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Dirt Music
Luther Fox, a loner, haunted by his past, makes his living as an illegal fisherman, a shamateur. Before everyone in his family was killed in a freak rollover, he grew melons and played guitar in the family band. Robbed of all that, he has turned his back on music. There's too much emotion in it, too much memory and pain.
One morning Fox is observed poaching by Georgie Jutland. Chance, or a kind of willed recklessness, has brought Georgie into the life and home of Jim Buckridge, the most prosperous fisherman in the area and a man who loathes poachers, Fox above all. But she's never fully settled into Jim's grand house on the water or into the inbred community with its history of violent secrets. After Georgie encounters Fox, her tentative hold on conventional life is severed. Neither of them would call it love, but they can't stay away from each other no matter how dangerous it is, and out on White Point it is very dangerous.
Set in the dramatic landscape of Western Australia, Dirt Music is a love story about people stifled by grief and regret; a novel about the odds of breaking with the past and about the lure of music. Dirt music, Fox tells Georgie, is "anything you can play on a verandah or porch, without electricity." Even in the wild, Luther cannot escape it. There is, he discovers, no silence in nature.
Ambitious, perfectly calibrated, Dirt Music resonates with suspense and supercharged emotion, and it confirms Tim Winton's status as the preeminent Australian novelist of his generation.
465 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
559 people are currently reading
7764 people want to read
About the author
Tim Winton
76 books2,370 followersTim Winton was born in Perth, Western Australia, but moved at a young age to the small country town of Albany.
While a student at Curtin University of Technology, Winton wrote his first novel, An Open Swimmer. It went on to win The Australian/Vogel Literary Award in 1981, and launched his writing career. In fact, he wrote "the best part of three books while at university". His second book, Shallows, won the Miles Franklin Award in 1984. It wasn't until Cloudstreet was published in 1991, however, that his career and economic future were cemented.
In 1995 Winton’s novel, The Riders, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, as was his 2002 book, Dirt Music. Both are currently being adapted for film. He has won many other prizes, including the Miles Franklin Award three times: for Shallows (1984), Cloudstreet (1992) and Dirt Music (2002). Cloudstreet is arguably his best-known work, regularly appearing in lists of Australia’s best-loved novels. His latest novel, released in 2013, is called Eyrie.
He is now one of Australia's most esteemed novelists, writing for both adults and children. All his books are still in print and have been published in eighteen different languages. His work has also been successfully adapted for stage, screen and radio. On the publication of his novel, Dirt Music, he collaborated with broadcaster, Lucky Oceans, to produce a compilation CD, Dirt Music – Music for a Novel.
He has lived in Italy, France, Ireland and Greece but currently lives in Western Australia with his wife and three children.
While a student at Curtin University of Technology, Winton wrote his first novel, An Open Swimmer. It went on to win The Australian/Vogel Literary Award in 1981, and launched his writing career. In fact, he wrote "the best part of three books while at university". His second book, Shallows, won the Miles Franklin Award in 1984. It wasn't until Cloudstreet was published in 1991, however, that his career and economic future were cemented.
In 1995 Winton’s novel, The Riders, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, as was his 2002 book, Dirt Music. Both are currently being adapted for film. He has won many other prizes, including the Miles Franklin Award three times: for Shallows (1984), Cloudstreet (1992) and Dirt Music (2002). Cloudstreet is arguably his best-known work, regularly appearing in lists of Australia’s best-loved novels. His latest novel, released in 2013, is called Eyrie.
He is now one of Australia's most esteemed novelists, writing for both adults and children. All his books are still in print and have been published in eighteen different languages. His work has also been successfully adapted for stage, screen and radio. On the publication of his novel, Dirt Music, he collaborated with broadcaster, Lucky Oceans, to produce a compilation CD, Dirt Music – Music for a Novel.
He has lived in Italy, France, Ireland and Greece but currently lives in Western Australia with his wife and three children.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 990 reviews
July 21, 2023
There are three books I’ve read in the past couple of months that quickened my pulse and roused my sense of being more alive in the world. Those standouts were The Little Friend, No Country for Old Men and this, Dirt Music, my first outing with author Tim Winton. I’d say that’s pretty lucky – three remarkable books in a space of a mere two months. Georgie Jutland, the somewhat reckless and plucky heroine of this novel, might dispute the idea of luck having anything to do with it, however. (Come to think of it, the idea of luck, whether good or bad, was a theme in No Country for Old Men as well!)
“Georgie had always assumed that an obsession with luck was the preserve of passive people, others unlike herself.”
So rather, let’s just go with the fact that sometimes I know exactly what I’m doing when I choose certain novels! Actually, I thought a lot about that obsession with luck. I don’t believe in it either, Georgie. It does make one passive and makes for a poor excuse for inaction many times. I’m not necessarily pleading innocence, yet I do believe it! There are many people I know that rely on it and hold to it like a life preserver, and I do believe that’s dangerous. But I’m both meandering and getting ahead of myself now. I should focus on what the hell this book is really about!
“A speck of light, you were, an ember. And happy. Even after his mother died he had it, though it waned. Later on only music got him there. And now that is gone there is only work. It’s a world without grace. Unless the only grace left is simply not feeling the dead or sensing the past.”
Luther Fox is holed up with his grief and his memories in a small coastal town in Western Australia. He rarely leaves the house, except for some illegal fishing and sales. He has no friends, by circumstance and by choice. Until Georgie. But Georgie is in a three year relationship with Jim Buckridge, the big man in town, and a fisherman to boot. The two of them “saved” one another from loneliness and now Georgie is back at it again. In her former life, she was a nurse. So rescuing is kind of her thing. She’s starting to feel confined, questioning her role in this place where she does not fit in.
“Georgie had always held back and she knew what it cost her. There was always some lingering doubt about Georgie.”
This ends up being a sweeping tale across the continent of Australia. It’s both an adventure and a love story. It’s also a reckoning with one’s place in life. A story of how to overcome tragedy and adversity and come to terms with the ghosts of one’s past. It asks the question, where is home? And how do we make a place for ourselves despite whether or not we “fit in” with the crowd. Likely, we can travel to all ends of the earth to escape one thing or another, but until we can find peace with ourselves, can we really ever claim a place as ours, as the right one? Is it the place or is it a piece of ourselves that we need to claim and come to terms with before we can settle?
“She had never understood the grip that places had over people. That sort of nostalgia made her impatient. It was awful seeing people beholden to their memories, staying on in houses or towns out of some perverted homage.”
Winton’s novel is cinematic and fast-paced. It’s more than just an action piece, however. The two main characters are fully fleshed and survive in your head long past the ending of the book itself. I’m still picturing them in that very first part of the book. And in the end. Both scenes made me gasp for different reasons, but both gave me that sense of being alive in the world. Something I very much needed! I’m still longing for Luther Fox and Georgie Jutland.
“Georgie had always assumed that an obsession with luck was the preserve of passive people, others unlike herself.”
So rather, let’s just go with the fact that sometimes I know exactly what I’m doing when I choose certain novels! Actually, I thought a lot about that obsession with luck. I don’t believe in it either, Georgie. It does make one passive and makes for a poor excuse for inaction many times. I’m not necessarily pleading innocence, yet I do believe it! There are many people I know that rely on it and hold to it like a life preserver, and I do believe that’s dangerous. But I’m both meandering and getting ahead of myself now. I should focus on what the hell this book is really about!
“A speck of light, you were, an ember. And happy. Even after his mother died he had it, though it waned. Later on only music got him there. And now that is gone there is only work. It’s a world without grace. Unless the only grace left is simply not feeling the dead or sensing the past.”
Luther Fox is holed up with his grief and his memories in a small coastal town in Western Australia. He rarely leaves the house, except for some illegal fishing and sales. He has no friends, by circumstance and by choice. Until Georgie. But Georgie is in a three year relationship with Jim Buckridge, the big man in town, and a fisherman to boot. The two of them “saved” one another from loneliness and now Georgie is back at it again. In her former life, she was a nurse. So rescuing is kind of her thing. She’s starting to feel confined, questioning her role in this place where she does not fit in.
“Georgie had always held back and she knew what it cost her. There was always some lingering doubt about Georgie.”
This ends up being a sweeping tale across the continent of Australia. It’s both an adventure and a love story. It’s also a reckoning with one’s place in life. A story of how to overcome tragedy and adversity and come to terms with the ghosts of one’s past. It asks the question, where is home? And how do we make a place for ourselves despite whether or not we “fit in” with the crowd. Likely, we can travel to all ends of the earth to escape one thing or another, but until we can find peace with ourselves, can we really ever claim a place as ours, as the right one? Is it the place or is it a piece of ourselves that we need to claim and come to terms with before we can settle?
“She had never understood the grip that places had over people. That sort of nostalgia made her impatient. It was awful seeing people beholden to their memories, staying on in houses or towns out of some perverted homage.”
Winton’s novel is cinematic and fast-paced. It’s more than just an action piece, however. The two main characters are fully fleshed and survive in your head long past the ending of the book itself. I’m still picturing them in that very first part of the book. And in the end. Both scenes made me gasp for different reasons, but both gave me that sense of being alive in the world. Something I very much needed! I’m still longing for Luther Fox and Georgie Jutland.
June 6, 2011
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.
October 15, 2017
This is my last unread book from the 2002 Man Booker shortlist, which is the topic of a current discussion in The Mookse and The Gripes group. I am also planning to read several more from that year's longlist. This for me is the weakest of the six books, but it was still an interesting read.
The story is largely set in the wilder parts of coastal Western Australia. It has three central characters and their relationship is something of a love triangle, but to portray the book in those terms would be a gross misrepresentation. It is much more about misfits and drifters and their attempts to find a place to survive in hostile terrain, which makes it more like an Australian western. All of the three main characters have secrets they are scarred by and hide from one another, and only at the very end is any concession made towards a happy resolution.
At the heart of the book is Georgie, a drifter who has arrived in the fishing village of White Point on a boat with an ill-equipped sailor she wants to leave. She finds a place as the partner and housekeeper of Jim, a successful local fisherman and unofficial policeman of the local community who lives in the shadow of his more violent dead father's reputation. Georgie becomes intrigued by Luther, who has been poaching fish at night and has his own past as a musician whose family have all been killed in a car crash he survived. After a brief and impossible liaison with Georgie and reprisals from the White Point rednecks, Luther takes off on a trip north with a plan to attempt to live on his wits as a fisherman on a much wilder part of the coast. Georgie begins to settle for her life with Jim, but he conceives a trip north to find Luther.
This book is full of colourful Australian vocabulary, some of which stuck (quolls, spinifex) and others which I didn't check. It is uncompromising and quite long, in fact too long to hold my interest throughout - for me it could have been edited down to something a lot more punchy, but it is still quite a memorable read.
The story is largely set in the wilder parts of coastal Western Australia. It has three central characters and their relationship is something of a love triangle, but to portray the book in those terms would be a gross misrepresentation. It is much more about misfits and drifters and their attempts to find a place to survive in hostile terrain, which makes it more like an Australian western. All of the three main characters have secrets they are scarred by and hide from one another, and only at the very end is any concession made towards a happy resolution.
At the heart of the book is Georgie, a drifter who has arrived in the fishing village of White Point on a boat with an ill-equipped sailor she wants to leave. She finds a place as the partner and housekeeper of Jim, a successful local fisherman and unofficial policeman of the local community who lives in the shadow of his more violent dead father's reputation. Georgie becomes intrigued by Luther, who has been poaching fish at night and has his own past as a musician whose family have all been killed in a car crash he survived. After a brief and impossible liaison with Georgie and reprisals from the White Point rednecks, Luther takes off on a trip north with a plan to attempt to live on his wits as a fisherman on a much wilder part of the coast. Georgie begins to settle for her life with Jim, but he conceives a trip north to find Luther.
This book is full of colourful Australian vocabulary, some of which stuck (quolls, spinifex) and others which I didn't check. It is uncompromising and quite long, in fact too long to hold my interest throughout - for me it could have been edited down to something a lot more punchy, but it is still quite a memorable read.
July 4, 2025
I had two very strange experiences while reading this, both in the first half of the book. In this portion of the story, we meet Georgiana "Georgie" Jutland, Jim Buckridge and Luther Fox and share in some of their travails. As I was nodding off to sleep one night, I vaguely wondered whether any journalists had followed up with Georgie in the years since the book was written, after all of this was behind her. It took some time before I remembered that she's a fictional character.
The second weird thing had to do with the actual experience of reading. Usually, when I read, the words on the page are translated into a voice in my head, and (assuming I'm enjoying the book) it's like the voice of a friend. For writers like Tana French or John McPhee, not just a friend but an extremely articulate friend that I could listen to for hours. But while reading this book, I suddenly realized that--in a way that's difficult to explain--it was as if the words on the page were somehow my own thoughts, and I wasn't 'listening' to the book but rather 'thinking' it. I have never experienced that before.
* * * * * *
As you've guessed, I enjoyed this very much, though it wasn't what I'd call 'fun'. It was really three distinct books bound together by the three characters mentioned above. The first book was set in the ramshackle beach and fishing town of White Point, Western Australia, a couple of hours north of Perth. I, too, grew up in a dirt-road windblown raggedy-assed town filled with shrimp netters, fisherman and surfers, and once again I find myself effortlessly drawn into Winton's world. But I should let Georgie describe it:
"Fish deco" cracked me up.
Even a town as small as this requires an underclass, and Luther Fox and his family provided it. Jim represented the take-no-shit spirit of the town with such ferocity that he was the unofficial mayor. Georgie, a nurse, enters the community with eyes wide open, unsure of how she fits but never mustering sufficient incentive to leave.
The second portion of the trip is a beautifully-told description of a trip across Western Australia, all 1200 miles of it. For various reasons, all three characters feel a pull towards the north (which, in the Antipodes, is the blazingly hot swampy part). Hidden behind this spoiler is an aside that really doesn't have anything to do with the book, but is something I learned as a result of some side reading inspired by it.
The final ten percent of the book was when the tension was racheted up. Credit Winton with hinting at several different potential outcomes, and carefully avoid revealing the final answer until the very last couple of pages.
Many people are turned off by Winton, and hey, I get it. One reviewer here said it was "hundreds of pages of blokes doing blokey things," which is a fair enough criticism, even though one of the blokes was female. But to me, in addition to the insinuating voice in my head mentioned earlier, the skill with which he sets up mysteries and then solves them, ranging from little notes on snips of paper to how the entire Georgie-Jim-Luther situation will be resolved, is absolutely masterful.
If you like the first ten pages you'll probably love this. If not, it probably won't get better for you.
The second weird thing had to do with the actual experience of reading. Usually, when I read, the words on the page are translated into a voice in my head, and (assuming I'm enjoying the book) it's like the voice of a friend. For writers like Tana French or John McPhee, not just a friend but an extremely articulate friend that I could listen to for hours. But while reading this book, I suddenly realized that--in a way that's difficult to explain--it was as if the words on the page were somehow my own thoughts, and I wasn't 'listening' to the book but rather 'thinking' it. I have never experienced that before.
* * * * * *
As you've guessed, I enjoyed this very much, though it wasn't what I'd call 'fun'. It was really three distinct books bound together by the three characters mentioned above. The first book was set in the ramshackle beach and fishing town of White Point, Western Australia, a couple of hours north of Perth. I, too, grew up in a dirt-road windblown raggedy-assed town filled with shrimp netters, fisherman and surfers, and once again I find myself effortlessly drawn into Winton's world. But I should let Georgie describe it:
The settlement lay wedged between the sea and the majestic white sandhills of the interior. It was a shanty town whose perimeter was a wall of empty beer bottles and flyblown carapaces...Georgie, who rather liked the get-fucked Fish Deco vibe of the place, thought it remarkable that people could produce such a relentlessly ugly town in so gorgeous a setting.
"Fish deco" cracked me up.
Even a town as small as this requires an underclass, and Luther Fox and his family provided it. Jim represented the take-no-shit spirit of the town with such ferocity that he was the unofficial mayor. Georgie, a nurse, enters the community with eyes wide open, unsure of how she fits but never mustering sufficient incentive to leave.
The second portion of the trip is a beautifully-told description of a trip across Western Australia, all 1200 miles of it. For various reasons, all three characters feel a pull towards the north (which, in the Antipodes, is the blazingly hot swampy part). Hidden behind this spoiler is an aside that really doesn't have anything to do with the book, but is something I learned as a result of some side reading inspired by it.
The final ten percent of the book was when the tension was racheted up. Credit Winton with hinting at several different potential outcomes, and carefully avoid revealing the final answer until the very last couple of pages.
Many people are turned off by Winton, and hey, I get it. One reviewer here said it was "hundreds of pages of blokes doing blokey things," which is a fair enough criticism, even though one of the blokes was female. But to me, in addition to the insinuating voice in my head mentioned earlier, the skill with which he sets up mysteries and then solves them, ranging from little notes on snips of paper to how the entire Georgie-Jim-Luther situation will be resolved, is absolutely masterful.
If you like the first ten pages you'll probably love this. If not, it probably won't get better for you.
November 16, 2019
I read this many years ago. While I knew I enjoyed it, I couldn't remember that much about it, which is very frustrating, but it's happened before and it'll probably get worse.
As I professed a million times before, Tim Winton is one of my favourite writers. His autographed books are some of my most treasured belongings. I was fortunate enough to see and hear him speak and have my books autographed on several occasions.
My second taste of Dirt Music was via the e-audiobook. I didn't quite like the narrator and her delivery, but I persevered and finished it in record time.
Things came back to me, especially certain details.
Dirt Music is a quintessential Winton novel, in that the landscape, mostly the Western Australian coast, plays a big role in the characters' lives. Forty-year-old Georgie Jutland has been married for three years to the prosperous fisherman, Jim Buckridge. They live in White Point, a fictional coastal town. Luther Fox is thirty-five, lives off the grid and, occasionally, helps himself to crayfish and other sea creatures, despite not having a fishing license.
Georgie feels restless and unsettled. She doesn't sleep much and she may have a bit of a drinking problem. Circumstances bring her and Luth together and an affair begins, so the big troubles start, especially since Luther Fox was already a persona non-grata in the community.
I found the characters and their conduct irritating and odd at times. Some had more reasons than others to feel depressed, down on their luck, lost and self-destructive.
But then it's only an illusion that people are logical or that they act rationally all the time.
The last part was a bit unbelievable, it even had a dose of soap-opera to it, at least, that's how I perceived it this time around.
Nevertheless, it was a satisfying read, even though I wasn't completely under its spell.
So, I'm downgrading this to 4 stars.
As I professed a million times before, Tim Winton is one of my favourite writers. His autographed books are some of my most treasured belongings. I was fortunate enough to see and hear him speak and have my books autographed on several occasions.
My second taste of Dirt Music was via the e-audiobook. I didn't quite like the narrator and her delivery, but I persevered and finished it in record time.
Things came back to me, especially certain details.
Dirt Music is a quintessential Winton novel, in that the landscape, mostly the Western Australian coast, plays a big role in the characters' lives. Forty-year-old Georgie Jutland has been married for three years to the prosperous fisherman, Jim Buckridge. They live in White Point, a fictional coastal town. Luther Fox is thirty-five, lives off the grid and, occasionally, helps himself to crayfish and other sea creatures, despite not having a fishing license.
Georgie feels restless and unsettled. She doesn't sleep much and she may have a bit of a drinking problem. Circumstances bring her and Luth together and an affair begins, so the big troubles start, especially since Luther Fox was already a persona non-grata in the community.
I found the characters and their conduct irritating and odd at times. Some had more reasons than others to feel depressed, down on their luck, lost and self-destructive.
But then it's only an illusion that people are logical or that they act rationally all the time.
The last part was a bit unbelievable, it even had a dose of soap-opera to it, at least, that's how I perceived it this time around.
Nevertheless, it was a satisfying read, even though I wasn't completely under its spell.
So, I'm downgrading this to 4 stars.
January 17, 2008
Dirt Music is one of those books that gets under your skin. Comes into your bed with you; changes your dreams; travels with you throughout the mundane details of everyday life. Winton's descriptive prose works both externally in its depiction of the natural land - the sea and desert of Western Australia which makes up its setting, and internally, in the way it goes deep inside the pain and anxieties of its characters, as they struggle to free themselves from tremendous damage, and paralysis.
January 17, 2025
“Dirt music," Fox tells Georgie, "is anything you can play on a verandah or porch, without electricity.”
...and it is from this short conversation that the book takes its title.
Set in small town Western Australia - a fictional town, called White Point, where the industry is fishing, and the people are hard working rural folk - this is a gritty novel. The people of white Point are called White Pointers - obvious but clever, in a fishing town. The machinations of small town Australia, a patriarchal family, who hold the imbalance of power for no reason other than they own a lot of the land and are successful and wealthy. Jim Buckridge, inheriting that power from his father, and now the others look up to him, look to him for guidance and to take the lead. But it is Georgie, his girlfriend, who is the enigmatic lead character - seemingly so unsure of her own motivations, and similarly unsure how disconnected from her family she is. That is, Georgie and Luther Fox, the poacher - both enigmatic and complicated.
The blurb gives a good rundown of the plot, better than I would explain.
The characters are damaged. The characters have past history they are reluctant to share, history that effects their thinking and their actions, and that effect their relationships. These characters, like real people are complicated. They are each looking for redemption.
However it is in the setting of the scene, in describing this small town, the sea, the scenery where Winton spends much of his time, and when the story moves north to a new setting, he does the same. It is with great depth he describes things - often to the detriment of the storyline, but it is enticing nevertheless.
It is an interesting part of Australia, the West. I spent some time there, living in Perth briefly, looking for work, at a time it was hard to come by. In the end I took a job on a remote cattle station, four months of isolation with 'interesting characters', but not necessarily people you would choose to spend that time with. I didn't make my way to a coastal fishing town, or to a remote north-western coastline, which was the second setting of this novel. I would love to have found a way to the second, much more than the first.
I ripped through this novel, reading it in a day and a half. Partly because I have a slight cold, and was not welcome in the office in this time of covid panic (not that we have the virus loose in NZ, only in our returning citizens, who go into isolation), but partly due to its appeal. I did find it hard to put down, and for me it was 4 stars worth. Tim Winton is not an author I am familiar with, so I was luck to have been gifted a copy.
4****
August 19, 2022
4.5 Stars
Up all night cruising the internet, Georgie thinks:
“Still, you had to admit that it was nice to be without a body for a while; there was an addictive thrill in being of no age, no gender, with no past. It was an infinite sequence of opening portals, of menus and corridors that let you into brief, painless encounters, where what passed for life was a listless kind of browsing. World without consequence, amen. And in it she felt light as an angel. Besides, it kept her off the sauce."
Georgie is disenchanted with her life, including her 3 year relationship with Jim and his 2 sons. She's fallen out of love, she's lost confidence in herself, and she doesn't know where she wants to head in life.
Then there's Lu Fox who lives alone on a rundown farm.
“When sleep comes it undoes him again: no grip, no purchase, no defences. At him come flickering jabs of memory that stew his blood and bones as the house creaks on its stumps and his trees groan."
Jim, a man who likes to be in complete control, has his own secrets and anxieties, to which I am not privy. Though he is the 3rd main character, Winton chooses to tell this story through Georgie and Lu's perspectives.
The land of western Australia is also a character in this novel. I am immersed in its scale, its dangers, and its bounty. It is a wild land that man has been unable to tame. I travel from the fishing town of White Point on the coast up through the striking gorge country, through the barren desert, and to the swelter of the tropics.
Winton masterfully spins his story, revealing his characters one bit at a time as they hide from pasts that haunt them and are finally jolted out of their stasis. These people become real to me, I empathize with them, find pieces of myself in each one, and find myself having conversations with them in my head. The writing is powerful, clear, and frequently poetic.
Dirt Music is a strong, absorbing story about family, grief, regret, and coming to terms with oneself and one's life. And really, isn't that what all of our lives are about?
Oh, and don't read the book blurb. Let Winton tell his story and reveal things at his own pace, you won't regret it.
Up all night cruising the internet, Georgie thinks:
“Still, you had to admit that it was nice to be without a body for a while; there was an addictive thrill in being of no age, no gender, with no past. It was an infinite sequence of opening portals, of menus and corridors that let you into brief, painless encounters, where what passed for life was a listless kind of browsing. World without consequence, amen. And in it she felt light as an angel. Besides, it kept her off the sauce."
Georgie is disenchanted with her life, including her 3 year relationship with Jim and his 2 sons. She's fallen out of love, she's lost confidence in herself, and she doesn't know where she wants to head in life.
Then there's Lu Fox who lives alone on a rundown farm.
“When sleep comes it undoes him again: no grip, no purchase, no defences. At him come flickering jabs of memory that stew his blood and bones as the house creaks on its stumps and his trees groan."
Jim, a man who likes to be in complete control, has his own secrets and anxieties, to which I am not privy. Though he is the 3rd main character, Winton chooses to tell this story through Georgie and Lu's perspectives.
The land of western Australia is also a character in this novel. I am immersed in its scale, its dangers, and its bounty. It is a wild land that man has been unable to tame. I travel from the fishing town of White Point on the coast up through the striking gorge country, through the barren desert, and to the swelter of the tropics.
Winton masterfully spins his story, revealing his characters one bit at a time as they hide from pasts that haunt them and are finally jolted out of their stasis. These people become real to me, I empathize with them, find pieces of myself in each one, and find myself having conversations with them in my head. The writing is powerful, clear, and frequently poetic.
Dirt Music is a strong, absorbing story about family, grief, regret, and coming to terms with oneself and one's life. And really, isn't that what all of our lives are about?
Oh, and don't read the book blurb. Let Winton tell his story and reveal things at his own pace, you won't regret it.
December 6, 2010
Blokey novel, full of blokey blokes doing blokey stuff. Far too many people hanging upside down in vehicles of one kind or another, and the predictable ending was deliberately delayed too long for my patience. It's either a momentous portrayal of a raw, archaic world or rather silly, depending on your point of view. I found it silly.
November 8, 2013
I'm on a bit of a Tim Winton kick at the moment. For years after reading - and loving - Cloudstreet I ignored his work. Now it seems that I can't get enough of it. And yet, for some of the time I was listening to the audiobook version of this novel, I wasn't sure how I felt about it. It has everything that I love about Winton's writing: down-to-earth Australian English, realistic dialogue, flawed and complex characters, rich symbolism, striking imagery and a strong connection with the natural world. However, there were times when the pace lagged and I wasn't sure where Winton was taking his characters. It all came together at the end in a way that made me hold my breath, but it did take rather a long time to get there.
The ending of the novel is ambiguous, but I was in an optimistic mood when I finished listening and I chose to interpret what happened in a positive way. Maybe that's just because I’d become very attached to the central characters, Lu and Georgie, and I wanted them to find what they'd been looking for.
The audiobook was narrated reasonably well - although not brilliantly - by Suzi Dougherty. While I didn’t mind listening to her, I won’t be going out of my way to listen to her narrating anything else. I also formed the impression that she may have been given an American edition of the novel to read. Unless there’s something about Western Australian idioms of which I’m completely unaware, I can’t imagine that Tim Winton would refer to a mobile phone as a cell phone, or to a filing cabinet as a file cabinet.
This is a flawed, but still a powerful and haunting work - a 4.5 star read. Lu and Georgie are going to stay with me for a long time.
March 10, 2016
Dirt Music came as a complete surprise. To date I have read one Tim Winton novel, which was Cloudstreet, and I thought it was good. Dirt Music, however is a superior novel.
Georgie is forty years old and trapped in a relationship with a person she doesn't love and lives in a small hick town in western Australia. Through a series of coincidences she finds rugged loser, Luther Fox and they strike up a relationship. However her husband comes from a long line of thugs and when he finds out that she's been cheating on him, he makes sure that everyone will know the consequences.
Although I am making it sound like a soap opera, it isn't. Dirt Music is a powerful novel about relationships, different social classes and the dynamics of the inhabitants of a small town. There's some plot twists regarding the backgrounds of the characters but the real beauty lies in WInton's use of language. Never have I read a writer who can mix poetic writing with Australian slang. For a 465 page book, it moves at a fast pace. This was one book where I just re-read sentences so I can absorb the beauty. A memorable read.
June 2, 2021
В 2002 году, когда на премию Букера ещё могли претендовать книги о любви между мужчиной и женщиной, в шорт-лист тихо пробралась «Музыка грязи». Она считалась самой слабой среди всех (победила «Жизнь Пи»). Это роман про Австралию, любовь и искупление. Есть немного робинзонады и дорожных приключений, много рыбаков с большими домами, громадными телевизорами и отдыхом на Бали или на Мальдивах. Также нас ждут рыбы с названиями типа люциан или барамунди (все хотят поймать огромную барамунди и хвастаться всю жизнь), дикие кенгуру, баобабы с эвкалиптами и прочие австралийские прелести.
January 29, 2013
This book is a descriptive marvel. You feel yourself there. You are one with the characters in their pain and their wrestle with memory and their attempt to come to terms with their wrecked lives. Even long after reading the final page, you feel like Georgie Jutland, Luther Fox, and, perhaps, Jim Buckridge, are persons you've known for a long time. And through their lives you look at your own in a new way.
April 7, 2022
I don't think Tim Winton could write a bad novel if he tried—in my opinion, at least. Dirt Music was another big winner for me. I greedily drank up every word. This story has something for everyone. It could truly be labelled with MANY popular genres—action, mystery, romance, thriller, music, history, crime, travel, classics, philosophy, and I could on!
The last 15% of the book was—for me—almost torture. I bit my nails to the quick, and I was on the edge of my chair til I nearly fell off. But Oh My God, it was so worth it!! And the ending was sheer genius! At first, I was frustrated and I actually shouted at my e-reader! But when I took a moment to think about it, I liked it! I liked it because that slight ambiguity allowed me to imagine the ending that satisfied me most.😌
And I know many reviewers have mentioned this before, but it bears repeating. Winton has a magnificent talent for describing the landscape of his novels—so much so that the scenery essentially becomes one of the characters! This talent of his is so fine-tuned that, despite never having been to Australia, I feel I know it really quite well, just from reading his novels! Actually, the dozens of others I've read that are set there may have helped a bit, too, but I think you get my drift.😉
Dirt Music is probably the darkest of his novels, but depressing?... absolutely not! There's a little darkness inside ALL of us, but a few of our characters here have a little more than most.
Well, there's not a whole lot I can say without giving away spoilers, so I'm keeping this review brief. I would like to say, though, how sorry I was to see that several reviewers gave up on the book. I really wish they'd stuck it out, but it's a personal thing. I understand that. And I'm probably a little biased. But I do want to suggest that, if you should decide to pick it up, please persevere until the end because you will absolutely be rewarded—I promise you that. In fact, Winton is a such a true master of the pen that, if he published his grocery lists, I'd be the first to read them.
5 "You can run, but you can't hide" stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The last 15% of the book was—for me—almost torture. I bit my nails to the quick, and I was on the edge of my chair til I nearly fell off. But Oh My God, it was so worth it!! And the ending was sheer genius! At first, I was frustrated and I actually shouted at my e-reader! But when I took a moment to think about it, I liked it! I liked it because that slight ambiguity allowed me to imagine the ending that satisfied me most.😌
And I know many reviewers have mentioned this before, but it bears repeating. Winton has a magnificent talent for describing the landscape of his novels—so much so that the scenery essentially becomes one of the characters! This talent of his is so fine-tuned that, despite never having been to Australia, I feel I know it really quite well, just from reading his novels! Actually, the dozens of others I've read that are set there may have helped a bit, too, but I think you get my drift.😉
Dirt Music is probably the darkest of his novels, but depressing?... absolutely not! There's a little darkness inside ALL of us, but a few of our characters here have a little more than most.
Well, there's not a whole lot I can say without giving away spoilers, so I'm keeping this review brief. I would like to say, though, how sorry I was to see that several reviewers gave up on the book. I really wish they'd stuck it out, but it's a personal thing. I understand that. And I'm probably a little biased. But I do want to suggest that, if you should decide to pick it up, please persevere until the end because you will absolutely be rewarded—I promise you that. In fact, Winton is a such a true master of the pen that, if he published his grocery lists, I'd be the first to read them.
5 "You can run, but you can't hide" stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
October 12, 2015
Tim Winton definitely does a great job of describing the West Australian landscape but the story & characters didn’t hold my interest at all. Maybe it was the complete lack of quotation marks for speech (WHY?!?!?!?) I seemed to be always stopping to work out if it was speech or thoughts etc, that I just didn’t become involved with the people (who I didn’t find likeable at all) or what was going on.
March 22, 2022
3.25 Stars — Luther is a lost and damaged soul. A recent tragedy has left him a defeated man, who’s become nothing more than a fishing poacher, stealing from the quota of others to make ends meat in the dead of night.
It’s not until he meets fellow lost-soul, Georgie — that he begins to come to terms with what he has lost, and gains any sense of self-pride & belonging to the world whatsoever.
The two aren’t star-crossed-lovers exactly, but they are somewhat drawn to each other, of that there is little doubt. Many things make this dubious and fraught with challenges and even danger, but it is Georgie who takes the main-arcing narrative-load here, as she grows into herself thanks to the freedom of expression Luther enables her to have, opposed to her top dog alpha-male boyfriend whom likes to keep her in a little box, where he can remain the king fisherman & resident hard-man whilst also having his kids cared for by a loving, energetic & fun woman like Georgie.
I found TW’s work here to eh a little contrite, somewhat obvious & even a little comfortable. There’s no doubting the fact that the town itself is a character here and the main players are well fleshed out without being too over-analysed, sure. But I just found myself labouring at times here, and for once there were gaps in Winton’s storytelling that had me yearning for more.
I’m saying all that, Luther & Georgie are quintessential Winton leads that sparkle and shine throughout the novel, both also remaining the only true bit of unpredictability at all, such is their slightly carefree and left-of-centre fabric. Dirt Music is a novel about love through painful times & it sends its message with vigour. Emotive moments are abound and the build is solid if not a little slow even for Tim. It’s no cloudstreet — for me — but it is a well written tale that holds up through a couple of decades and still reads very much modern-day albeit with a heavier stereotypical Aussie-tonality to it than perhaps there would be if written today. Winton’s use of music throughout the telling of Luther’s journey is too-notch and elevates the narrative many times — even saving it here and there when things get a little same-same! Likewise the coastal scenery plays a large role in keeping the page fresh and full of those elegant brush-strokes the author has become famous for.
Overall, this is a solid novel by an excellent novelist, set in a scenic Western Australian coastal town about a broken-man and illegal fisherman, that’s brought back to life by seeing life through the eyes of a caring, fun & personable woman that allows him to recall why live might just be worth living, even after horrific tragedy befalls us.
It’s not until he meets fellow lost-soul, Georgie — that he begins to come to terms with what he has lost, and gains any sense of self-pride & belonging to the world whatsoever.
The two aren’t star-crossed-lovers exactly, but they are somewhat drawn to each other, of that there is little doubt. Many things make this dubious and fraught with challenges and even danger, but it is Georgie who takes the main-arcing narrative-load here, as she grows into herself thanks to the freedom of expression Luther enables her to have, opposed to her top dog alpha-male boyfriend whom likes to keep her in a little box, where he can remain the king fisherman & resident hard-man whilst also having his kids cared for by a loving, energetic & fun woman like Georgie.
I found TW’s work here to eh a little contrite, somewhat obvious & even a little comfortable. There’s no doubting the fact that the town itself is a character here and the main players are well fleshed out without being too over-analysed, sure. But I just found myself labouring at times here, and for once there were gaps in Winton’s storytelling that had me yearning for more.
I’m saying all that, Luther & Georgie are quintessential Winton leads that sparkle and shine throughout the novel, both also remaining the only true bit of unpredictability at all, such is their slightly carefree and left-of-centre fabric. Dirt Music is a novel about love through painful times & it sends its message with vigour. Emotive moments are abound and the build is solid if not a little slow even for Tim. It’s no cloudstreet — for me — but it is a well written tale that holds up through a couple of decades and still reads very much modern-day albeit with a heavier stereotypical Aussie-tonality to it than perhaps there would be if written today. Winton’s use of music throughout the telling of Luther’s journey is too-notch and elevates the narrative many times — even saving it here and there when things get a little same-same! Likewise the coastal scenery plays a large role in keeping the page fresh and full of those elegant brush-strokes the author has become famous for.
Overall, this is a solid novel by an excellent novelist, set in a scenic Western Australian coastal town about a broken-man and illegal fisherman, that’s brought back to life by seeing life through the eyes of a caring, fun & personable woman that allows him to recall why live might just be worth living, even after horrific tragedy befalls us.
January 28, 2009
"The covers of this book are too far apart."
— Ambrose Bierce
— Ambrose Bierce
December 7, 2010
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.
October 22, 2017
"God knows, music will undo you, and yet you're whacking this thing into a long, gorgeous, monotonous, hypnotic note and it's not killing you, it's not driving you into some burning screaming wreck of yourself - listen! (...) The sudden groove you're in - damn, just listen to that!"
40-year-old Georgie lives with Jim, a widowed fisherman and father of two, in (the invented town of) White Point, Western Australia. Unemployed, unhappy and a heavy drinker, she feels stuck in her own life, until she begins an affair with Lu, a drop-out and former musician - and from there on, all of their lives start to spin out of control, as past and present collapse into each other and culminate in a chase through the Australian wilderness.
Tim Winton's ability to describe nature and to create atmosphere is nothing short of fantastic. He elevates the natural surroundings to make them a protagonist in their own right, while his descriptions also mirror and influence the novel's characters: Georgie, Lu and Jim are all torn between the natural and the magical (do things like luck and karma exist?), between feeling and numbing themselves, between controlling and being controlled. These tendencies can also be detected in how they experience nature. Moreover, Winton's lyrical depiction of nature manages to give the reader a constant feeling that all characters are subjected to forces beyond their control - and that they certainly cannot master these forces, but they can adjust themselves to them.
Furthermore, the complex and vivid way Winton finds to create his characters makes it almost impossible to give a short account of their trials and tribulations: Georgie is a former nurse who used to travel the world; she re-evaluates and faces the true nature of her relationship with Jim; it remains ambivalent whether or how clearly she sees the parallels between Jim and Lu; she struggles with her rich family, her divorced parents, her unhappy sisters; she tries to overcome her passivity and searches for a way out; etc....And not only are there many (not necessarily interrelated) aspects and individual stories to each character, Winton also brings the city of White Point to life, the oppressive atmosphere, the control exercised via the many close relationships and peer pressure, the self-righteousness and racism that reign rather freely.
Which brings us to the heart of the problem of this novel: There is just too much in there, especially too much atmospheric description - although it is extremely well done, it tends to overwhelm the narrative. At one of the decisive turning points of the story, I also found what seems to me like an implosion of inherent logic . To make matters worse, the ending is pretty much a desaster, and a completely contrived one for that - I could not see how it possibly fits with the ideas and thoughts Winton elaborates on in the course of his text (and there were many of them, all of them extremely interesting).
So all in all, many excellent points, but partly flawed. What I really liked though was how Winton connects nature and music: According to Lu, "anythin you could play on a verandah. You know, without electricity", is "dirt music". When Georgie aks: "As in...soil?" He replies: "Yeah. Land. Home Country." - and this connection will be played out beautifully throughout the whole text. The land, nature, music, dreams - these factors bring the mythological into this very worldly narrative, they give the protagonists the possibility to re-connect with themselves, and this is amazingly done.
40-year-old Georgie lives with Jim, a widowed fisherman and father of two, in (the invented town of) White Point, Western Australia. Unemployed, unhappy and a heavy drinker, she feels stuck in her own life, until she begins an affair with Lu, a drop-out and former musician - and from there on, all of their lives start to spin out of control, as past and present collapse into each other and culminate in a chase through the Australian wilderness.
Tim Winton's ability to describe nature and to create atmosphere is nothing short of fantastic. He elevates the natural surroundings to make them a protagonist in their own right, while his descriptions also mirror and influence the novel's characters: Georgie, Lu and Jim are all torn between the natural and the magical (do things like luck and karma exist?), between feeling and numbing themselves, between controlling and being controlled. These tendencies can also be detected in how they experience nature. Moreover, Winton's lyrical depiction of nature manages to give the reader a constant feeling that all characters are subjected to forces beyond their control - and that they certainly cannot master these forces, but they can adjust themselves to them.
Furthermore, the complex and vivid way Winton finds to create his characters makes it almost impossible to give a short account of their trials and tribulations: Georgie is a former nurse who used to travel the world; she re-evaluates and faces the true nature of her relationship with Jim; it remains ambivalent whether or how clearly she sees the parallels between Jim and Lu; she struggles with her rich family, her divorced parents, her unhappy sisters; she tries to overcome her passivity and searches for a way out; etc....And not only are there many (not necessarily interrelated) aspects and individual stories to each character, Winton also brings the city of White Point to life, the oppressive atmosphere, the control exercised via the many close relationships and peer pressure, the self-righteousness and racism that reign rather freely.
Which brings us to the heart of the problem of this novel: There is just too much in there, especially too much atmospheric description - although it is extremely well done, it tends to overwhelm the narrative. At one of the decisive turning points of the story, I also found what seems to me like an implosion of inherent logic . To make matters worse, the ending is pretty much a desaster, and a completely contrived one for that - I could not see how it possibly fits with the ideas and thoughts Winton elaborates on in the course of his text (and there were many of them, all of them extremely interesting).
So all in all, many excellent points, but partly flawed. What I really liked though was how Winton connects nature and music: According to Lu, "anythin you could play on a verandah. You know, without electricity", is "dirt music". When Georgie aks: "As in...soil?" He replies: "Yeah. Land. Home Country." - and this connection will be played out beautifully throughout the whole text. The land, nature, music, dreams - these factors bring the mythological into this very worldly narrative, they give the protagonists the possibility to re-connect with themselves, and this is amazingly done.
August 20, 2022
Winton is a writer who is able to work magic on a page.
Landscape and character are both vividly rendered; the people and the setting equally alive.
Landscape and character are both vividly rendered; the people and the setting equally alive.
February 21, 2017
Tim Winton has a vast vocabulary, creates intense imagery and writes beautifully about our land, Australia. He had me transfixed on WA, inland and coast both arid and vivid. I want to explore the beautiful Coronation Bay, even if it's only make believe :)
March 14, 2013
This is going to be a hard one for me to write about. Dirt Music, by well-known Australian author Tim Winton, has been on my reading list for ages and I finally was able to pick it up. I wanted to like it. I wanted to love it. After reading it, though, I'm not quite sure what to make of it. It took me about 160 pages to stop wanting to put the book down, although after I hit that point, I did really want to finish it.
First I want to point out that I'm a bit of a lazy reader. I also have definite tendencies to be annoyed by the following: 1. Lack of punctuation. 2. Present tense. 3. That really really literary-fiction style where you NEVER tell, you ONLY show. Dirt Music suffers from all three. The present tense I can forgive in this book because it was fairly limited in it's use. The No Tell is supposed to be the best style of writing but when it's overdone it annoys me, and it did in this book. Also... Please use punctuation Mr. Winton. I'm begging you. God invented the quotation mark for a reason. I swear. If your keyboard is broken such that the quote key isn't working, I'll chip in for a new one. Am I being petty? Perhaps, but it is too much work to read something where the dialog isn't properly marked. You don't know immediately if they actually said something or if it's character thoughts, or if it's narrative.
I also had a problem with this book because I didn't feel like I really understood the characters. This is possibly because the book suffered a lot from my pet peeve #3 above, and maybe I didn't catch all the nuances of the "showing." In particular, I never really felt like I understood Georgie, the main character. Why did she fall for Luther Fox? Why did she do the other things she did in this book? I feel like the things she did and how she acted was very interesting, I just didn't feel that I knew her. The author doles out her past in tiny ambiguous chunks and I just couldn't put the puzzle together. Georgie's character should have made for a good story, but I never felt like I understood her, so it all kept coming out of the blue for me.
I also wasn't sure what to make of the ending. I'm not always one who looks for the "wrapped up in a shiny red bow" ending, but I do prefer a certain amount of structure so I know what the author intended. Even a wide-open ending purposefully set to invoke question is something I like. But Dirt Music was neither of these, in my opinion.
So what did I like? I liked the setting. We see small-town fishing-village Australia and later some of the northern outback. I liked that. I liked the relationship between Georgie and Luther (although I didn't particularly understand it). I quite liked the character of Luther. I liked his backstory. I found he was the most interesting. I liked how he "ran away" from his life and eventually brought about an internal healing of himself and the ability to get back to music. I liked his hitching journey across Australia and his retreat from everything. Toward the end of the book we get to know the character of Jim a bit more, and I liked that as well. While Jim's character didn't intrigue me, I wanted to know more about him, if only to shed more light on Georgie's character and actions.
Overall I'm glad that I read Dirt Music. It was something different for me, and a little difficult, and maybe that struggle is good. Perhaps this is the sort of book that will make me grow as a reader. However, while I may pick up another of Winton's books one day, I'm not in a very big hurry to do so.
First I want to point out that I'm a bit of a lazy reader. I also have definite tendencies to be annoyed by the following: 1. Lack of punctuation. 2. Present tense. 3. That really really literary-fiction style where you NEVER tell, you ONLY show. Dirt Music suffers from all three. The present tense I can forgive in this book because it was fairly limited in it's use. The No Tell is supposed to be the best style of writing but when it's overdone it annoys me, and it did in this book. Also... Please use punctuation Mr. Winton. I'm begging you. God invented the quotation mark for a reason. I swear. If your keyboard is broken such that the quote key isn't working, I'll chip in for a new one. Am I being petty? Perhaps, but it is too much work to read something where the dialog isn't properly marked. You don't know immediately if they actually said something or if it's character thoughts, or if it's narrative.
I also had a problem with this book because I didn't feel like I really understood the characters. This is possibly because the book suffered a lot from my pet peeve #3 above, and maybe I didn't catch all the nuances of the "showing." In particular, I never really felt like I understood Georgie, the main character. Why did she fall for Luther Fox? Why did she do the other things she did in this book? I feel like the things she did and how she acted was very interesting, I just didn't feel that I knew her. The author doles out her past in tiny ambiguous chunks and I just couldn't put the puzzle together. Georgie's character should have made for a good story, but I never felt like I understood her, so it all kept coming out of the blue for me.
I also wasn't sure what to make of the ending. I'm not always one who looks for the "wrapped up in a shiny red bow" ending, but I do prefer a certain amount of structure so I know what the author intended. Even a wide-open ending purposefully set to invoke question is something I like. But Dirt Music was neither of these, in my opinion.
So what did I like? I liked the setting. We see small-town fishing-village Australia and later some of the northern outback. I liked that. I liked the relationship between Georgie and Luther (although I didn't particularly understand it). I quite liked the character of Luther. I liked his backstory. I found he was the most interesting. I liked how he "ran away" from his life and eventually brought about an internal healing of himself and the ability to get back to music. I liked his hitching journey across Australia and his retreat from everything. Toward the end of the book we get to know the character of Jim a bit more, and I liked that as well. While Jim's character didn't intrigue me, I wanted to know more about him, if only to shed more light on Georgie's character and actions.
Overall I'm glad that I read Dirt Music. It was something different for me, and a little difficult, and maybe that struggle is good. Perhaps this is the sort of book that will make me grow as a reader. However, while I may pick up another of Winton's books one day, I'm not in a very big hurry to do so.
December 12, 2016
This was a lyrically beautiful book. The only way West Australia could seem more real and present would be by going there.
The journey that this book takes you on uses two different people as the primary vehicles, both aimless in life and adrift in their own skins. Georgie Jutland has abandoned her career and ended up empty of motivation in a fictional town called White Point. Lu Fox is essentially empty of purpose and wholly drifting through life, so far out of the society of White Point that he is practically a ghost. When their two lives intersect the events that result in their meeting get under your skin so that you cannot stop reading.
The characters are superb, even the smallest bit character seems real, but the real star of this novel is Australia the land that provides the 'dirt' for the dirt music. In a single sentence Winton seems able to invoke the intoxicating allure of the Indian Ocean in summer, the smell of red desert at twilight, native bushland or swampy mangrove. But the next sentence will vividly describe the crushing dry heat, the agony of sandflies or the lassitude that the tropics is so good at imposing on you, reminding one of all the reasons you don,t want to live there. Basically, what Winton does is make the places he writes about feel so very real! I loved reading this for the descriptions, I lost myself in them utterly and they were convincing beyond any photo or film.
Now,the main characters; an oddity I found was that while, in many ways, you could be exasperated by Georgie (as indeed most of the inhabitants of White Point were) over her poor decisions making it never actually made her less real as a character and it never put me off reading. Usually, a character who repetitively does stupid things annoys me, but Georgie seemed immune to scorn as she messed up her life again and again.
This is an award winning novel, it won the Miles Franklin in 2002 and was nominated for the Man Booker as well. Neither award gets my respect as a rule, they have awarded some shockers over the years, it is nice to see they also awarded and nominated some beautifully written, top notch, lyrical prose as well.
Be warned, reading this book may make you want to sell all your possessions and head to WA on a road-trip.
The journey that this book takes you on uses two different people as the primary vehicles, both aimless in life and adrift in their own skins. Georgie Jutland has abandoned her career and ended up empty of motivation in a fictional town called White Point. Lu Fox is essentially empty of purpose and wholly drifting through life, so far out of the society of White Point that he is practically a ghost. When their two lives intersect the events that result in their meeting get under your skin so that you cannot stop reading.
The characters are superb, even the smallest bit character seems real, but the real star of this novel is Australia the land that provides the 'dirt' for the dirt music. In a single sentence Winton seems able to invoke the intoxicating allure of the Indian Ocean in summer, the smell of red desert at twilight, native bushland or swampy mangrove. But the next sentence will vividly describe the crushing dry heat, the agony of sandflies or the lassitude that the tropics is so good at imposing on you, reminding one of all the reasons you don,t want to live there. Basically, what Winton does is make the places he writes about feel so very real! I loved reading this for the descriptions, I lost myself in them utterly and they were convincing beyond any photo or film.
Now,the main characters; an oddity I found was that while, in many ways, you could be exasperated by Georgie (as indeed most of the inhabitants of White Point were) over her poor decisions making it never actually made her less real as a character and it never put me off reading. Usually, a character who repetitively does stupid things annoys me, but Georgie seemed immune to scorn as she messed up her life again and again.
This is an award winning novel, it won the Miles Franklin in 2002 and was nominated for the Man Booker as well. Neither award gets my respect as a rule, they have awarded some shockers over the years, it is nice to see they also awarded and nominated some beautifully written, top notch, lyrical prose as well.
Be warned, reading this book may make you want to sell all your possessions and head to WA on a road-trip.
November 6, 2015
This was odd. This book has 500 pages and I couldn't stop reading it although I didn’t like it. It's a book about West and North Australia. It sure is contemporary, if contemporary means deep emotions, metaphysics, mystery, heartbreaking love, suffocating pain, guilt, remorse and redemption. Connected with nature but that is I suppose normal if you live in Australia.
But, it failed to be memorable and I didn’t believe these characters and their love triangle was weird. They were bordering between totally plain and fucked up. And I kept reading because there was this big secret at the end - which was rather lame. And I could write an essay about how bad end really was. I’m not using drugs, but if I had taken something during the reading I would have had really bad tripping experience.
In one thing I am sure, this book will find many fans, it’s just one of those types where you can’t really see what the fuss is about, but you know there is a fuss. Unhappy and sad love stories where nature and music are two following characters always find their public.
But, it failed to be memorable and I didn’t believe these characters and their love triangle was weird. They were bordering between totally plain and fucked up. And I kept reading because there was this big secret at the end - which was rather lame. And I could write an essay about how bad end really was. I’m not using drugs, but if I had taken something during the reading I would have had really bad tripping experience.
In one thing I am sure, this book will find many fans, it’s just one of those types where you can’t really see what the fuss is about, but you know there is a fuss. Unhappy and sad love stories where nature and music are two following characters always find their public.
July 9, 2010
Its Australian, I am meant to like Australian novels (being an Aussie) but I hated this book. At the end I wanted to throw the book out the window and wish for the hours I spent reading this book given back to me.
I truly hated the story, I truly found nothing forgiving or likeable about anybody in this book and the ending!!! That still makes me fume as I write it.
I truly hated the story, I truly found nothing forgiving or likeable about anybody in this book and the ending!!! That still makes me fume as I write it.
June 10, 2009
One of the best contemporary books I've read for a long time. Tim Winton is at one with his home area around Perth, WA and has written a story that whisks you there.
It tells of Georgie, a forty year old retired nurse who surfs the net and appreciates her vodka; Jim Buckridge, Georgie's lover, who is a successful fisherman and the "uncrowned prince" of White Point; and Luther Fox, the unluckiest outcast in White Point who is grieving the loss of his entire family and poaching lobster traps.
The story is full of amazingly life-like and interesting characters, vivid, evocative language. The dialogue is natural, at times funny and warm and always completely realistic. You are in WA and are intimitately involved with these people whilst you're reading. There are many spots of warmth and humour in a novel that is essentially quite bleak for some of the characters.
If anyone out there has not yet come across this Australian author, start here!
It tells of Georgie, a forty year old retired nurse who surfs the net and appreciates her vodka; Jim Buckridge, Georgie's lover, who is a successful fisherman and the "uncrowned prince" of White Point; and Luther Fox, the unluckiest outcast in White Point who is grieving the loss of his entire family and poaching lobster traps.
The story is full of amazingly life-like and interesting characters, vivid, evocative language. The dialogue is natural, at times funny and warm and always completely realistic. You are in WA and are intimitately involved with these people whilst you're reading. There are many spots of warmth and humour in a novel that is essentially quite bleak for some of the characters.
If anyone out there has not yet come across this Australian author, start here!
August 29, 2017
Dirt Music is story never give up on your dream. Georgie Jutland is a forty-year-old woman who was bored with her life. However, this change when one day was walking along the beach Georgie met Luther Fox, and her life was changed forever. The readers of Dirt Music will follow Georgie and Luther's to see what happens to them.
I not sure why but I always have problems reading Tim Winton's books. I find that I can never really fully absorb Tim Winton stories as I do with other writers. However, I do agree with other readers that Tim Winton is incredible the way he set the scene of his plots. I also like the way he describes living in small seaside town. I do like the way Time Winton portrays his characters. With Dirt Music Tim Winton does highlights that if you are unhappy with your life, there is nothing to stop you from changing it.
I do recommend this book because I know other readers love Tim Winton's books.
I not sure why but I always have problems reading Tim Winton's books. I find that I can never really fully absorb Tim Winton stories as I do with other writers. However, I do agree with other readers that Tim Winton is incredible the way he set the scene of his plots. I also like the way he describes living in small seaside town. I do like the way Time Winton portrays his characters. With Dirt Music Tim Winton does highlights that if you are unhappy with your life, there is nothing to stop you from changing it.
I do recommend this book because I know other readers love Tim Winton's books.
May 27, 2025
Kao neka kombinacija u kojoj se Nikol Kidman, koja u još jednoj seriji gleda u okean i navlači kardigan, nadovezuje na Keruaka i "Na putu". Ima priču koju poželiš da pratiš, ima povremeno i sjajne opise predjela, ali ima i krindž momenata na izvoz, kao i potrebu da ubaci eksplicitan komentar i gdje treba i ne treba. Vjerujem da je ovo vjerodostojniji Vinton od onog koji nam se pokazuje u novom romanu "Juice".
December 18, 2017
I wanted to like this book. I really did. But unfortunately it failed to resonate with me on nearly every level. Many people love Tim Winton's work, I'm not one of them. I cannot see what the big deal is. Boring characters, unbelievable dialogue and pretentious lack of grammatical markers (yes, he's not the only one to do this, but it's still annoying), just for starters. Too high-brow and annoying for me. Avoid.
June 19, 2013
A bit too..strange for my taste. Not very comfortable reading about this sexually desperate cougar preying on a fantasized overly complex wimpy guy. I'm thinking about leaving this book somewhere in the train as a random donation for whomever may appreciate it. There goes my 14 euros for nothing...
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