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3.9 AVERAGE
3.9 AVERAGE
After hearing this book described for years and years as the quintessential Australian novel, I finally picked it up to find out what the hype was about. I am so glad I did.
It is very rare you pick up a book and find the essence of your cultural identity seeping off the pages. Not that I lived through the years after WWII, not that my family had the same troubles as these families. The families aren't even that sympathetic as you start reading. But the attitudes and values that they have and display are so familiar and comforting that it draws you in and makes you want to stay. Loyalty, pride, the fair go, the Aussie battler, hard work, family, friendship, finding humour in everything, every situation and everyone. It wraps you up like a large old blanket and makes you feel safe and understood.
While as I say, the families are not overly sympathetic characters to begin with, throughout the story you end up deeply caring for them. It sneaks up on you. You realise that you want to know that they are all going to be okay, because really, they are all pretty good sorts deep down. You don't necessarily agree with them or their decisions overall, but there is a deep feeling of connection when you finish the book. They creep into you, the Pickles and the Lambs. And I think that is the strength of this book. The slow, gradual, unnoticed sensation of comradery you build with the characters.
For me, the magic realism of the book wasn't really a big feature. To me, a lot of the time I didn't even think about these elements. They didn't bother me, I didn't question them. Strange things happen in the bush. You go out there long enough, particularly by yourself, in the big, wide, emptiness and you can see things. After driving 6 hours each day for the last couple of days, if I didn't have people in the car, I wouldn't have been surprised if I believed there was someone in the car with me. If I had been almost disemboweled by a kangaroo and was experiencing extreme blood loss, I would have some crazy dreams too.
I appreciated reading this book for fun and not for school where you focus on every single nuance of these elements of the story and dissecting it to death. I was happy to read and to accept that this land gets under your skin and things happen. Just like the Pickles family and the Lamb family. I am better for meeting them.
For more reviews visit http://rusalkii.blogspot.com.au/
It is very rare you pick up a book and find the essence of your cultural identity seeping off the pages. Not that I lived through the years after WWII, not that my family had the same troubles as these families. The families aren't even that sympathetic as you start reading. But the attitudes and values that they have and display are so familiar and comforting that it draws you in and makes you want to stay. Loyalty, pride, the fair go, the Aussie battler, hard work, family, friendship, finding humour in everything, every situation and everyone. It wraps you up like a large old blanket and makes you feel safe and understood.
While as I say, the families are not overly sympathetic characters to begin with, throughout the story you end up deeply caring for them. It sneaks up on you. You realise that you want to know that they are all going to be okay, because really, they are all pretty good sorts deep down. You don't necessarily agree with them or their decisions overall, but there is a deep feeling of connection when you finish the book. They creep into you, the Pickles and the Lambs. And I think that is the strength of this book. The slow, gradual, unnoticed sensation of comradery you build with the characters.
For me, the magic realism of the book wasn't really a big feature. To me, a lot of the time I didn't even think about these elements. They didn't bother me, I didn't question them. Strange things happen in the bush. You go out there long enough, particularly by yourself, in the big, wide, emptiness and you can see things. After driving 6 hours each day for the last couple of days, if I didn't have people in the car, I wouldn't have been surprised if I believed there was someone in the car with me. If I had been almost disemboweled by a kangaroo and was experiencing extreme blood loss, I would have some crazy dreams too.
I appreciated reading this book for fun and not for school where you focus on every single nuance of these elements of the story and dissecting it to death. I was happy to read and to accept that this land gets under your skin and things happen. Just like the Pickles family and the Lamb family. I am better for meeting them.
For more reviews visit http://rusalkii.blogspot.com.au/
I loved this book. Found it far more satisfying than Dirt Music.
Beautifully written story based around two very different families - the Pickles and the Lambs. Sam Pickle loses most of the fingers on his right hand in a boat accident, which makes work difficult. He is an inveterate gambler and drinker, which means that any many goes in one hand and out the other! His wife, Dolly, is beautiful but becomes increasingly jaded with life and drinks herself into a stupor most of the time. Their daughter, Rose, despairs of the future.
The family is 'gifted' a large house when Sam's cousin dies suddenly, on the proviso that they do not sell it! They take in another large family, the Lambs, to help cover the bills.
The Lambs have had a dreadful accident when their son, Fish, almost drowned but was brought back to life as a child. However, he was brain damaged as a result. His brother, Quick, blames himself for not rescuing Fish quickly enough and his parents both blame themselves too.
Fish is an interesting character, seeming to be able to see spirits invisible to others - there have been indigenous people kept in the house years ago.
The Lambs set up a shop in their side of the house and it is very successful, while the Pickles gradually go to seed through drink and gambling. Rose is told she has to leave school and get a job to help keep the family afloat. She does find work and enjoys the freedom it gives her.
In a circuitous way, she and Quick get together and get married.
Altogether it is an uplifting story. Lyrical descriptions of the country, the river and people.
The family is 'gifted' a large house when Sam's cousin dies suddenly, on the proviso that they do not sell it! They take in another large family, the Lambs, to help cover the bills.
The Lambs have had a dreadful accident when their son, Fish, almost drowned but was brought back to life as a child. However, he was brain damaged as a result. His brother, Quick, blames himself for not rescuing Fish quickly enough and his parents both blame themselves too.
Fish is an interesting character, seeming to be able to see spirits invisible to others - there have been indigenous people kept in the house years ago.
The Lambs set up a shop in their side of the house and it is very successful, while the Pickles gradually go to seed through drink and gambling. Rose is told she has to leave school and get a job to help keep the family afloat. She does find work and enjoys the freedom it gives her.
In a circuitous way, she and Quick get together and get married.
Altogether it is an uplifting story. Lyrical descriptions of the country, the river and people.
This provided a rare combination - I didn't want to put it down, but I also didn't want it to ever end. Beautiful, funny, heartbreaking, real - the characters are utterly human, their story both everyday and mesmerizing. THE definitive Australian Classic - Tim Winton is a maverick with words and I cannot wait to read this again...!
A classic Australian book, this is a truly amazing story of two very different families with so many things in common - humanity at its best. I thought the character development was very good and Tim Winton is very good at making the ordinary extraordinary. The story telling was really good.
the first thirty pages took me the whole year to get through but I committed today, and I’m glad I did. beautiful writing, full circle, I feel like I need to read it again.
After I finished this book I felt like I had spent a month in West Australia of half a century ago, that's how authentic and real the setting felt to me. It paints a picture of two working class families in the 40s through the 60s. How the families interact and how their lives get woven together by living in the same big house is just part of the story. Underlying it there are all sorts of spiritual things going on, from an aboriginal old man showing up and disappearing throughout the book, ghosts in the walls of the house, the house that speaks, oh and a pig speaking in tongues... it has lots hilarious moments, which make up nicely for the boring parts. I found it sometimes hard to keep listening, and at times it became a chore, because of how amoral and foolish most characters are. In the second part of the book the author redeems them somewhat, and they become more sympathetic.
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book is a story of two families, down on their luck, living together in an enormous, sort-of-haunted house in Perth in Western Australia. The families are completely different - in one, the father is a gambler whose always losing the family's money, in the other, the mother is the kind of salt-of-the-earth hard worker who can manage to feed her family on very little.
I really liked this book. I loved the characters and the story, the chronicle of family life and trying to make do they best they can.
The only negative for me was that I don't think I'm smart enough to get this book. Magical realism is not my thing. I didn't understand what was going on with the house, at all. I also didn't understand who the "I" was, presumably the narrator, though I have a guess.
Anyway, it was over my head, but I enjoyed it anyway.
I really liked this book. I loved the characters and the story, the chronicle of family life and trying to make do they best they can.
The only negative for me was that I don't think I'm smart enough to get this book. Magical realism is not my thing. I didn't understand what was going on with the house, at all. I also didn't understand who the "I" was, presumably the narrator, though I have a guess.
Anyway, it was over my head, but I enjoyed it anyway.
Wintons writing is unique and charismatic but for some reason I couldn’t get into this one. I’m sure this book deserves the accreditation it received but it wasn’t for me. The plot, the characters, nor the writing style.