Cloudstreet by Tim Winton
A review.
Chances are that if you’re as big a fan of Australian fiction as we are you’ll have, at the very least, heard of the sublimely talented, West Aussie Tim Winton. For those of us who have had the pleasure of submerging themselves in a Winton tale, there is also a very good chance that you have read his (arguably) best known work, Cloudstreet.
For those amongst us who have not, do it. Now. There is a very good reason why Tim Winton has been awarded the Miles Franklin Award a record four times and why his name appears time and again at the top of any Australian “must read” list. The man is, quite simply, a literary genius.
Don’t let the wordiness intimidate you. Drink it in. Allow the poetic flow to sweep you away, like a wave. Float along, face to the sun, letting the words wash over you like a melody. You won’t regret it for a minute.
Two families. Two separate catastrophic events. One big, old, living, breathing house with secrets unto its own. Cloudstreet tells the achingly bittersweet story of families, Lamb and Pickles. Thrust into a life unexpected by the shifty shadow of fate, Sam Pickles, his wife Dolly and their three children Rose, Ted and Chub inherit Number One Cloud Street, a long since forgotten six-bedder in the suburbs of Perth. Owing to Sam’s bad luck with the bookies, the Pickles are forced to take on lodgers and so begins twenty years of a life intertwined, through better or worse, with Lester and Oriel Lamb and their brood of six; Hat, Elaine, Red, Fish, Quick and Lon.
Through the lens of working class 1940’s-60’s Australia, in all it’s politically incorrect glory, we experience every heart wrenching loss, of innocence, choice and possibility.
We are inspired by self-determination, acceptance, the unbreakable bond of family and the undeniable power of forgiveness. Not least, we understand that a home is the sum of its inhabitants and that a house provides much more than a roof and walls and that if we listen closely it may well have a story all of its own.
An “easy read” it is not – and does not claim to be. Be prepared to laugh and cry in equal measure. Cloudstreet is messy, magical, unsettling, utterly Australian and utterly unforgettable. A masterpiece.
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