Bought from a second hand shop.

I absolutely love Time Winton. Had the opportunity to see him speak at a book launch for his latest novel 'Eyrie' last year. A very special experience from a wonderful West Aussie author. It's a few years since I've read this one, but I remember the feeling in it. Despite the humour it has a definite sense of the tragic about it. Love it!

Cover quote:

"Cloudstreet gets you inside the very skin of post-war working-class Australians the way Joyce makes you feel like a turn-of-the-century Dubliner . . . People get up from where they have fallen, they try, they keep on. Above all, they laugh at themselves, sometimes bitterly, but much more often riotously. Cloudstreet is a hilarious book."

Posted off to Canada as part of the 2014 Australian Literature Sweepstakes. Enjoy!

Thank you Ellastix for sending this book to me. Tim Winton is an Australian author that I am familiar with as I read and loved Dirt Music when it came out. I am at this moment reading another book of his, The Riders, and I am enthralled with it. In fact, I almost missed my bus stop tonight coming home from work because I was reading it. I have heard of Cloudstreet but not read it so I am thrilled to have received a copy.

Tim Winton makes me think that maybe I could like magical realism after all. This book is chock full of ghosts and imagined beings and talking pigs and bad luck and good luck. Generally I have a hard time with a book that incorporates all that magic stuff but Winton incorporates it into such a compelling story that I took it in stride.
Two families, the Lambs and the Pickles, are forced to share a big rambling house in Perth, Western Australia. Sam Pickles lost most of the fingers on one hand in an industrial accident and he is a gambler. His wife, Dolly, is an alcoholic and a woman of loose morals. They have three children, Rose, Ted and Chub. Lester Lamb is an ex-farmer and policeman married to Oriel. They have six children, Quick, Fish, Hat, Red, Elaine, Lon. When Fish was 9 years old he drowned while he, Quick and Lester were netting prawns. His mother resuscitated him but Fish was mentally handicapped from the lack of oxygen.
Dolly’s brother left Sam a house on Cloud Street in Perth in his will with the provision that it could not be sold for 20 years. Sam, Dolly and the kids moved in and Sam decided to lease half of the house because it was so big. The Lambs moved in and their rent helped support the Pickles. Lester had an idea of opening a store in their half of the house which soon became a success thanks to Oriel’s management skills. Despite being very different the two families become close but they both are living under shadows. Sometimes the shadow moves off but then it comes back in full force.
Water and fishing play a big part in the story. I’m sure there is some symbolism to grasp here but all I can think of is that we originated in water. Is Winton giving us an origin story from down under? Possibly but I would bet there are other interpretations too.
I think my favourite character was Lester Lamb. He cares so deeply about his family and his country. He likes to make people laugh and he loves to play music. The occasion that almost killed Fish haunts him for the rest of his life but he doesn’t let it beat him. Now, that’s a real man.

I left this book on a picnic bench overlooking the harbour. Since fishing played such an important role in this book I thought it would appreciate being left near the sea (albeit a completely different one from the ocean in the book). This release is for the 2015 52 Towns in 52 Weeks release challenge.