Customer Reviews

Cloudstreet : A Novel

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

This book follows the lives of two Australian families who share a house from the 1940s to the 1960s. Both families are poor, but one believes in "luck" and the other creates their own luck. It's a wonderful, absorbing portrayal of a wide variety of characters, the ups and downs of their lives and the vicissitudes and joys of their crowded lives. The writing was very engaging, although American readers might have some trouble with some of the Australian language.

This novel is a family epic, depicting working-class, ordinary, Australian life in an extraordinary and spiritual way. It follows the lives of two families, the 'Pickleses' and the Lambs, as we join them on their journey from isolation to unity. The entire novel, spanning twenty years, takes place in one moment, as Fish Lamb's life flashes before his eyes as he approaches death. Sometimes confusing, this funny, beautiful book is better appreciated with close study, although it can be enjoyed on any level.

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.

I could not put this book down if I had wanted. The complete Australian atmosphere mesmerized me ... or was it Mr. Winton's unique style of writing? He certainly has a way of capturing a scene in every sentence. This was, perhaps, the closest one can come to experience humanity through a novel. The ordinary lives of humans captured in the normal unexpected events that occur in one's own life. The tragic fragility of what we experience as life can be summed up in the story of Fish. I would recommend this book to high school teachers everywhere. Additionally, I am left wondering how this book could have been missed by the individuals who decide the Booker Prize and its' shortlist

This is the kind of book you wait for. The words flow smooth and slow, like a deep river, and before you know it a full portrait of a land, a house, two families, and a dozen lifetimes are etched into your mind where they will stay for a very long time.

The character development is flawless and you come to care about each one of them whether you like them or not.

This was the first work by Winton that I've read and the beginning was a little rough going (there are no quotation marks) but by the end of chapter 1 I was wondering why quotation marks were ever invented. In Winton's skillful hands they are totally unnecessary.

I truly did not want this book to end. I, too, wanted to stay on Cloudstreet.

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.

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.

There is little doubt that Winton has produced in this novel a masterpiece of place, metaphor and characterisation. The Australia of the forties and fifties resonates in this novel which is uniquely "Aussie" in every sense of the word, from Oriel Lamb's casting as a little "Aussie battler" to Sam Pickles' "punting" on the horses to Lester Lamb's belief in the hoary hand of faith and "the knife never lies". This is a novel as accessible to American audiences as Twain's "Huckleberry Finn" or Morrison's "Beloved" is to Australian audiences, but like both novels just mentioned, "Cloudstreet" more than rewards those who patiently persist with this wonderful tale and urban fable, and gives an avid reader a glimpse of Australian lifestyle, beliefs, love and popular culture during the Second World War and post-war years.