Riders

The first part of this story was good, telling about how Scully came to be rehabbing a broken down house in Ireland. I was entertained by his ghostly encounter with “The Riders” from the past, which the book is named for, but, I lost interest and didn’t continue to find out their significance. The story lost me when Scully’s daughter comes to him without her mother, who mysteriously vanished during their trip to reunite with Scully. Another mystery I didn’t read enough to find out because, I got lost and bored with Scully’s search that lead him and his daughter across Europe. The story also jumps from present to past which left me confused.

Tim Winton is one of the most talented writers I have ever encountered. In The Riders, Winton takes you on a journey that will leave you frustrated, concerned, edgy, stricken and totally enthralled. The story lies in everything that Winton leaves out. So many questions unanswered yet to answer them would change the whole flavor of the Book. The beginning of the book starts off simply enough. The uncomplicated, down to earth Scully is preparing his newly acquired Irish cottage for the arrival of his wife and child, both of whom he adores unconditionally. The Ireland that Winton brings to us is so real you can see the green grass, feel the breezes, tension, history and passion of the Irish. Although I dread any concept of roughing it, Scully's cottage with no electricity and outside toilet sounds so appealing I want to get on the next plane. Therein lies the problem, his daughter arrives at the airport minus her mother, Scully's wife. Thus begins his incredible journey to find his wife and discover why she would leave him. His wife Jennifer is featured only from Scully's point of view, at first the perfect wife and mother, one part of his three part world, his family. Then as Scully travels around Europe with his depressing, crazy obsession to find her, we discover, as he does that all was not ever what it seemed. This story belongs to Scully and his daughter Billie. The daughter he loves to distraction who adores him back. The daughter who instinctively understands him and wants to be his world. Throughout this tale we discover parts of Europe as a desperate man might see them rather than a tourist with rose colored glasses. We see the best and the worst of people and most of all we see growth and love bloom out of a tragedy almost too difficult to comprehend. I give Winton 5 stars easily as this book still lingers in my mind and soul weeks after I put it down for the last time. Winton's use of language and metaphor crosses boundaries so that he can be see as a brilliant writer on an international scale rather than just as one of Australia's exports. I will continue to read other works by Winton and I am certain I will be impressed.

Reading "the Riders" is a balance between wanting to get through it as fast as possible to unlock the mystery of Jennifer's disappearance and trying to read what Winton does give to you. He is not Dickens; the detail is carefully chosen, just enough to set each scene and help the reader imagine Sculley with his battered and "severely used face" (p.9) I read this novel quickly, sorry to have to finish it, but glad that I read the novel. It is uncoventional from the average novel, but don't let that keep you from reading it.

Tim Winton's "The Riders", a Booker Prize nominee, is one of the most impressive novels I have read all year. It is a brilliantly crafted and expertly executed literary achievement by one of Australia's most promising modern young writers. Preparing to start a new life with his wife Jennifer and young daughter Billie in Ireland, Scully's life is blown apart when he goes to the airport to meet his family but finds only Billie and no message from his missing wife. With Billie in tow, he travels to Greece, France and the Netherlands in search of Jennifer but unbeknown to himself begins a journey of self discovery that will alter the course of his life in ways he never envisaged. The Scully you meet in the first few chapters, giddy with happiness and anticipation as he toils to make habitable a ramshackle old place he has bought to begin a new life with his family, is so "up" and vibrant a life force, you feel a palpable sense of hurt watching his slide downhill. But redemption awaits around the corner. While Jennifer, a shadowy figure, remains an enigma, her disappearance forces Scully to come to terms with feelings of betrayal and to recognise that it is perhaps impossible to truly know another human being. The unknowability of the human heart, arguably the novel's central theme, is powerfully captured in the recurring image of riders on white horses, all spendiferously dressed, but still and silent and oblivious to all as they line up for parade in the night. The gradual role reversal we witness in the adult-child relationship between Scully and Billie only deepens the sense of pathos evoked by new circumstances as they unfold. Billie, quiet and uncommunicative, but who proves ultimately to be the quicker learner of life's lessons, ends up taking charge. She quite literally controls the purse strings by the end of the story. Winton's language is colourful and he uses imagery to dazzling effect. His minor characters (eg, Irma, Alex and Pete) are also memorable. They remain sharply etched in our minds long after they have been written out of the plot. Irma, arguably Scully's saviour, may be a damaged soul but she possesses the essence of humanity absent from the sophisticated but calculating Jennifer. "The Riders" is such a rare and haunting beauty of a novel I can only recommend other readers to take their time enjoying it. Richly deserving of its Booker Prize award nomination. Go get it !

The riders--"seen and unseen, patient, dogged faithful in all weathers and all worlds, waiting for something promised, something that was plainfully their due...",come to represent an unfathomable mirage that keeps haunting Scully through his darkest hours. Believing his wife to have abandoned him and their daughter for a reason, Scully goes on a chase of rampange in pursuit of a shapeless promise and nameless due. A compelling tale into the deep realm of one man's psyche, Winton does a fabulous job penetrating through the surface of reality in search of the source of a deadly obsession. Dragging his 7-year-old daughter by his side, The Riders is also a tale of love, of what little is remained of a family unity. Only through his love buried in his own troubled spirit, does Scully rises above a maze of deception painted by his own blind obsession. A mystery with no ending, be prepared to find yourself in owe of the ungraspable nature of human nature.