Book review "Cloudstreet" - Tim Winton
Title: Cloudstreet
Auther: Tim Winton
Genre: Australian fiction
Pages: 426
Rating: 4/5
from the blurb
From separate catastrophes two rural families flee to the city and find themselves sharing a great, breathing, shuddering joint called Cloudstreet, where they begin their lives again from scratch. For twenty years they roister and rankle, laugh and curse until the roof over their heads becomes a home for their hearts.
Tim Winton's funny, sprawling saga is an epic novel of love and acceptance.
Growing up in Australia, I had always been curious about Tim Winton but rarely attempted to read one of his books. In the past, I only took to fantasy novels and I generally had no interest in Australian stories. Since I grew up in Australia, I always thought Tim Winton would be kind of a boring writer because I’d be too familiar with the character’s environment, in a way. Well, I went from wanting to read everything fantasy to well... wanting to read everything. I guess as a reader you just tend to broaden your tastes as you, yourself, get older.
Tim Winton’s Cloudstreet was picked up at a garage sale for only a $1 and left, unread, in a bookcase for almost two years before I chose to read it. I’m glad I did. My first impression of the book however, as I was reading the first few chapters, was that it was a bit wishy-washy. The writing, at times, was hard to follow and the supposed depth of it to me was a bit anti-climatic and all in all, I felt it to be a bit shallow. Later, I had learned that my thoughts of the book were a bit shallow and I began to understand that I hardly understood anything about Australian stories. I may have grown up here, but I had it easy and these characters, of Quick and Rose especially, certainly had it difficult.
Cloudstreet is about two post-war, working-class families sharing a townhouse called Cloudstreet in the city. Living in the country had been harsh on both families so both tried to start again, refresh and anew in the city. Through their differences they found a way of sharing their home and becoming one family.
Cloudstreet is filled with tragedy and love. Winton challenges his readers with poetic descriptions to the point of ambiguity. His language struggles with clarity for the most part of the story or perhaps that was my own misconception. If you are to place yourself in the same situation as these characters, who have faced obstacles, had being ripped apart by misfortune and tested with heartbreak with the little joy they cherished, it’s no wonder you’d find a rare sense of clarity in the story. Cloudstreet was anything but familiar to me. I could not relate to any of these characters at all, which made me all that more fascinated by the story.
To really break down the book, I could only describe it in two words. Bright and burnt - like our sunburnt land. I enjoyed it for the most part, but at times I was frustrated with the way the book was written. It definitely is a great Australian piece of work and I would recommend it to anyone, especially if you're curious about what it was like living in post-war Australia.