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.
jannie_mtl's review against another edition
5.0
What a thrilling read! It's a shame that I'd never heard of this novel before I was introduced to it by a Goodreads group. Often called "the great Australian novel", it is an epic tale of two families living separately but under one roof in Perth, in the 50s and 60s.
I was completely engrossed in the story and the lyrical, often fantastical writing. In the Picador edition I read, there is an afterword by the author [a:Tim Winton|19929|Tim Winton|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1240750986p2/19929.jpg] that explains a little about how he took stories and events from his childhood and used them as a base for the novel. After I finished the book, I read the introduction by writer [a:Philip Hensher|306578|Philip Hensher|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1358077013p2/306578.jpg] which shares some insights into what makes this a great novel.
Highly recommended!
I was completely engrossed in the story and the lyrical, often fantastical writing. In the Picador edition I read, there is an afterword by the author [a:Tim Winton|19929|Tim Winton|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1240750986p2/19929.jpg] that explains a little about how he took stories and events from his childhood and used them as a base for the novel. After I finished the book, I read the introduction by writer [a:Philip Hensher|306578|Philip Hensher|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1358077013p2/306578.jpg] which shares some insights into what makes this a great novel.
Highly recommended!
anikam07's review against another edition
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
kimswhims's review against another edition
5.0
This is the 3rd or 4th time reading this and this time it was as an audiobook.
The Narration was done beautifully by Peter Hosking
I don't think I'll ever get tired of going back to this one.
Nostalgic and The hairy hand of fate lands where it may.
The Narration was done beautifully by Peter Hosking
I don't think I'll ever get tired of going back to this one.
Nostalgic and The hairy hand of fate lands where it may.
caffee's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
relaxing
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Really enjoyed the interplay between characters in this one, great story telling, will try more from this author.
jessicabrazeal's review against another edition
2.0
I read this for a reading challenge as a book based in Australia. I was really excited about it, but didn't really enjoy it.
kavina's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
alyssa01's review against another edition
4.0
Cloudstreet was a real slow burn for me who which I went through highs and lows with. It took me a really long time to start enjoying this book as it is very slow and vague to begin with. Once I became familiar with the characters and writing style though I found myself interested in the lives of these very strange but entertaining families.
The writing was beautiful and complexed to the point that I was sometimes confused by the double meanings hidden within it. I loved the Aussie touches and raw reality of people living the times as I felt the author didn't cower from being honest or harsh. At times this story was so weird and seemed far fetched but also kept me coming back.
I found myself very bored at points in this story especially when the characters were children or something was happening that didn't contribute to the plot. The descriptive and otherworldly sections were well placed but sometimes felt unnecessary. Although I loved the long saga which was this story, I found myself not fully understanding the characters changes as time went by so quickly.
It was really clever how Fish, a boy who was brain damaged, connected with the house on the level which the other members of the families couldn't. The symbolism of the water and luck was also very thoughtful. I liked at the end how the characters grew to love one and depend upon another.
Overall I didn't expect myself to like Cloudstreet as I just read it because it was lent to me but I found myself being caught up the amazing connection of two families over the course of twenty years in the old house at number one cloudstreet.
The writing was beautiful and complexed to the point that I was sometimes confused by the double meanings hidden within it. I loved the Aussie touches and raw reality of people living the times as I felt the author didn't cower from being honest or harsh. At times this story was so weird and seemed far fetched but also kept me coming back.
I found myself very bored at points in this story especially when the characters were children or something was happening that didn't contribute to the plot. The descriptive and otherworldly sections were well placed but sometimes felt unnecessary. Although I loved the long saga which was this story, I found myself not fully understanding the characters changes as time went by so quickly.
It was really clever how Fish, a boy who was brain damaged, connected with the house on the level which the other members of the families couldn't. The symbolism of the water and luck was also very thoughtful. I liked at the end how the characters grew to love one and depend upon another.
Overall I didn't expect myself to like Cloudstreet as I just read it because it was lent to me but I found myself being caught up the amazing connection of two families over the course of twenty years in the old house at number one cloudstreet.