Contents:
"Big World"
"Abbreviation"
"Aquifer"
"Damaged Goods"
"Small Mercies"
"On Her Knees"
"Cockleshell"
"The Turning"
"Sand"
"Family"
"Long, Clear View"
"Reunion"
"Commission"
"Fog"
"Boner McPharlin's Moll"
"Immunity"
"Defender" ( )

Some times you just have to invest those shekels.

http://alittleteaalittlechat.wordpress.com/2014/03/12/the-turning-by-tim-winton/

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Tim Winton's "The Turning" is an excellent albeit uneven thematically related collection of stories. The best are five, worst are around two or three but the bad certainly outweigh the good. The stories revolve around the lives of different characters who are either in relationship or grew up in the coastal Australian town of Angelus. The first half is near flawless and as the book progresses it looses its momentum. The best stories are those that are impactful yet also self-contained, which is the challenge of structuring a book in this way. "Aquifer" is the most widely reprinted for good reason and stands on it's own as a man's recollection of his suburban neighborhood takes a sinister twist. The stories that lost me were the ones that relied too much on character to drive the plot of the narrative and although they added to the milieu of the book, ones like "Fog" or "Boner McPharlin's Moll" they lacked immediacy and I found it hard to care about the story insomuch as it was a story and really only gleaned additional insight into other characters in the collection. ( )

Read this collection of short stories as part of my MA degree. Some I liked, some I didn’t.

I appreciate the way certain stories are linked, with one character in particular who crops up numerous times.

Thing I dislike the most is the author’s decision to present dialogue without quotation marks. Found this irritating and at times confusing. Never been a fan of writers who break style or grammar rules. ( )

A collection of short stories. Started in summer of 2008, got halfway through, enjoyed immensely but put it down and went on to others.
Now finished the last half in one go, tonight, August 7 2009. And I wonder what took me so long to come back to it. My god he is a wonderful and effortless writer. He has a gift, and he gives it to us. ( )