I’m not sure where this book came from. Most likely A Clean Well-Lighted Place for Books – an independent bookseller in SF that was right down the street from my old apartment
Set in the Australian outback (I guess it’s the outback) a mysterious man buys a giant ranch and then proceeds to plant Eucalyptus. Every type of eucalyptus. Rare, common etc. His daughter — Ellen the speckled beauty soon arrives and thus becomes so beautiful that it becomes necessary to find her a husband in the interest of averting some sort of catastrophe. Ellen has a fondness for slick traveling salesmen and others of their ilk. Her father announces that the only successful suitor is the one that can name every eucalyptus on his property winning the hand of the speckled beauty and the very large ranch.
Eventually many try and many fail until one man looks like he might just finish the naming. Ellen, somewhat upset because she isn’t being wooed, comes across a man lying under a tree (eucalyptus of course) who begins to tell her human interest stories in lands near and far. Personally, I thought he was something of a lousy story-teller.
Generally this sort of novel appeals to me — I love the stories of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and others within that genre. Eucalyptus failed to transport me to the that bit of land sighing with Eucalyptus trees. The plot is an old story which is not really unusual, but with an old plot the key is to weave a many textured world with well-drawn characters. This book also had the “readers club questions” in the back — which I find irritating (other irritants include the Oprah seal of approval and lengthy introductions.)
