Cloudstreet - Tim Winton
Am re-reading the classic 1991 Australian novel
“Cloudstreet a broken down house of former glories on the wrong side of the tracks, a place teeming with memories of its own, a place of shudders, shadows and spirits.
From separate catastrophes, two rural families flee to the city and find themselves sharing this great breathing, sighing, muttering structure and begin their lives again from scratch.
There are the industrious Lambs, who wait and wait on the God of Miracles who seems to have foresaken them, and the gambling Pickleses, who prefer to deal with the mysteries of Lady Luck and her henchmen. Both aghast at the fates which have delivered them to Cloudstreet, and the baffling realisation that they will always remain there.
Together they roister and rankle in a divided house that begins as a roof over their heads and becomes a home for their hearts.
In this fresh, funny novel, full of wonder and dreams, brilliant young Australian author, Tim Winton, weaves the threads of lifetimes, of 20 years of shouting and fighting, laughing and grafting, into a story about acceptance and belonging.”
[openbook booknumber=”0330322699″].
Re-reading it for 3 reasons:
- The TV show First Tuesday Book Club is discussing it early 2010
- A new 6-hour mini TV series is about to be made
- I wanted to (well, after I heard about the first 2)