hayleyyyreads's review against another edition
2.0
Did not finish. I stopped after reading a whole page (!!!!) describing how this dude’s jizz “glimmered in the sunlight” after he jerked himself off on the balcony for no apparent reason (that’s a lie. there was a reason. but for my sanity I’m pretending it doesn’t exist). This whole scene wasn’t even part of the main story but by that point I found the writing too grating, and the plot so uninteresting, to muster the will to continue further.
tasmanian_bibliophile's review
4.0
‘I first saw Harry Kitchings leaning from a basket which had been lowered over the Katoomba Falls.’
Blue Mountains, Australia, 1907. A world full of promise and magic, of love and possibility. A place of rarefied air. Eureka Jones, a pharmacist’s assistant in Katoomba, watches the tourists as they travel to and fro. Eureka falls in love with Harry Kitchings, waiting of a declaration of love, and proposal of marriage. And the town watches and waits with her.
But Harry chooses to marry a widow from Sydney, and Eureka becomes an object of derision.
‘It was as if my own history had ended.’
Eureka commences work at a tuberculosis sanitorium at Wentworth Falls, where Matron Coan tells her that she has historical eyes. At first, Eureka finds this an enormous comfort but then begins to doubt the virtue of detachment. But it is this detachment which makes the novel so readable: Eureka observes the decline of Katoomba, the changes as World War I approaches, and then afterwards. Eureka does find affection, briefly, but it is her unrequited love for Harry Kitchings which is at the centre of this novel.
I found this an engrossing story: a world in transition, with the power of photography to capture memories as images. And everywhere, the clouds and the mist.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
Blue Mountains, Australia, 1907. A world full of promise and magic, of love and possibility. A place of rarefied air. Eureka Jones, a pharmacist’s assistant in Katoomba, watches the tourists as they travel to and fro. Eureka falls in love with Harry Kitchings, waiting of a declaration of love, and proposal of marriage. And the town watches and waits with her.
But Harry chooses to marry a widow from Sydney, and Eureka becomes an object of derision.
‘It was as if my own history had ended.’
Eureka commences work at a tuberculosis sanitorium at Wentworth Falls, where Matron Coan tells her that she has historical eyes. At first, Eureka finds this an enormous comfort but then begins to doubt the virtue of detachment. But it is this detachment which makes the novel so readable: Eureka observes the decline of Katoomba, the changes as World War I approaches, and then afterwards. Eureka does find affection, briefly, but it is her unrequited love for Harry Kitchings which is at the centre of this novel.
I found this an engrossing story: a world in transition, with the power of photography to capture memories as images. And everywhere, the clouds and the mist.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
lindseyclare's review
4.0
I am not sure how to express how perfect my reading of this book was at this particular point in time. I was holidaying in the Blue Mountains three years ago when I saw The Service of Clouds on the bookshelf of the cottage I was staying in. It intrigued me but I was reading another book at the time which I couldn't put down (the Millenium trilogy actually!). Three years later, I'm staying at the same cottage again and decided I must read it this time.
The Service of Clouds is a love letter to the Blue Mountains. The author has obviously done a huge amount of research into the area as it was in the early 20th century. I was amazed and impressed when walking down Main St, Katoomba and I saw in a shop window some historical photos from around that time. They "matched" Falconer's scenes so perfectly, so kudos to her for that feat.
I love it when a book's characters feel real, and Eureka definitely does exist, at least to me. Being set in a real (and familiar, to me) place means that the whole thing felt so true - even with the elements of magical realism that Falconer flirted with. If there's any part of Australia that can be equally both earthy and mystical, surely it's the Blue Mountains!
I am not sure if I would've enjoyed this book quite so much if I hadn't read it fireside while holidaying in Blackheath... And I can imagine that for a lot of other readers it might seem too quirky, too flowery, and with a rather bitter and pointless narrative. But I found it strong and enduring, funny and romantic, with just enough occasional bawdiness to cut through the many many references to silver and clouds and mists and spirits.
The Service of Clouds is a love letter to the Blue Mountains. The author has obviously done a huge amount of research into the area as it was in the early 20th century. I was amazed and impressed when walking down Main St, Katoomba and I saw in a shop window some historical photos from around that time. They "matched" Falconer's scenes so perfectly, so kudos to her for that feat.
I love it when a book's characters feel real, and Eureka definitely does exist, at least to me. Being set in a real (and familiar, to me) place means that the whole thing felt so true - even with the elements of magical realism that Falconer flirted with. If there's any part of Australia that can be equally both earthy and mystical, surely it's the Blue Mountains!
I am not sure if I would've enjoyed this book quite so much if I hadn't read it fireside while holidaying in Blackheath... And I can imagine that for a lot of other readers it might seem too quirky, too flowery, and with a rather bitter and pointless narrative. But I found it strong and enduring, funny and romantic, with just enough occasional bawdiness to cut through the many many references to silver and clouds and mists and spirits.
onlybubbly's review
2.0
Did not finish. I stopped after reading a whole page (!!!!) describing how this dude’s jizz “glimmered in the sunlight” after he jerked himself off on the balcony for no apparent reason (that’s a lie. there was a reason. but for my sanity I’m pretending it doesn’t exist). This whole scene wasn’t even part of the main story but by that point I found the writing too grating, and the plot so uninteresting, to muster the will to continue further.
lili_z_c's review
5.0
I have no words. This book is an absolute experience. An experience that must be experienced for oneself. Do yourself a favour and find a copy.
kali's review
5.0
Some books are difficult to describe, they have to be experienced. The Service of Clouds is one of these. Set in the Edwardian era in Katoomba, amid a time of developments in medicine and technology, and the burgeoning tourism industry, as well as war, this story is mostly told through the "historical eyes" of Eureka Jones, whose love of photographer Harry Kitchings is recalled and composed in arrangements of memories -- moments of the past caught on glass slides. Harry captures landscapes, studies the clouds, and is a body made of air and moisture. Eureka learns to see bodies as repositories of light, as she seeks a place in the world for her own body. The motifs and metaphors of light, electricity, exposure, bodies, and clouds, shift and swirl, arranged by Eureka in 1926, describing an era as though appearing in half-tones, shadows and bright light, within a developing fluid. It is hard to speak of this book without drawing on the same language of narrative.
I didn't always know what was going on in the story, as Falconer's prose is deliberately dreamy, creating a sense of hyperaesthesia about the landscape and Eureka's heartaches and sorrows.
I didn't always know what was going on in the story, as Falconer's prose is deliberately dreamy, creating a sense of hyperaesthesia about the landscape and Eureka's heartaches and sorrows.
More...