The Riders in Aussie Readers

Aug 18, 2012 Anne Hamilton rated it it was amazing

Shelves: australia-nz

I have a love-hate relationship with Tim Winton's writing. There are books of his I find profound, challenging and life-changing. There are others that I loathe so much that I'd cheerfully overcome all my scruples and join a book-burning party to make sure they were eradicated from the face of the planet.

Clearly, from the five-star rating, this is not one of the books I detest. It's a favourite. In fact, it transformed my life. To me, those tiny scenes - one in the middle and one right at the en I have a love-hate relationship with Tim Winton's writing. There are books of his I find profound, challenging and life-changing. There are others that I loathe so much that I'd cheerfully overcome all my scruples and join a book-burning party to make sure they were eradicated from the face of the planet.

Clearly, from the five-star rating, this is not one of the books I detest. It's a favourite. In fact, it transformed my life. To me, those tiny scenes - one in the middle and one right at the end - that feature the Riders are not aberrations, they are the whole point. They are not a supernatural blip in an otherwise gut-wrenching psychological drama, they are the core of the matter.

I just "get" who the Riders are. I understand the motivation, the insatiable desire to "know" when relationships fall apart and you are left with no clues, no answers, not even the slightest hint (in retrospect) that there was anything wrong. In the silence without end, without the knowledge of why, without any ability to learn from mistakes or to discover the missed signs of trouble, there's no closure. So I get the obsessive desire to know and the reluctance to give up the quest.

Fred Scully and his wife Jennifer are ending their working tour of Europe when they take one last trip - across to Ireland. There Jennifer falls in love with the derelict cottage and they buy it. Fred stays to renovate it while Jennifer heads back to Australia with their daughter Billie to sell up so that the Irish dream can be achieved.

Months later, Scully waits at Shannon airport for Jennifer and Billie, but only Billie arrives - and she, usually a motormouth, is absolutely silent. Not a word. Fred turns his life upside down to look for Jennifer when it's obvious she is not on any passenger list for the next few days. From London, to Greece, to Paris, to Amsterdam, he chases illusions and memories, increasingly unsure and desperate. He's torn between concern for his pregnant wife and torment over whether she'd leave in such a brutal fashion. As his life and mental stability begins to unravel, so does his care of Billie. When she is attacked by a dog and suffers fearsome injuries, he flees instead of seeks expert attention.

After an evocative scene on a houseboat filling with water in Amsterdam where outside footsteps might be Jennifer - or might not - Scully goes back to Ireland.

And there when he finds Billie wandering through the fields at night, the supernatural Riders in full view, he realises who they are and what choice he has to make. ...more

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