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Summary: Like getting to know an arm of your family
Review: An epic journey of life shared with two bustling families that stays with you long after. Even now, some five months after listening to the book on audio, I still hear the charachters in my head and smile to myself. An engrossing tale to curl up and get into - highly reccomended to anyone who enjoys the trials of family and relationships.
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Summary: Hate to be the only one, but...
Review: I enjoyed the first 200 pages of this 426 page book and bits and pieces of the other 226, but overall it was way too long. I really didn't like the unrealistic parts, didn't "get" them at all. What was the business about the "black bloke?" How about Quick "glowing?" What was that? I hated those long-sentence paragraphs inspired by James Joyce, perhaps, show-offy and meaningless. And Fish...well, he drowned once then lived only to drown again. Ho hum. I recommend Winton's "Dirt Music." Now there was a book that knew what it was about.
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Summary: You might have to be an Aussie for this one...
Review: I LOVED this book, don't get me wrong - however, some parts are hard to understand, and at times, digest.
With strong, animated and very loveable characters (all in their own way), Tim Winton makes you feel like a part of Cloudstreet. With profound statements such as: "Loving a man was a very silly activity; it was giving to the weak and greedy and making trouble for yourself.", as well as, "The strong are here to look after the weak, and the weak are here to teach the strong.", you give your heart to this book. As Tim Winton said, "Didn't it take half your sense away and all your breath?". It will make you laugh, it will make you long and in the end I guarantee you will miss these families.
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Summary: The great Australian novel?
Review: If there was a competition for the greatest Australian novel of the Twentieth Century, Cloudstreet would be in the running for the top prize. It is an indictment of the American publishing industry that it appears to be out of print. Although Winton was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for his later book, The Riders, Cloudstreet is the one that should have won it. Happily, the dramatization of Cloudstreet has endeared it to a new audience, but it it still worth saying: Wake up world, this is a classic novel.
Rating:
Summary: Crowded House
Review: In this decades spanning meditation on luck and fate, two families who share a rambling house discover the ties that bind. Winton writes in a slang-filled idiom that captures the resilience of Australians, their uncanny ability to dust themselves off and spit in the face of misfortune. The Lambs lose a son to retardation, Dolly Pickles loses her looks to time and the bottle, and her husband, reduced to five good fingers, loses over and over at the track. Somehow they endure. The younger generation, represented by the memorable Rose Pickles and Quick Lamb, fly from a messy nest only to feel the undeniable pull of the familiar and family. Winton's survivors win your heart and his evocation of Perth, surrounded by sea and sand, takes you to a town on the edge of the earth. Fair dinkum.
Rating:
Summary: Crowded House
Review: In this decades spanning meditation on luck and fate, two families who share a rambling house discover the ties that bind. Winton writes in a slang-filled idiom that captures the resilience of Australians, their uncanny ability to dust themselves off and spit in the face of misfortune. The Lambs lose a son to retardation, Dolly Pickles loses her looks to time and the bottle, and her husband, reduced to five good fingers, loses over and over at the track. Somehow they endure. The younger generation, represented by the memorable Rose Pickles and Quick Lamb, fly from a messy nest only to feel the undeniable pull of the familiar and family. Winton's survivors win your heart and his evocation of Perth, surrounded by sea and sand, takes you to a town on the edge of the earth. Fair dinkum.
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Summary: Sad . . .
Review: It is sad to see this book is out of print. I still have a hardback copy on my shelf. Since first reading the book -- the first time I read it I had actually checked it out of the library -- I have obtained three copies at my favorite used bookstore, giving away two copies to friends. Maybe it was because Tim Winton was not a household name even among readers or maybe it was because "Cloudstreet" did not appear in Harold Bloom's list of canonical books (and I felt it should have been), but there is no other work of fiction I've felt strong enough about to get three copies to give away two -- that I felt needed to be read and read by as many people as possible. A marvelous allegory, a great work of fantasy with so much of the gritty details of the mundane world you forget how unlikely these two families are that live in the house on Cloudstreet. The Pickles and The Lambs, the two sides of a spiritual person. The Lambs: moral, charitable, and hardworking, but without any faith. On the other end, Sam Pickle, a drunkard and gambler, but a man who knows about what it means to live in the shadow of God: that some days you cannot lose, and other days . . . to get out of bed is asking for trouble. And then there is Fish Lamb who half comes back from his watery grave, the other half living in the world of the spirit watching over the people he loves and telling us their story. I cannot say too much . . . this is a book that needs to be read and then it needs to be contemplated with the sense of wonder it evokes.
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Summary: St. Michael's on a Cloud
Review: Merryn Anstee and Scott Crozier's 2004 production of 'Cloudstreet' is being presented by the acclaimed St. Michael's Grammar School (St. Kilda, Melbourne, Australia) as part of their 2004 Senior Drama Festival. The school, whose alumnus contributes to many facets of Australia's theatre industry, will present six performances at The Studio on campus, opening 23 July 2004. Merryn Anstee is hailed as one of Australia's finest drama teachers and foremost theatre directors. St. Michael's is noted as Australia's most prestigious academic and dramatic arts training institutions.
The school has had recent successful seasons of Peter Shaffer's 'Amadeus', Stephen Sondheim's 'Sweeney Todd', Carol Churchill's 'Top Girls' and Shakespeare's 'King Lear'. Season sold out.
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Summary: out of print?!?
Review: My daughter in law who hails from Perth in western Australia has read this book four times, it is her favorite, and she is very well read. I was captivated and treasure the copy she gave me. Highly recommended. "Carn then, give'er a read!".
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Summary: One grand "nugget in the webbing"
Review: 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." 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.
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