{"product_id":"2026100008937-secondhand-a-lifetime-on-clouds","title":"A Lifetime On Clouds","description":"\u003cp\u003eEdition: First Edition\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition remarks:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBook: Very good\u003cbr\u003eJacket: Very good\u003cbr\u003ePages: Tanning and foxing\u003cbr\u003eCondition remarks: Light foxing on the book block, otherwise internally sound. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eComing of age in the repressive Catholic suburbs of 1950s Melbourne has never been rendered with such aching precision as in Gerald Murnane's A Lifetime on Clouds. The novel chronicles the adolescent inner world of Adrian Sherd, a teenage boy consumed by guilt, religious fervour, and the overwhelming, bewildering surge of sexual awakening, as he navigates the rigid moral landscape of his faith, his schooling, and his own restless imagination. Caught between the carnal temptations of Hollywood cinema and the stern doctrines of his Church, Adrian constructs elaborate fantasy lives that both imprison and sustain him, making for a portrait of adolescence that is simultaneously comic and devastating.\n\nMurnane writes with a cool, ironic detachment that transforms the mundane rituals of suburban Catholic life into a rich theatre of the absurd, illuminating the profound tensions between desire, shame, and spiritual longing. First published in 1976, the novel stands as a landmark of Australian literature — a sardonic yet deeply sympathetic meditation on the tyranny of the imagination and the peculiar anguish of growing up male in mid-century Australia. Readers who surrender to Murnane's singular prose will find themselves asking whether Adrian ever truly escapes the clouds of his own making.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Secondhand Stock","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49313640415451,"sku":"2026100008937-SECONDHAND","price":400.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0523\/7646\/9701\/files\/94cbc2b1-4f9a-4b21-bcc4-812e7b491489.png?v=1789524769","url":"https:\/\/bookgrocer.com\/products\/2026100008937-secondhand-a-lifetime-on-clouds","provider":"Book Grocer","version":"1.0","type":"link"}