Dirt Music
by Tim Winton
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Book Summary Information
Author: Tim WintonEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-05-30
ISBN: 0330490265
Number of pages: 480
Publisher: Picador
Book Reviews of Dirt Music
Book Review: A beautifully sung song of self discovery...
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm really starting to consider Australian literature to be some of the best fiction I've had the pleasure of getting my hands on. I've already been able to delve into authors like Murray Bail and Elliot Perlman and now I've had the pleasure of reading a stunning novel, `Dirt Music', written by acclaimed Australian author Tim Winton. I must say this; after this read I surely will be researching his bibliography.
`Dirt Music' takes place in a small fishing town in Western Australia (a fictitious town called White Point) where middle-aged Georgie Jutland is trying to find herself. She's always been a rebellious and free-spirited woman; at odds with her family constantly, never truly feeling as though she belonged anywhere. She's longed for a sense of freedom that everyone around her seems to take away, but she lacks the ability to make the needed effort to really save herself from her apparent failings. She lives with widower Jim Buckridge; a shell of a man who drowns himself in fishing and remains a distant and reclusive mystery to Georgie. She feels as though she loves him, but she struggles with understanding why. She cooks for him, she cleans his house and she takes care of his two sons, but at the end of the day she feels alone and cold.
And then she meets Lu.
The man known as Luther Fox comes with some serious baggage. A beautiful musician who comes from a dishonorable family; Fox has been reduced to a shamateur (fish poacher) due to some unspeakable tragedies in his life. Let's just say that he his the sole survivor to the Fox name. When Georgie spots Fox poaching late at night it is her obligation to inform her husband, a local fisherman. This is their way of living and this man is encroaching on that. Instead of playing informant she decides to play desperate housewife and starts up a heated affair that is far more than just a one-night stand type thing. No, it becomes apparent that both Lu and Georgie fill a void within one another; a void they've been trying to fill for a long time.
The novel effortlessly paints these characters for us, giving us a realistic and authentic portrait of middle-aged despair and self-awareness. Winton's descriptive prose is littered with beautiful expressions of pure emotion and his languid delivery is a joy to read.
My one critique, if I were to have any, would be that at times he expounds too much on areas that need little expansion. He goes to great lengths to flesh out each and every move these characters make, and the prose spans over a good length of time, and so some scenes could have been cut and some time could have been shortened to keep the pacing a little brisker in areas, but in the end it is a trivial complaint when you consider the richly rewarding entirety of the novel. I felt that the novel's ending was a tad premature (even if the novel spans nearly 500 pages), but it was not a disappointment in the least; it just felt a little too sudden for what I was expecting.
Some novels take a full chapter to wind things down; this one almost feels like the ending is on a solitary page.
It's still the best thing I've read in quite some time, and certainly a masterful example of pure storytelling at it's finest. I'd highly recommend this one. If you enjoy a good dramatic story, filled with love, loss and ample amounts of genuine (and realistic) tension then dive right in, for `Dirt Music' covers all those bases and then some.
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