fatamo's review against another edition
5.0
Cloudstreet is a wonderful introduction to Australian literature. I say this, having only ever read 'The Slap', which left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth.
The blurb summed it up perfectly when they compared Winton to a mash-up of John Steinbeck and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, although in my opinion diluted versions of both. Steinbeck wrote poverty and harsh realities in the extreme, and Winton's portrayal of the Depression era and its hardships were far more subtle, merely touched on rather than blazing a depressing trail through each page.
As for the Garcia Marquez influence, that is unmistakable. The magical realism is also more subtle, although definitely kooky and poignant. In 100 years of solitude, Marquez asserted that a town was not really a town until they buried one of their own dead. In Cloudstreet, Winton asserts that a town cannot call itself a city until it has its first murder. There are ghosts, and supernatural animals. There are ominous strangers, and weeping walls.
Winton charts the progression of two families living in Number One, Cloudstreet. The families, the Lambs and the Pickles, have their troubles and their secrets, and try to coexist as best they can. I felt as though each half of the house was a metaphor: one family represented fate, or rather a fatalistic attitude, and the other represented freewill and determination. That two families in relatively similar circumstances at the start, can lead very different lives, depending on the way they view their role in it. Sam Pickles believed in the 'shift shadow of God', otherwise known as Lady Luck, whereas Oriel Lamb was the can-do fixer of problems, and serial campaigner for all lost causes.
The language was beautiful, definitely lyrical and non-suffocating.(MINOR SPOILER) If I have one criticism it would be that the part in the story where Rose Pickles has a dalliance with some hipster journalist. I felt like it was a bit contrived, and the only purpose of Toby Raven was to deposit Rose at a turning point, where things really start to take shape. Maybe that's the point though, but Toby was a bit of a flat character, I never believed him.
I might be going back to this book again, sometime in the future, and I am definitely going to read more Tim Winton.
The blurb summed it up perfectly when they compared Winton to a mash-up of John Steinbeck and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, although in my opinion diluted versions of both. Steinbeck wrote poverty and harsh realities in the extreme, and Winton's portrayal of the Depression era and its hardships were far more subtle, merely touched on rather than blazing a depressing trail through each page.
As for the Garcia Marquez influence, that is unmistakable. The magical realism is also more subtle, although definitely kooky and poignant. In 100 years of solitude, Marquez asserted that a town was not really a town until they buried one of their own dead. In Cloudstreet, Winton asserts that a town cannot call itself a city until it has its first murder. There are ghosts, and supernatural animals. There are ominous strangers, and weeping walls.
Winton charts the progression of two families living in Number One, Cloudstreet. The families, the Lambs and the Pickles, have their troubles and their secrets, and try to coexist as best they can. I felt as though each half of the house was a metaphor: one family represented fate, or rather a fatalistic attitude, and the other represented freewill and determination. That two families in relatively similar circumstances at the start, can lead very different lives, depending on the way they view their role in it. Sam Pickles believed in the 'shift shadow of God', otherwise known as Lady Luck, whereas Oriel Lamb was the can-do fixer of problems, and serial campaigner for all lost causes.
The language was beautiful, definitely lyrical and non-suffocating.(MINOR SPOILER) If I have one criticism it would be that the part in the story where Rose Pickles has a dalliance with some hipster journalist. I felt like it was a bit contrived, and the only purpose of Toby Raven was to deposit Rose at a turning point, where things really start to take shape. Maybe that's the point though, but Toby was a bit of a flat character, I never believed him.
I might be going back to this book again, sometime in the future, and I am definitely going to read more Tim Winton.
mollfrost's review against another edition
5.0
Something about this book is just so illustrative and enthralling, I simply could not put it down.
esther_habs's review
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
lo_oneill's review against another edition
2.0
This would not normally be a book that I would have picked up but my work book club chose it for our read of the month, so I found myself starting into this and I am conflicted regarding my thoughts on the book. To tell you the truth, I did debate not finishing it a couple of time.
Winton’s development of the characters was wonderful, they progress gradually and you constantly feel like you are getting to know them more throughout the book, which I know sounds obvious but there are some authors that once they set the ground work it is all about the plot, but not this one, it really is a character driven novel. The only problem with that was that I didn’t really connect with any of the characters which really made this a tough read to get through, especially sense the novel really didn’t have a plot or big build up to something. Just the viewing of the lives of two families that coexist in the same house/back garden.
After finishing this book I was with a sense that this story would have had more resonance with me if I was Australian, but due to being Irish there was a lot of things that I fundamentally struggled to understand about post war Perth – which has set me on a little tangent of looking into Australian history as I have realized a shocking lack of knowledge on the subject!
The story itself is a gritty, family epic that is beautifully written and I can see why people are raving about Winton’s writing in this book, but I still struggled to really love the novel.
Winton’s development of the characters was wonderful, they progress gradually and you constantly feel like you are getting to know them more throughout the book, which I know sounds obvious but there are some authors that once they set the ground work it is all about the plot, but not this one, it really is a character driven novel. The only problem with that was that I didn’t really connect with any of the characters which really made this a tough read to get through, especially sense the novel really didn’t have a plot or big build up to something. Just the viewing of the lives of two families that coexist in the same house/back garden.
After finishing this book I was with a sense that this story would have had more resonance with me if I was Australian, but due to being Irish there was a lot of things that I fundamentally struggled to understand about post war Perth – which has set me on a little tangent of looking into Australian history as I have realized a shocking lack of knowledge on the subject!
The story itself is a gritty, family epic that is beautifully written and I can see why people are raving about Winton’s writing in this book, but I still struggled to really love the novel.
jficele's review
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
susanlawson's review against another edition
5.0
I loved this story of two families, the Pickles and the Lambs, set in Perth, Australia between 1943 and 1963. The focus of the book is the rambling, ancient house in Cloud Street which the Pickles family inherit and rent out half of to the Lambs, who open a shop straight away and work to support their own, and the Pickles' families. The themes include the social and architectural changes in post-war Australia, personal guilt and the role of women in supporting their families to their own detriment. Although the story feels true to life and realistic, there are elements of fantasy and magic which add depth and commentary to the story.
miacostas's review
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
bgg616's review against another edition
3.0
This was a 3 1/2 star read for me. Australia has the reputation of being a macho society and Winton's story has that quality. I probably would have liked the novel more if it hadn't had such a masculine point of view (at least as far as male-female relationships). The story focuses on 2 families - the Pickles and the Lambs - who share a large house on Cloud Street in Perth. The Pickles family inherited the house and are prohibited from selling it for 20 years. They are absolutely destitute so they rent half the house to another large family, the Lambs. The most appealing character for me was Rose. She was perhaps the most three dimensional. In many ways, this is her story. The audiobook was skillfully read by an Australian narrator.
bellatora's review against another edition
4.0
This is the most self-consciously literary book I’ve read in a long, long time. At first it was really enjoyable – Winton is truly a talented writer and there were so many sentences that were just spot-on perfect descriptions. That’s amazingly hard to do – find exactly the right word or image. And Winton has that talent.
BUT this is like The Great Gatsby, where Fitzgerald labored over every idea and word to produce a book instead of a novel. Characters are used in the service of the book or theme, rather than to serve themselves. Everyone is fleshed out, but no one seems whole. This is a perfect English class book – but I feel it’s a little...much. By the halfway point I was like, “this story is still going on!?!?? Is the plot ever going to kick in? Are the characters ever going to evolve?” Ummm…nope.
The Lambs and the Pickles are two sides of the same coin. The Lambs are (ex)-religious folk, who believe in family and hardwork. They run a successful corner shop and have a rambunctious family of (mostly) happy children – although Fish became developmentally disabled after drowning and Quick lives the life of the guilt-ridden. The other children are some barely remembered gaggle of girls and a younger brother. The landlords are the Pickles, who are a deeply unhappy, barely functional family that believes in luck and personal pleasure – Sam is a charming gambler (horse races are his drug of choice) who is generous when he is flush, but usually he's lost everything. Dolly is a beautiful alcoholic who uses beer and strange men to make herself feel better. Both parents pretty much neglect their children. The boys are nonentities, but Rose Pickles is a priggish girl who reacts to the chaos of her home with a craving for order. She hates her mother and becomes anorexic just to spite her. Rose Pickles and Quick Lamb are essentially assigned to represent their generation in their respective families, since none of their siblings really have anything besides one-word personality traits (except the brain-damaged Fish, who gets a weird magical-realism place in this book). Rose and Quick are the only two characters that I think actually developed - the parents essentially stay who they were throughout the book, except softened a bit by age and tragedy.
Winton is a beautiful writer, but he needed to end the book a good hundred pages earlier and actually develop his characters instead of using them as props.
BUT this is like The Great Gatsby, where Fitzgerald labored over every idea and word to produce a book instead of a novel. Characters are used in the service of the book or theme, rather than to serve themselves. Everyone is fleshed out, but no one seems whole. This is a perfect English class book – but I feel it’s a little...much. By the halfway point I was like, “this story is still going on!?!?? Is the plot ever going to kick in? Are the characters ever going to evolve?” Ummm…nope.
The Lambs and the Pickles are two sides of the same coin. The Lambs are (ex)-religious folk, who believe in family and hardwork. They run a successful corner shop and have a rambunctious family of (mostly) happy children – although Fish became developmentally disabled after drowning and Quick lives the life of the guilt-ridden. The other children are some barely remembered gaggle of girls and a younger brother. The landlords are the Pickles, who are a deeply unhappy, barely functional family that believes in luck and personal pleasure – Sam is a charming gambler (horse races are his drug of choice) who is generous when he is flush, but usually he's lost everything. Dolly is a beautiful alcoholic who uses beer and strange men to make herself feel better. Both parents pretty much neglect their children. The boys are nonentities, but Rose Pickles is a priggish girl who reacts to the chaos of her home with a craving for order. She hates her mother and becomes anorexic just to spite her. Rose Pickles and Quick Lamb are essentially assigned to represent their generation in their respective families, since none of their siblings really have anything besides one-word personality traits (except the brain-damaged Fish, who gets a weird magical-realism place in this book). Rose and Quick are the only two characters that I think actually developed - the parents essentially stay who they were throughout the book, except softened a bit by age and tragedy.
Winton is a beautiful writer, but he needed to end the book a good hundred pages earlier and actually develop his characters instead of using them as props.