Murnane book. In this unique and spellbinding memoir, he tells the story of his life through the lens of horse racing. It is candid, droll and moving - a treat for lovers of literature and of the turf.

About this title

Review

Vividly illuminates the arcane world of the racetrack over a period of some 70 yearsIt is clear that [Murnane s] creative and spiritual life is supported by the colours, metaphors and personalities of the track. "Daily Telegraph"
Something for the Pain is not about great events. It is, however a great read. "Inside Racing"
A memoir of horse racing that speaks of triumphs and tragedies, of the infinite shades of friendship and romance, of the precision and persistence of memory, and it its characteristically calm, direct prose as much as its contents of virtue. --"Times Literary Supplement," Best of 2015
"

'A fascinating autobiography for racegoers.' --Good Reading

'It is the only one of [Murnane's] books that can reasonably be called breezy...The knot that has bound religion, sex and fiction-writing in his books is loosed.' --London Review of Books

About the Author

Gerald Murnane was born in Melbourne in 1939. He has been a primary teacher, an editor and a university lecturer. His debut novel, Tamarisk Row (Angus & Robertson, 1974), was followed by nine other works of fiction, including The Plains (1982), now available as a Text Classic, and most recently A Million Windows (Giramondo Publishing Company, 2014). In 1999 Murnane won the Patrick White Award and in 2009 he won the Melbourne Prize for Literature. He lives in western Victoria.

About this edition

• Publisher: The Text Publishing Company
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1925240371
• ISBN 13: 9781925240375
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 258