Rating: 
Summary: To linger over
Review:
Fox is the social outcast of a small village in Western Australia, a poacher, and the sole survivor of his ill fated family. Georgie is a social outcast from middle class Australia who crashlands in this small fishing village after forays to far lands that have not delivered her from her troubles. They both are adrift, they have their own journeys to make, and at some point their journeys intersect.
Dirt Riders is a portrayal of a particular way of life at the ragged edges of western civilization. All human frailties are here, in this small village. Violence and racism and ignorance are all here. Yet there is a freedom here that one can find only far from the concrete cities and malls, the freedom of a small faraway place, where the stars still shine in their abundant glory, where you catch your own food and heal your own wounds.
The landscape embraces it all - the sea, the sand dunes, the mangroves, the baobabs, the rivers, the red rocks. As I was reading, I could feel the ocean breeze stirring up from the pages of the book, I could see the lagoon shimmering in the heat, I could taste the dust and the salt.
And that is the wonder of this book. With short and pithy descriptions, it is both lyrical and simple. Though it is slow going at times, this is a book to savour, to linger over, it is a book you do not wish to part from.
If you have ever sought out the remote places, where the people are few and the dunes last forever, you will love this book.
Rating: 
Summary: A beautiful read - Unravelling journey to the past
Review: "Dirt Music" is more than just a story about a tangled relationship between Georgie Jutland, Jim Buckridge and Luther Fox, it's also a journey to uncover the ghosts of their past. It's a story that is well-written by Tim Winton, without being too artificial or too practical. Sensitive without being soppy; practical without being mechanical.Through the bleak landscape of Western Australia, we learn that protagonists also have weaknesses and the 'bad' guys also have their own reasons to behave the way they do. This is the reason why I can identify with the characters and understand the way they behave. Having lived in Australia for some years also makes me recognize the 'aussieness' of this novel - it seeps through every sentence that is written: how the locals are afraid of the Asian invasion; how men are suppposed to be men; and many more little themes that are included within the novel. The book is also seasoned with Australian cheekiness and humour which makes it a delight to read - however, that doesn't mean that the book is a trivial read. Tim Winton brings us to scenes and makes us breathe in the surrounding, stand and witness whatever that is happening in the following pages. I heartily recommend this book to those who want to visit Western Australia, and to read how each character deals with the ghosts of their past. A great read - full stop.
Rating: 
Summary: Good story, obscure language
Review: Despite the lavish critical praise heaped on "Dirt Music", one of last year's Booker nominees, I can't say that I enjoyed it. The problem doesn't lie with the story but with Winton's language which others may find poetic and lyrical, but just seems jarring and obscure to me. His characters spit out half sentences, phrases, punctuated by local slang and references that nobody unfamiliar with the Australian outback will be able to understand.
Notwithstanding, "Dirt Music" has a decent story going about two people, one unhappy and listless in a loveless marriage, the other strung out and catatonic with grief after a car accident which wipes out his entire family, how they ignited the last spark of life in each other when their paths crossed one day, with devastating consequences. Damaged people recognise and are drawn like magnets to each other, Winton seems to be saying.
Surprisingly, Georgie and Lu share very little page space. Whereas Georgie's past and character is revealed in words, Winton relies on language and imagery to express Lu's situation, which lies buried beneath his deep freeze reserve. Lu's solitary flight into the wilderness may be key to the story but it goes on for far too long and becomes interminable. The Georgie chapters are far more satisfying.
Not as good as "The Riders". Disappointing.
Rating:
Summary: A Wild Ride
Review: Dirt Music is a wild ride -- a story of love, death, the mess people make of their lives, and their redemption through love. It is essentially the love story of Georgie Jutland and Luther Fox: Georgie, on the verge of alcoholism and finding herself in an unsure relationship with a widower named Jim and his two boys; Lu, the survivor of a world of death (everyone he loved has died in ghastly, gory ways) terrified of the thought that he is cursed, that anyone he loves will meet a horrible fate. The other characters are just as dodgy but only Jim (who, in his desire for his own redemption, seeks to help Georgie discover herself, even at the cost of their relationship) is drawn with any of the detail with which Georgie and Lu are delineated. These rough characters exist in a rough landscape: Western Australia, somewhere north of Perth, in a fishing town where most of the locals (who are literally White Pointers) have become rich from harvesting lobster but still maintain their frontier ways, often solving disputes with shotguns. Georgie is a blow-in, unsure of how she ended up living in this wild west town; Lu is a local but he's an outcast in a town of outcasts. He plays the dobro but, after the grim fate of his music-playing family, he is afraid of the psychic pain returning to music might give him so he makes a living poaching fish and crustaceans from his fellow townsfolk - a dangerous game in this unforgiving place.
Through this landscape, and the even harsher landscape of the Kimberley, the love story (it would be too banal to call it a romance) of these two is played out. The novel is a genuine page-turner and a quick read, partly because of the effortless prose and partly because we can't wait to see what happens next -- in that sense it's full of suspense as well, almost like a thriller/mystery. The dialogue is both sharp and blunt at the same time and only occasionally strays into unbelievability. The characters speak in metaphors laced with morbid and acerbic wit, to cover their real emotions:
"She's on the way out, son. Cancer of the bowel. Like it's goin outta fashion ... I'm for circlin the wagons and takin every pill and poison they give her but she wants to go out with her boots on, give it the big Up Yours. You know, blaze of glory. Wants to drive into the eye of the storm sorta thing."
The novel's climax is in the extreme northern country, where Lu escapes after he is nearly killed by redneck White Pointers. Georgie and Jim follow and try to find this lone, dazed, half-mad figure hiding in the wilderness. The ending is cataclysmic and I won't tell you whether Lu's curse is played out again .. you'll have to read the book for yourself and get deep into the world of Tim Winton, a genuinely original Aussie voice.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful read
Review: Having never read anything by Tim Winton prior to picking up this book two weeks ago, I had no expectations whatsoever. However, from the first page I was drawn into his tale and suffered several near sleepless nights as a result of not being able to put the book down. The characters, location and plot are all highly believable AND interesting. His descriptions of the landscape just made me want to go back to Western Aus and explore more vigorously. Having lived and worked for a short time in the gold mining industry in that state, I can assure the reader that Mr. Winton captures the essence of this land and it's people. It is a truely great book and I will be reading all of his other works.
Rating:
Summary: Good, not great
Review: I found this an enjoyable read. The subject matter interested me - dealing with grief and mid-life relationship crisis. I liked the setting and felt he evoked the landscape superbly. He also captured small town, insular Australia exceptionally well in the few characters drawn from the locale. Georgie's role as an outsider in her wealthy family rang true. Actually the sum of the parts rang more true for me than when it was put together. The idea of the grand passion coming at a time when she was adrift emotionally was good. The hurt of the young boys which isolated her within the domestic setting was achingly poignant. Small town politics and the dynamics of Jim's place in a power structure was interesting and not something I can recall having read much of in the past, especially with respect to my own culture (Australian). However, I found the last part of the book troublesome, and I think it disintegrated once the action moved to the remote island. I found it unbelievable and a bit of a Survivor / Boys Own Adventure stretch of the imagination. Winton is a fluid writer - I didn't find the prose clumsy, cliched or contrived, I didn't cringe at all as I all too often find myself doing these days. I reckon there's a great book inside here wanting to get out. I read that Winton was ages behind on deadline for delivery of this, and seemed to be blocked. I read he had a whole different book written, which he scrapped and then wrote this almost in one go. I think it shows. I am going to seek out some more of Winton's work, because I think he's a skilled writer, exploring some themes I find interesting, and his settings wonderful, and I have read better Winton books than this - Cloudsteet, and children's books The Deep and The Bugalugs Bum Thief .
Rating:
Summary: Beware the writing style
Review: Once you get over Winton's different writing style you find a story of human relationships interwoven with suspense and sadness. Whilst I enjoyed the book and felt it ran with peaks and troughs I found the writing style a little hard to come to terms with. It is an excellently written book but it is unlikely I will read another of his books.
Rating:
Summary: A refreshing love story
Review: This book deals with many issues: life in a small Australian fishing town, the mourning process of losing close family members, the feeling of being "direction-less" in life and the risks we need to take to find happiness and love. In an unconventional and refreshing way, the author takes two wounded and lost souls and, against all odds, draws their lives together for better or worse. What an unlikely satisfying experience was to read this book. It is moving and avoids all the cliches and blandness of a traditional love story.
Rating:
Summary: Author Assumptions
Review: This book is captivation personified once you get into this author's particular style. The flow of words is a little too "stream of consciousness" and the author assumes that the reader will have some knowledge of common australian slang. Still, an emotionally riveting plotline, very much a romantic drama.
Rating:
Summary: A Gem that Doesn't Hold the Light
Review: Tim Winton has an indisputable gift for language; seldom will you find more cleverly turned phrases or richer metaphors and similes, but "Dirt Music" is ultimately too opaque and self-indulgent. The language remains rich, but the story loses its way and the last 100 pages seem more the ramblings of a sunstruck psychedelic than an eloquent writer with a compelling story to tell. Most of the action takes place in the close-knit Western Australia fishing village of White Point, which is populated by characters who have a spiritual kinship to a dozen of Steinbeck's. Georgie Jutland, a well-traveled, well-worn forty-something ex-nurse from a dysfunctional family, is adrift in a brackish pool of indecision about her life and which man she wants to devote it to. Jim Buckridge, a stoic, widowed father of two young sons, stands tall and straight among them-a master fisherman and a strong, silent type who Georgie pities more than loves. Luther (Lu) Fox is a poacher of the first water whose crippled psyche draws Georgie like cat hair to a black sweater. But the Foxes are outcasts in this rough and tumble community while the Buckridges are its respected pillars. When the inevitable triangle forms, Lu is victimized in a particularly cruel way and Georgie is cast into a limbo darker than any she's ever known. Lu departs and Georgie's live-in relationship with Jim and his boys is flayed and filleted. Winton's long description of Lu's journey then not only leads the story off the beaten track, but off the track altogether. After forty or fifty pages of that, I no longer cared what happened to any of the characters.
|
