Ch PP Chapter Summary Important Quotes, Events, Themes, Notes

1-3 Light

Frank looks for Elsa and goes out for a smoke.

1

5-8 The Golden Age

Frank has been transferred to the Golden Age from the

2 IDB.

9-11 Elsa

Elsa comforts one of the babies

3

13-15 Cockatoos

Ida broods about coming to Australia and Frank’s polio.

4

17-19 Frank’s Vocation

Frank discovers a vocation from Sullivan: Poetry

5
 21-34 The Poet

Frank meets Sullivan Backhouse in the IDB in an iron

6 lung. They become friends. Sullivan introduces him to
poetry. Sullivan’s condition deteriorates and he dies.

35-52 The Trains

Frank and Ida are trapped in Nazi-Occupied Budapest.

7 Frank is hidden by Ida’s old piano teacher, Julia Marai.
Ida works under a false identity. Meyer is in a labour
camp. Ida reclaims her son after the city is liberated.
53-58 The First Time Frank Saw Elsa

Frank is unhappy about being transferred to the Golden

8 Age. Then he sees Elsa.

59-64 The Dark Night

Elsa remembers her time in the isolation ward. She

9 thinks of Frank and his curiosities.

65-71 The Loving Body

Olive Penny has a brief sexual encounter. She keeps this

10 identity and part of her life completely separate from
the Golden Age.
 73-78 Bellbirds

The children takes lessons. Frank is fed up with his

11 imperialist new “education”. He leaves in search of Elsa.

79-83 Angel Wings

Frank interrupts Elsa’s therapy bath.

12

85-98 Meyer Walks Home

Meyer walks from work to the Golden Age and reflects

13 on the family’s move. He visits Frank and talks to sister
Olive Penny.

99- Margaret in Her Garden

110
Margaret draws comfort from her garden. She hitches a
14 ride with Raymond to the Golden Age.
We learn that her husband is under his sister’s thumb
and the town are frightened of them because Elsa has
polio.
111- Christmas
124
The Golds help out on Christmas day and some other
15 family or friends come. Most who returned to their
families came back feeling awful.
 125- The Verandah The Verandah symbolises a halfway point. “past the corner”… is a
130 new life.
The children sit or play on the verandah in the summer
16 evenings

131- The Sea Frank is the Fox

138 Elsa is the Palomino
The Golden Age patients visit the beach. Elsa feels bad
17 because she considers what she never will do again.

139- A Long Cool Drink

143
Meyer brings Bickford’s for the kids but no one is home
18 except Penny. They charm one another.

145- Lidja
146
Lidja and her husband drown in a sailing accident
19

147- The Queen The Golds find themselves (especially Meyer) critical of the
154 Antipodeans’ Monarch fetishism.
The city is caught up in the excitement of the Royal Visit
20
 155- Ida and Meyer
158
Ida prepares for the recital. She is upset at all she has
21 lost.

159- The Concert

170
Ida plays at the concert. Policemen and neighbours
22 poke their heads in to applaud. Frank and Ida forgive
one another in a smile that proves her excellence.

171- Albert
173
Albert Sutton tries to escape and hurts himself. This is a
23 message to some that the Golden Age isn’t running
quite right

175- Anne Lee

179
Anne Lee’s father arrives from Wiluna to take her home.
24 Sister Penny can’t stop him, and also doesn’t know that
she really needs to.

181- Blue Air

185
Olive visits her old friend/patient Tucker. They have a
25 night of mutual love-making but in the morning she has
a feeling something is wrong at the Golden Age and
makes a call. Frank has been found in Elsa’s bed.
 187- Frank and Elsa become even closer. Frank visits Elsa in
193 Girls. He is kicked out of the Golden Age.

26

195- Poetry
205
Frank, lonely and depressed, immerses himself in poetry
27 from the library and bookstores

207- The Hunch

211
Meyer seeks out Olive at the beach and farewells her
28 before she leaves to Darwin. They both realise they are
losing something but accept that it must be. Penny
advises that Frank and Elsa love one another
213- The Call
214
Frank’s depression prompts Ida to call the Briggs and
29 arrange a family tea.

215- The Separation

222
Elsa readjusts to living at home. She missed Frank and
30 thinks back on how awful it all is, but she is becoming
more comfortable at home in her bed.
 223- The Visit Elsa is in awe of the ‘Europeans’.
231 Meyer secretly detests their lack of culture.
The Golds visit the Briggs. Seeing Elsa and Frank sneak off breaks the illusion and Jack is
31 over it.

233- New York

240
Many years later, Elsa’s son Jack tracks Frank down in
New York for an interview for his literature magazine
32 Praise. Frank reveals that the best and most important
things he learned were at the Golden Age. Elsa is a
renowned doctor and lives her retirement quietly
looking out over the ocean.