Cloudstreet by Tim Winton
Cloudstreet by Tim Winton
I first heard about this book whilst listening to a very candid interview with the author on BBC’s World Book Club earlier in the year…my interest was piqued. Tim Winton is an Australian author who reminded me of a less formal version of Bryce Courtenay, another author whose books I have adored over the years!
Cloudstreet is a story of human triumph and tragedy as it explores the fragility of the human mind and the human heart and the ability of opposites to cling to one another through hardships, torment and love, despite (or in spite of) their differences.
‘Hailed as a classic, Tim Winton’s masterful family saga is both a paean to working-class Australians and an unflinching examination of the human heart’s capacity for sorrow, joy, and endless gradations in between. An award-winning work, Cloudstreet exemplifies the brilliant ability of fiction to captivate and inspire.
Struggling to rebuild their lives after being touched by disaster, the Pickle family, who’ve inherited a big house called Cloudstreet in a suburb of Perth, take in the God-fearing Lambs as tenants. The Lambs have suffered their own catastrophes, and determined to survive, they open up a grocery on the ground floor. From 1944 to 1964, the shared experiences of the two overpopulated clans — running the gamut from drunkenness, adultery, and death to resurrection, marriage, and birth — bond them to each other and to the bustling, haunted house in ways no one could have anticipated.’ (Goodreads review)
I always pick out and highlight what I consider to be little gems of literary ‘awesomeness’ and this book contained one of my favourites: “But Quick held his brother’s head in his hands and knew it wasn’t quite right. Because not all of Fish Lamb had come back.” A beautiful and powerful paragraph that fully hits you in the gut and leaves you gasping! Obviously, the piece is not in context but I would be spoiling a key part of the book if I was to explain what came beforeh…perhaps a bit of an incentive to read the book?! ??
I am loathe to give this book anything less than 5 coffee cups but I’m letting my heart rule on this one and, but for that one tragedy I never got over, I’m giving this book a very full and over-flowing FOUR COFFEE CUPS ☕☕☕☕