Cloudstreet: A Novel Paperback – November 26, 2013

How do you begin to write about a book like Cloudstreet? It's so fine, subtle and perfectly written that the reader is carried forward on the plot before he or she even realises that the book has had a transformative effect. Like Winton himself, there is something so humble about the book--it's such a soft, generous offering--that it's almost difficult to reconcile the honesty of the story--the lives of these two flawed families--with the fireworks that it creates in terms of its illumination of the human condition. The story follows, in a reasonably simple manner, the Pickles and the Lambs - who end up living in the same large, somewhat haunted house, #1 Cloudstreet, inherited by Sam Pickles. These families couldn't be more different. Sam and Dolly Pickles are gamblers - they drink, smoke, curse, Sam loses huge amounts of money on the horses, Dolly sleeps around, and aside from renting out half of the place to the Lambs, they do nothing to improve Cloudstreet's ramshackled appearance. The Lambs are hard working, upstanding people who transform their half of the house into a successful shop through hard work and an enterprising spirit. The families have more in common than they might appear to though. Both have had their lives altered by terrible accidents involving the sea. Both are galvanised around their families. Both families are at the periphery of society, like the house itself.While Rose Pickles tilts towards `normalcy', these people are all special in one way or another, even with their idiosyncrasies and failings - there is something extraordinary, even magical about them. It could be the ghosts who inhabit the house they live in, or the nature of the tragedies that befall both families, leaving two of the key characters - Sam and Fish - both present and absent at the same time - life and death magically mingling in their veins.Yet we know Fish as we know Sam. Implicitly, like the way we know anyone we've lived with, loved, been irritated or hurt by, hated, and loved again. They are characters who become as familiar to us as the rest of this bunch - Dolly with her sharp edged, quite intelligent potty mouth; Rose, fired by her desire to be normal, better, different from her mother; Oriel, who subsumes her sense of failure and guilt into a Quaker style of hard work and care; or Quick, who is drawn, masochistically, to the misery of others. As the novel progresses we come to care for each of these characters and watch them each progress on a journey. Even without the magic, it's a ruddy good story of personal development, care, family, and love - an engaging narrative progression as each character loses and finds him or herself.The setting, as is the case with all of Winton's novels, is as much a character as the Pickles and the Lambs are. Initially Geraldton, and then Perth in Western Australia, are all beautifully depicted, with the kind of attention that only comes with a rich, deep sense of the place being described. We see the world through a rich array of metaphor - the winter sky is "the colour of sixpence". Rose sends herself into the "furious movement" of Perth each morning where we experience the bluster of business and see the Veterans at the RLS club. Quick wakes up in the Karri forest where he hears a roar of bees and the crackle of the bush. The river itself weaves its way through each person's life, from its role in the two tragedies that shape the story, to the way it provides a backdrop for each epiphany that leads to personal change and growth - Quick and Fish bringing the boat back, Quick and Rose's first real meeting, Oriel and Quick's prawning episode where Oriel reveals her past. Everything happens on the river. The river is like a anthropomorphic god that is omniscient--the real narrative voice that underlies the story.Cloudstreet illuminates a particular period of time in Australia's history - moving from the end of WW2 to the early sixties, and conveys both the time and place magnificently in a way that will engage the reader instantly. Yes, it's a great Australian novel, full of people and places that are both inherently part of their time and true to that space. Above all though, what elevates this book from a cracking good yarn to something that is great, is the magic. The book is rife with magic, so purely woven into the story you might miss it on a first reading. It's a magic that comes straight from a love of humanity - a generous, funny magic that picks up on all that is truly beautiful, even amidst our flaws. All sorts of amazing things happen in this book. There are dark ghosts, children who rise out of the ground, rivers that become sky and stars that embrace, a talking pig, a mysterious Aboriginal who walks on water, skin that glows, fish that jump out and fill a boat, a bird that poos coins. There is magic in the ordinary too - the magic of childbirth, of forgiveness, of love. The whole narrative structure is magical, bringing everything together in its striking conclusion.Cloudstreet is a book that contains a world. It's not just the world of the Pickles and the Lambs, compelling as that is. It's the world of the reader. This is a book that is wonderful because it shines a light on who we are, lovingly, and with the kind of forgiving, all-inclusive care of a parent, it allows us to rejoice in ourselves.Magdalena Ball is the author of  Sleep Before Evening  and  Repulsion Thrust

The Los Angeles Times Book Review states "Winton is a one-man band of genius."Heady words, and I snapped at the bait, intrigued by the raving reviews of the readers. (Be careful not to read all of them, as one gives away the entire ending in one sentence).I was not disappointed. I was completely captivated by this story in a way I have never been by any other. The originality, teasing slang and the insight into Australian post-world war II was a hearty combination that cadenced into one of the most fascinating books I have ever read. This book went with me everywhere. I discussed it with many and especially enjoyed lingering over certain sentences ripe with slang. It was probably one of the most delightful aspects of reading this book; the freshness and foreigness to me as an American reading the saucy expressions of Australians. The humor is hilarious, and there was a smile for nearly every page I read and also moments that made your heart melt. At this very moment, there are friends of mine working in medicine (hospital) still trying to figure out what Tim Winton meant by "the smell of nugget in the webbing."The following is a subtle spoiler alert **Aside from the hilarity, the novel is about two families that by chance come together to live in the same large home. The Pickles Family inherits a large home from a relative that dies suddenly and unexpectantly. Thanks to this relative (Uncle Joel) and his wise forethought, he bars his brother, Sam from selling the home for 20 years. Joel's motivation is a premeditated attempt to protect the wife and children of Sam and Sam's gambling at the race tracks, not to mention the unfortunate work related amputation of his fingers on one hand that renders him nearly unemployable. Since things are pretty grim anyway (they are living above the bar that Joel owns and "working" off the rent,) Sam's drunken wife Dolly, and his children move on up to Cloudstreet and the mansion in the offering.Sam, ever so shifty, immediately, and without prior consultation with the rest of his family, rents out one half of the house to the Lamb family. The Lambs are the absolute opposite of the Pickles. Religious, and with their own family sorrows, they pack in and set up a grocery store in their one half of the lower story to make a living.The Lambs arrive after suffering through the near drowning of their most beloved son, Fish. (note the irony.)Fish, retarded and prone to sensing spirits in the house and in and of himself becomes essential to the story and the telling. Revolving around this poor boy are the steel strength-heart soft mother, Oriel, and father Lester, a hen-pecked, sweet tempered,entertaining pa. Son "Quick" is the angst-ridden brother who feels responsible for Fish's accident and grows up fighting the evils around him. The other sisters round out this lively family.Many characters and sub-plots keep this book a page turner that will entertain and move you. I look forward to reading the rest of his novels.PS : there is a study guide for those that want to enhance the novel. See Amazon.com under author Tim Winton.

This is probably Winton's best novel---and yet, like many of his novels, it is uneven, inconsistent and ambiguous. Oh, I get Winton's possible employment of Magic Realism (the talking pig, the Abo apparition, the sighing, living, breathing old house, etc.). But, what is the point of including The Monster---what does this character do to strengthen or deepen the plot? Some of Winton's details seem random. The beautiful power of this book comes and goes, shines brightly and then dims out. And yet, it is an intriguing read---and it reminds me so much---not of John Steinbeck---but of William Faulkner. Why do characters like Fish remind me of both Vardaman and Darl in Faulkner's As I Lay Dying? Or of Benjy and Quentin in The Sound and the Fury? Fish is, indeed, a brilliantly conceived character---and it is Fish who makes the novel cohere. Winton's feel for the land is also reminiscent of Faulkner's mystical and mythical South. Additionally, as did Faulkner, Winton makes interesting use of present and past tenses, shifting back and forth in a way that dissolves the line between waking and dreaming. Actually, this is quite a book.

5つ星では足りない、10つ星評価を与えたい最高の作品。Tim Wintonの作品は、他にもDirt MusicとBreathを読み、どちらの作品にも感銘を受けましたがエンターテイメントとしてはこの作品がダントツで一番です。この作家の作品はどれもオーストラリアのスラングが多く使われているため、慣れるまでに多少時間がかかりましたが、一度慣れると小気味良い文体と会話のリズムの虜になってしまいました。Cloudstreetの舞台は1940年代初頭、第二次世界大戦戦時下のオーストラリア。数奇な運命からCloud Streetで一つ屋根の下暮らすことになったPickles家とLambs家、２つの家族の物語です。子供たちが成長し、大人になるまで、そして成長できない大人が不完全ながらもそれぞれを受け入れられるようになるまでの20年間を描いています。水難で知的障害者になる息子、仕事中の事故で指を失いギャンブルに溺れる父、アルコール中毒症の母、貧困、拒食症、家庭内別居、流産と次から次に不幸が訪れますが、ストーリーの根底に流れるものは家族愛とコメディーで、涙しながらも噴き出してしまうシーンがいくつもありました。また、この作品の面白いところはマジックリアリズムの要素が散りばめられているところ。異国の言葉で話すブタ、溜息をつく家などが違和感なく物語にフィットしています。オーストラリア文学という枠にはめることができない極上の読書経験。Tim Wintonは日本では殆ど無名ですが、沢山の人に読んで欲しい名作です。

After reading this book I can see why it is regarded as a classic and thoroughly enjoyed it. Although it seemed to start in a rather cartoonish way, it evolved into something much more, and delivered a powerful emotional punch at the end. It is a book that will linger in the memory and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it.

Two families who have both suffered in some way come together to live in a large ramshakle old house which was bequeathed to one of them learn how to live together.Sam Pickles was a soft kind hearted guy who believed in the ' hairy hand of fate' and in all respects was a gambler believing that luck was with you or not and you had to accept whatever fate threw at you. One morning when he was working on a boat and not paying attention he lost his hand and so lost his job and livelihood. he and his daughter Rose feature quite significantly in 'Pickles' side of the story and Rose was probably the only one who truly understood and cared for him. But she loses faith in him when he almost ruins the family. Dolly Pickles finds Sam impossible and is thoroughly depressed with her life and wants out desperately. She takes up drink and uses the men she finds in the bars to make up for her non-existent sex life with Sam. So when one of Sams fishing partners dies and leaves him a house in a distant part of Perth they all feel they've been given a second chance.The other family, the Lambs, were completely different from the Pickles', being firm believers in God and the healing power of hard work. The Pickles took them in as tenants in half the house as A way of earning a living. But Dolly bitterly resents the Lambs, particularly Oriel, the mother, presumably because she works hard, organises her family and rules them with a rod of iron. She starts a shop in the house and its a resounding success. It's all down to her and her husband, Lester doesn't feature very strongly at all. Oriel blames him for the accident that Fish, one of their two boys suffers when out fishing one evening. The boy nearly dies but worse, he lives and is brain damaged but it is Quick, his brother, who shoulders the guilt for his brothers misfortune which follows him most of his life.It really is a kind of everyday soap opera but streaked with poetry, pathos and joy. It keeps you page turning for hour after hour.

This is one of the most infuriating books I've ever read. Had to read for a book group and I would've binned it halfway through if I didn't have to finish it for the group. I'm so disappointed as was promised beautiful descriptions of Australia. Instead I got pages and pages of crude language with a million different words for bum on nearly every page. Women are only ever described by their breasts and do not exist as characters with their own thoughts, feelings, motivations or agency. Instead they are just there to further the plot for the rather useless and boring male characters. Bizarrely these (flat chested/large breasted/small breasted/big hipped/juicy bummed) women seem to want to jump into bed with these boring men at any opportunity, in order to further the plot for the men of course. The author clearly suffers from a madonna/w***e complex and would do well to stop writing his boring male fantasies of what women are like (no the don't only think of their breasts, their looks and men!) and talk to some actual women. The characters of colour and Jewish characters also suffer from racist language and stereotypes and only exist to further the plot for the mediocre white men. Utterly boring and purile and reads as if written by a 15 Yr old incel with severe mummy issues.

So amazing. Ordered it Wednesday pm and I have it at 10.20 am Friday. No postage charge. So quick. Also love the notifications to advise delivery on the day.