lilithsternins's review against another edition
4.5
SO. MANY. FEELINGS.
Okay so I admit I probably would have hated this and DNFed it if not for Kelly Macdonald but it really stuck with me for some reason. The subtle descriptions and mannerisms of trauma and isolation... complicated pasts and all that. I ate it up even though the plot/romance was dumb. I actually didn't like Lu much. Like I'm sorry but man up or get help. Georgie was okay albeit strange when it came to the love scenes. Like... okay. Then Jim was so intriguing just GAH. I loved it. And I want Bird to have her own book.
Would have been five stars if not for Georgie being weird and a couple other things.
Okay so I admit I probably would have hated this and DNFed it if not for Kelly Macdonald but it really stuck with me for some reason. The subtle descriptions and mannerisms of trauma and isolation... complicated pasts and all that. I ate it up even though the plot/romance was dumb. I actually didn't like Lu much. Like I'm sorry
Spoiler
your family diedWould have been five stars if not for Georgie being weird and a couple other things.
kaceyymair's review
I just did not like the main character one bit and i sort of lost it when she went skinny dipping in her dead mums pool
freshkatsu's review against another edition
3.0
When I think of Australia, I think of orange desert, furry animals, the ocean, snakes, big rocks, dirt roads, land, a LOT of land. As a country with one of the lowest population density, it is easy to fantasise about vanishing into the endless land ahead and leaving civilisation behind. It is not that romantic though, think about the sun burn, dehydration, windstorm, and boredom that would drive you insane. You know how famous landmarks - bridges, skyscrapers, tend to gather people with suicidal intention? So why do so few people choose say, the Simpson desert, as their final destination? I don't know much about psychology, but I think one of the reason is the effort it would take to consciously die in the wilderness, or rather, the agony of it. There is not instant death but you can't be a permanent hermit either. It is like punishing yourself in a a hotel with five-star view in hell.
Dirt music revolves around three people: Georgie Jutland, the private school educated nurse who is married to Jim Buckridge, a fisherman in small town Western Australia and Luther Fox, a retired musician whom Georgie has an affair with. Dirt music is also much more than the relationship between them, it is a platform of self-reflection and alienation. The connections between the characters are superficial, they are merely titles imposed on them by the intolerant, close-knitted community they exist in. It is no coincidence that the three protagonists are drawn to the wilderness, albeit for vastly different reasons. They seek redemption and enlightenment through the epic journey into this little island at the edge of the Indian ocean where the ending takes place. To me, it is the ending that makes the read remarkable, everything is so obvious, inevitable, they are broken people to start with and end up choosing to exile to the harsh Australian landscape. A down side is that the characters tend to be static like the environment. Dynamic personalities are compromised by constant self-pitying and dull monologues. Most of the time they brood and sulk around in between gorgeous exploration of the outdoor.
Dirt music is a sentimental book and I am absorbed by its rural charm. Imagine yourself, alone at night, overlooking an infinity of messy mangroves, dark water and thick twisted tree. This is what reading the book feels like, you are involuntarily terrified by the mystery and danger, yet the beauty is almost touchable. Winton captures the spirit of the typical Australian bogan culture, but at the same time gives it another dimension that city dwellers are ignorant of.
cf1990xxx's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
ckcombsdotcom's review against another edition
4.0
It took a couple of chapters, but this book got me by the brain cells and I was hooked. Set in Australia and full of Aussie terms and phrases, there were times I didn't know exactly what kind of tree, animal or person they were talking about, but it didn't matter. The story was great, the characters were revealed in layers, which made the story deeper and deeper the more I read.
One thing that threw me off was the ending. I won't spoil it, but the author introduces a scenario that I think was overly dramatic and unnecessary. And frankly, felt out of place. For me it interrupted the flow he had created and that I was riding with great satisfaction. It didn't ruin the story for me, but I did subtract one star.
One thing that threw me off was the ending. I won't spoil it, but the author introduces a scenario that I think was overly dramatic and unnecessary. And frankly, felt out of place. For me it interrupted the flow he had created and that I was riding with great satisfaction. It didn't ruin the story for me, but I did subtract one star.
oceanwriter's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Continuing with my new hobby of reading the books behind the movies Kelly Macdonald has starred in, I finally arrived at Dirt Music and savored every. single. page. Tell me a book has emotionally damaged characters and there’s no need to say more. I’m in.
Though the synopsis centers on the tragic life of Lu Fox, the book is predominantly focused on Georgie Jutland, a woman stuck in an affectionless relationship bound by secrets, hidden pasts, and in general things left unsaid. She’s drawn to Lu from the start, watching him from afar as he poaches in her fisherman boyfriend Jim’s waters. When they finally meet, she throws herself into an impulsive affair.
Alas, in a small town, there are some secrets that can’t be kept for long. When Jim gets an inkling of Georgie and Lu’s relationship, Lu takes off knowing better than to tangle with Buckridge. Georgie, too, feels like she needs to run but continues to feel stuck.
This is a slow, long-winded, description-heavy book. The first chapter alone takes up about a fourth of the book. There’s a lot of nothing going on (most of the time) in terms of action on the page. I don’t normally enjoy this pace, but there was something about the characters that drew me in. I didn’t care much for Georgie at first and she ended up being the one I cared most about. As for her romance with Lu, I didn’t care what happened with it despite it being a key element of the book.
While the book spent a long time on the mundane moments, there was also an abundance of information and characters coming and going. I couldn’t follow or retain a lot of the names and connections despite having taken my time to read and process small sections at a time. My lasting impression is a strange one. Some moments in the book left me perplexed not only wondering if particular moments were necessary to the story. Some of the characters’ actions were also unusual. So while I enjoyed the reading experience immensely, I feel as though I’ve only retained the essence rather than the plot itself.
Though the synopsis centers on the tragic life of Lu Fox, the book is predominantly focused on Georgie Jutland, a woman stuck in an affectionless relationship bound by secrets, hidden pasts, and in general things left unsaid. She’s drawn to Lu from the start, watching him from afar as he poaches in her fisherman boyfriend Jim’s waters. When they finally meet, she throws herself into an impulsive affair.
Alas, in a small town, there are some secrets that can’t be kept for long. When Jim gets an inkling of Georgie and Lu’s relationship, Lu takes off knowing better than to tangle with Buckridge. Georgie, too, feels like she needs to run but continues to feel stuck.
This is a slow, long-winded, description-heavy book. The first chapter alone takes up about a fourth of the book. There’s a lot of nothing going on (most of the time) in terms of action on the page. I don’t normally enjoy this pace, but there was something about the characters that drew me in. I didn’t care much for Georgie at first and she ended up being the one I cared most about. As for her romance with Lu, I didn’t care what happened with it despite it being a key element of the book.
While the book spent a long time on the mundane moments, there was also an abundance of information and characters coming and going. I couldn’t follow or retain a lot of the names and connections despite having taken my time to read and process small sections at a time. My lasting impression is a strange one. Some moments in the book left me perplexed not only wondering if particular moments were necessary to the story. Some of the characters’ actions were also unusual. So while I enjoyed the reading experience immensely, I feel as though I’ve only retained the essence rather than the plot itself.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Car accident, Infidelity, Sexual content, Animal death, Blood, Child death, and Alcoholism
Moderate: Drug use, Death of parent, Animal cruelty, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Racial slurs and Sexism
emmaaxtco's review against another edition
2.0
Gee, what to say really? Winton is a natural when it comes to description. He can prattle on for miles about this rock and that tree. But when it comes to the meat of a story, he likes to blow past the most interesting and provocative bits! What is with that??? To say this is a love story is laughable to me. Where's the love? How did it happen? Did I miss it? Winton drones on for 100s of pages about landscape, wildlife and paints an exhaustively clear picture of Western Australia. But at what point do his characters actually find this love? When it comes to actual plot, the long-winded Winton just brushes past in a veil of ambiguity. I buy into his characters, but not so much their motivations. The love triangle is convoluted and confusing. I hear Winton praised for poetry and description, and that I can agree with definitely. At least in Cloudstreet (a far superior novel in my humble opinion) I was invested in the story and in the characters. Dirt Music gave me a thin plot, characters I didn't care about, and a completely unsatisfying and unrealistic ending.