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Dirt Music
by Tim Winton
by Tim Winton
no spoilers, just synopsis
I'd definitely recommend this book, but I think something got lost in translation for me personally since I've never been to Australia and could only try to envision the places Winton talks about in here. Landscape (geographical in its relation to human) is such an integral part of this novel that I feel sort of left out not ever having seen any of the place.
Set in a fictional place called White Point, a fishing town, the novel focuses on three people:
1) Georgie Jutland who was always the rebel daughter in her family, a nurse & is now living with
2) Jim Buckridge, whose family has always been that family that is never crossed by anyone in town, or the one whose judgment of people becomes the norm for others; his dad was feared and that fear has carried on down to Jim. Finally there is
3)Luther Fox (Lu), who lost his brother, his brother's wife (who played music for a living and played at home for the enjoyment of it all) & his niece and nephew in a stupid car accident and resolved never to hear or play music again. Luther is a shamateur -- a poacher, who gets up long before all of the other fishermen, encroaches on their territories and sells his fish to make good $.
To make a long synopsis short, Lu & Georgie begin a relationship, Jim finds out, Lu's dog is killed, truck demolished and Lu decides that the Buckridge power in the town is no match and that he will be leaving.
Jim has is own issues...and wants to confront Lu, and so goes out in search of Lu with Georgie along. Lu, it seems, took off on the road going north, and it is only when he is forced to live without the company of others on an uninhabited island that he can come to terms with his own existence & meaning -- what he calls earlier "dirt music."
I enjoyed most the scenes in which Lu is hitching rides up north and going through the different landscapes both of geography and of human existence, especially portrayed in the people Lu meets on his travels.
I would definitely recommend the book; it is well worth the reading, and Winton is becoming one of my favorite authors.
I'd definitely recommend this book, but I think something got lost in translation for me personally since I've never been to Australia and could only try to envision the places Winton talks about in here. Landscape (geographical in its relation to human) is such an integral part of this novel that I feel sort of left out not ever having seen any of the place.
Set in a fictional place called White Point, a fishing town, the novel focuses on three people:
1) Georgie Jutland who was always the rebel daughter in her family, a nurse & is now living with
2) Jim Buckridge, whose family has always been that family that is never crossed by anyone in town, or the one whose judgment of people becomes the norm for others; his dad was feared and that fear has carried on down to Jim. Finally there is
3)Luther Fox (Lu), who lost his brother, his brother's wife (who played music for a living and played at home for the enjoyment of it all) & his niece and nephew in a stupid car accident and resolved never to hear or play music again. Luther is a shamateur -- a poacher, who gets up long before all of the other fishermen, encroaches on their territories and sells his fish to make good $.
To make a long synopsis short, Lu & Georgie begin a relationship, Jim finds out, Lu's dog is killed, truck demolished and Lu decides that the Buckridge power in the town is no match and that he will be leaving.
Jim has is own issues...and wants to confront Lu, and so goes out in search of Lu with Georgie along. Lu, it seems, took off on the road going north, and it is only when he is forced to live without the company of others on an uninhabited island that he can come to terms with his own existence & meaning -- what he calls earlier "dirt music."
I enjoyed most the scenes in which Lu is hitching rides up north and going through the different landscapes both of geography and of human existence, especially portrayed in the people Lu meets on his travels.
I would definitely recommend the book; it is well worth the reading, and Winton is becoming one of my favorite authors.
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