I finished Dirt Music (Tim Winton) with a sense of loss. I was sorry to see the story end, especially as no clear conclusion was reached. That's okay, I'm a grownup, I can handle there not being a defined ending (I've given up on happy endings). Without giving any spoilers, a few thoughts:

Tim Winton is so detailed and thorough that you get a sense of every detail in the scenes. The weather, the feel of the dust on your skin, the smells of the eucalyptus, as well as the emotions of the character are felt, not simply read. I didn't care for the main female character, I thought she was unsympathetic and apathetic to other characters, even the one she loves. The male lead is great, but of course, it's fiction! He has to be THAT perfect to make it work.

The main themes are overcoming your own personality flaws, and the fear of being left behind. Winton's main character Lu has lost everyone he loves; on this journey he meets several characters that could represent those faces from his past. He also has to face the reality that his own perceptions from the past may have been wrong. Horrifyingly so.

Rumor has it that this will become a film. Rachel Weisz is signed to play Georgia, which sounds fine. But there is a bit of a mystery regarding Russell Crowe and Colin Farrell. IMDB, the movie database, lists Colin as playing Lu. However, another report says Russell would play Lu. The other main male character, Jim, is pretty fascinating: he could be played by Russell but defintely not Colin. So I'm not sure which is accurate. I hope that Russell plays Lu, but he could do the character Jim Buckridge with a bit of a evil streak which might be interesting to see.

I'd be very interested to see how a screenplay could be written to show the amount of time passing as well as do justice to the Australian terrain and the long stretches without dialogue. My first reaction was that it would be compared with Tom Hank's Castaway. I think Russell could carry that, I don't think Colin has that much depth.

Anyway, this book had me take out the atlas, the dictionary, and use Google several times to see the trees and earthforms he describes. I think a geologist would particularly like this book, lots of rock talk.

Lastly, I've noticed that in the three Winton books I've read that Winton seems to idolize children, almost in a mythological way. That's not a bad thing, but it just seems that the children in his books develop almost a fairy like quality of mystery and perfection. ( )

I was really impressed by this book. Winton employs a style that takes a little getting used to - lack of quotations always makes me have to pay a little more attention - but his writing is so brilliant and clear, that I was drawn in very quickly and felt like I was standing right there next to the characters. And what complex, very interesting, real people his characters are! All three of the main characters are going through some personal crisis or are lost in some way. Their interactions are very real and unpredictable - so refreshing! I felt like this book was really a window into three different lives, three different personalities, and how they are all intertwined. I am definitely interested in more from this author after reading this. ( )

One of my favourite reads of 2006 and my first by this author. I don't know if distance lends enchantment but the western Australian coast was so vividly evoked for me that I wanted to fly there straight away.

The prose is seemingly plain but at the same time poetic in an unstrained way.

It's a journey novel with all that sort of novel entails but it certainly felt different to the American type road novels, though no wish to criticise the latter on my part. ( )

Brilliant book with extraordinary stark yet poetic prose. I've never been to Western Australia but I swear I could smell the place - and the people! I loved his flawed and human characters. My only complaint is that a glossary of Aussie slang would not have gone astray. ( )

I first read the novel Breath by Tim Winton and was completely entranced, so I had to try some more of his books. Dirt Music does not disappoint. Tim Winton's writing is magical, and I was transported to Western and Northern Australia, as Lu Fox tries to survive in a world that has taken everyone and everything he loves.
This is a complex book where things are slowly revealed and you feel sympathy for all the characters. Savour it. Highly recommended. ( )

Great read. Used really good descriptive language. This bloke can write. This story covered a lot of human emotions. The characters were real. I'drecommend this to any Australian although I'm not sure if non-Australians would relate to the descriptions of the countryside very well. ( )

Beautiful descriptive prose in this book. I could feel the humidity and burning heat as I turned the pages. Slow to develop and left me wondering where the story was going at several points. ( )

Beautifully evocative.

Winner of a prestigious yearly award down under, Dirt Music creates a multi-textural experience of a quietly desperate love affair between an unlikely couple of loners. Winton explores alternate communication in this novel; the protagonists rarely say anything memorable, which speaks to those of us who suffer from the same malady of introversion. Instead, the characters express, feel, and ultimately live, through what they do - she heals through nursing and medicine, he has an elemental affinity with music. Haunting characterizations make this a novel you can never forget. ( )

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. ( )

Kærlighedsroman fra nutidens Western Australia om sygeplejersken Georgia Jutland og den tidligere musiker Luther Fox der nu ernærer sig ved "sort" fiskeri. En lavmælt skildring om desillusionerede skæbner og knuste hjerter der søger sammen og sluttelig finder hinanden i det spektakulært smukke australske vildnis!

Well this was a splendid read, and particularly enjoyable for the vividness with which Winton conjures up images of the coast and small towns of Western Australia and lush tropical northern coast of the continent. The interplay of the relationships between the three central characters and the roles of their respective pasts and backgrounds in shaping the action of the novel is very well handled indeed, and the characters themselves are never less than engaging as human beings even at those points when you'd probably rather not know them if they were your neighbours.

Winton's another new author to me whose work I'd like to read more of. ( )

Tim Winton's ability to capture the Australian landscrape in his writing is brilliant. His characters have great depth.
In this case, Jim, Georgia and Fox each have to struggle with their past and what they want in life to find a future. This is yet another book about finding an identity and being true to yourself ( )

It's probably the best novel out of the three I've read by Winton - which isn't saying much at all. He manages to set up a situation and then completely fails to develop it. The man just can't create memorable characters. Nothing sticks. Oh, and that daft Hollywood ending... ( )

What starts out as a sketch of small-town life, becomes a sojourning road trip, becomes eventually a sort of man vs. nature heart of darkness story. All of it presented without hyperbole in an exquisitely detailed Western Australia.

Read the rest of my review of Dirt Music on my blog, The Nerd is the Word.

http://nerdword.blogspot.com/2006/05/... ( )

Doorway - Setting, Character
Style - Descriptive well written chapters that evoke a strong images of country, seaside WA. Chapters vary in length in that some are extremely short and others long

Review

The story is set in a small seaside town called Whitepoint and its three main characters have one thing in common - shattered pasts. I found this a very appealing and well written book. The main character Georgie is initially not likeable but Winton develops her character to such an extent that you grow do like and understand her as she struggles to sort out her life at 40 in coastal WA.

His descriptive vernacular writing helps to bring alive the "Australianess" of the characters. The ongoing mystery background of Georgie's partner Jim makes the story a page turner. Whilst not renown for happy endings this one has a relatively good one. ( )

It tool me some time to get around to reading this. I have to say I had put it off because of some unwillingness to read any Tim Winton. Don't know why - just took a set against him. I think it was in the beginning because people were comparing him with Peter Carey, whose work I find simply irritating.

see more comments here:
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Well, was I ever wrong! I eat humble pie.

"Dirt Music" is more than just a story about a tangled relationship between Georgie Jutland, Jim Buckridge and Luther Fox, it's also a journey to uncover the ghosts of their past. Winton evokes the harsh landscapes of Western Australia vividly and makes them almost palpable. The prose is spare but effective, and the characters are compelling.

There were some niggling bits -like the age discrepancy between Jim and Luther which simply does not add up. Luther says he remembers Jim at White Point Jetty when Jim was 11 - but that simply can not be. I also found Luther's total withdrawal a bit hard to understand. And I could just slap Georgie at times!

Nonetheless, I could not put this down. Its clear why it was such an acclaimed book. I'll certainly now be looking for more of his work. ( )

no spoilers, just synopsis

I'd definitely recommend this book, but I think something got lost in translation for me personally since I've never been to Australia and could only try to envision the places Winton talks about in here. Landscape (geographical in its relation to human) is such an integral part of this novel that I feel sort of left out not ever having seen any of the place.

Set in a fictional place called White Point, a fishing town, the novel focuses on three people:
1) Georgie Jutland who was always the rebel daughter in her family, a nurse & is now living with
2) Jim Buckridge, whose family has always been that family that is never crossed by anyone in town, or the one whose judgment of people becomes the norm for others; his dad was feared and that fear has carried on down to Jim. Finally there is
3)Luther Fox (Lu), who lost his brother, his brother's wife (who played music for a living and played at home for the enjoyment of it all) & his niece and nephew in a stupid car accident and resolved never to hear or play music again. Luther is a shamateur -- a poacher, who gets up long before all of the other fishermen, encroaches on their territories and sells his fish to make good $.

To make a long synopsis short, Lu & Georgie begin a relationship, Jim finds out, Lu's dog is killed, truck demolished and Lu decides that the Buckridge power in the town is no match and that he will be leaving.

Jim has is own issues...and wants to confront Lu, and so goes out in search of Lu with Georgie along. Lu, it seems, took off on the road going north, and it is only when he is forced to live without the company of others on an uninhabited island that he can come to terms with his own existence & meaning -- what he calls earlier "dirt music."

I enjoyed most the scenes in which Lu is hitching rides up north and going through the different landscapes both of geography and of human existence, especially portrayed in the people Lu meets on his travels.

I would definitely recommend the book; it is well worth the reading, and Winton is becoming one of my favorite authors. ( )