Dirt Music

Like all great writers Tim Winton can make the very ordinary seem extraordinary. The storyline of this novel revolves around three characters. Each is dissatisfied with their lives for different reasons. Georgie is bored and losing interest in her current partner Jim, a successful fisherman who is still nursing the emotional scars caused by the death of his wife. Lu Fox is in an eternal struggle with seemingly everyone as the town loner and illegal fisherman. The triangle is formed when Lu helps a stranded Georgie whose car has broken down in the vast plains outside their town in WA. Their fling is very brief as Lu is run out of town for his covert raids on the town's important fishing waters. The impression Georgie and Lu make on each other ensures that their thoughts bring them closer despite Lu's attempts at physical isolation in the remote top end of Australia. Winton creates interesting characters, constantly struggling with their past as well as each other. He also has a special talent at somehow incorporating the natural environment of Western Australia into the lives of the novel's characters, the land is as alive and furtive as they are, as harsh and unforgiving as it is beautiful and vast, it is real frontier country and as such the characters endure and are molded by its extremities in their quest to find each other and their lost selves. You don't so much read about this countryside as smell, taste and become immersed in it along with the three protagonists.

Anyone suggesting yet another book about "the eternal triangle" would normally be sent packing. When the name "Tim Winton" graces the cover, however, a pause to reconsider inevitably follows. Winton's ability to draw characters and evoke imagery has few peers, and he doesn't disappoint here. That the theme is as old as literature and well shopworn fails to erode the quality of how Winton presents it. The triangle here looks a bit unstable - two long, extended sides reaching from a narrow base. The two major sides are Georgie Jutland and Lu Fox. The base is Jim Buckridge, firm and strong in his Western Australian seaside community. His role as base gives him more presence in this unusual tale than might be expected. Winton gives him more presence than ink. Georgie has been looking for a strong foundation, both emotionally and geographically. She's been in Arabia, America, the West Pacific, all the while seeking some unrecognized resting place. And someone to rest with. Jim's position in the town, his successful fishing operation, and the family stability of two sons [he's a widower] seemed ideal to Georgie. She's been with him for three years, and the ideal image has washed away with the tides. Georgie feels she's on the deep sea - "overboard . . . with nowhere to swim." Itching to leave, yet with nowhere to run, any excuse becomes plausible. The reason she finds is perfectly convincing to her, yet seems specious to anyone not suffering her malaise of spirit. She needs "somewhere to swim," but her sense of direction is missing.The only buoy to grasp couldn't be a worse choice. It's Lu Fox, the town's blacksheep. Fox, among his other failings, is a poacher. In a fishing community there could be no worse label. Fox also carries an overwhelming burden of grief. That burden is tempered by his needs, which Georgie, alone in the village, perceives almost immediately. Her discovery comes too late as Lu's poaching is revealed and retribution is taken. Lu, in a way possible only in Australia, "goes bush." He disappears from White Point and very nearly from human ken. The loss forces Georgie into decisions about her life, and this time, with unexpected support, she pursues them with vigour.Winton's powers of imagery and imagination are outstanding. A multi-prize winner, he has justifiably earned an elevated place in the pantheon of current writers. He captures the minds, hearts, lives of his characters with unerring talent. We follow his matchless depictions with a mix of sympathy, horror and fascination. The story is skillfully woven around them. While they may seem out of control at points, Winton guides us through the shoals of their disordered lives like a storm-tossed pilot. The effect demonstrates his surety at conveying feelings of many types and expressions. These are not "simple" seaside folk - their lives, no matter how imaginary, bear telling. Winton has told their stories, for there is more than one, or even thr

"What's it about?", I'm asked after a friend hears me give a low whistle of appreciation while reading, Dirt Music. Umm...well, it's set in Australian townships...rather gritty...a love story is involved...Something called an Ute rolls over...I think that's a vehicle and it's a tremendous tragedy...Lookit...I can only recommend picking it up and reading it for yourself. Winton writes so bloody well, his book doesn't need a plot. Now, I know that doesn't sound too promising and indeed, rather odd, however, let me ask others readers this question. Have you read as many books as I have that possess a magnificent story line only to leave you groaning in parts where the author's writing just isn't worth the effort to read? Oh, please...just read this book like you're listening to music. Don't try real hard. Winton does all the work. It's not a tidy story. It's music.

This novel hummed to me in such a strong voice, I found myself slowing down my pace in order to relish the experience. There is something intriguing about Australia, almost a mirror image of the United States but dramatically different. As in Dermot Bolger's "Father's Music," the music metaphor and its connection to the people in the story makes it almost a character in itself. The descriptions of the land are so vivid, you almost feel the dust in your throat. But what made this book soar for me was its ruminations on the nature of love. Not romantic love, but love warts and all -- the lost love of a man for his family, the lessening of love between a man and a woman, the complicated love a woman feels for her own highly dysfunctional siblings. I recommend this book, without any reservation.

If Cloudstreet could be considered as a contender for the'Great Australian Novel' then Dirt Music is something more. Yet it is no less a novel that explores where we as Australians feel at home. Winton creates yet another beautiful male character in Luther Fox, whose attachment to the earth is multifaceted. He hears its resonances in the dirt music he plays and in the ocean where he is comfortable and then most powerfully in his journey north through Western Australia.This novel is a love story that tests boundaries. Georgie, the female protagonist inspires many emotions in us, but we are admire her determination in following Luther and 'saving' him.Underscoring this is winton's magical evoction of place and the rhythyms of the land. Most interestingly of all you can buy the double CD that acts as a soundtrack that underscores the necessity of music in our lives. We are lucky when we get a double dose - Winton's words with the music he believes best reflects what he is saying. Beautiful!