The Riders

This novel follows a rough blue collar Aussie and his 7 year-old daughter as they travel around Europe in search of his wife who appears to have abandoned them shortly after they relocate to rural Ireland.

I really like Winton's writing (here and in other novels). Very atmospheric and also very male. I liked but didn't love the story. I wanted to get more Ireland and less Greece I think. And though I think Jennifer is a total POS for leaving her kid, I can't say I blame her for leaving Skully. I didn't find him very likable or appealing. Billie was weirdly written as a character. Far too mature for a 7 year old. Still a good book. Lots of angles worth pondering and discussing.

This was my first Winton & it was really good! This story draws you in sentence by sentence & before you know it, you're halfway through the book.
Scully is renovating an old house in Ireland, eagerly awaiting the arrival of his wife & his daughter from Australia. Finally the day comes & he's at the airport but when the plane arrives, only his daughter, Billie embarks.
This is the story of a man coming undone & dragging Billie through Europe to find his wife. I loved Tim's descriptions eg, 'being brained with Celtic history' (a rock from an old castle) or how about ' mist hung on him like a bedwetter's blanket'. In some ways the story is really uncomfortable as we see Scully's madness, grief & finally his resignation when he realises show more Jennifer doesn't want to be found. In other ways it's absolutely infuriating as we watch Scully drag Billie into some horrific situations (& sometimes some downright dangerous ones). I loved watching Billie's character unfolding as she realises her Dad doesn't really know what he's doing & finally takes control of the situation herself. All in all, Winton's prose makes an awful topic completely compelling that I couldn't help but love. show less

I love the way Winton describes the struggles of people with such realism and honesty and the way he places them in landscapes and settings which match or enhance that honesty. This book did not let me down in this regard. I was however disappointed with the ending. Where is the redemption and hope? It was too bleak and pointless.

I first read this in 1996 and really enjoyed it. On rereading, I found it overwritten in parts and Scully annoying. Challenging, dark, emotional, reflective, sad, tense.

I like Winton's style of writing: clean and direct and excellent, powerful powers of description. I liked this book because I liked the main character, Scully and his daughter, Billie. And I liked the way that we learn about Scully's wife, Jennifer although we never actually see her; we learn about her through straws in the wind that Scully recalls when he tries to figure out why she has abandoned him and Billie with no warning, and through actions described by others.

This is a story about the corrosive impact of obsession on a relationship, even when that obsession is in a sense benign and manifests itself in Scully's undying, uncritical, uncomplaining devotion to Jennifer and her unsuccessful attempts to make a name for herself as a show more writer or painter. Scully has a heart of gold, a wonderful relationship with his daughter, and an ability to take life as it comes, to find odd jobs at any turn, or just to savour the life of sun and fishing on a Greek island; a man who looks rough and who doesn't really fit into the upper, artistic society that attracts Jennifer, but who doesn't fit in a neutral sort of way: he is simply who he is and has no need to apologize or to try to curry favour. This is not enough for Jennifer, but Scully doesn't realize it.

On their way back to Australia, the three of them visit Ireland, fall in love (at least Jennifer does, or seems to) with an old rundown farmhouse and buy it. Scully (who had been looking forward enormously to going back to Australia) stays in Ireland to begin fixing-up the house. Jennifer and Billie return to Australia to sell the house and move everything to Ireland, but when Scully goes to Shannon airport, only Billie emerges. Billie has been so traumatized by the experience of her mother sending her on alone from Heathrow, that she cannot speak for days, and in fact even to the end of the book we do not learn what actually happened in the airport, what Jennifer must have said to Billie. This sets in train the series of events that comprise the rest of the book: Scully's wild search for Jennifer, first back to Greece where they had, he thought, been happy, then to France, Holland, and finally back again to Ireland, the quest unfulfilled, and unfulfillable. At the end, Scully realizes that it is unattainable. He has a chance to catch an enigmatic figure, who might be Jennifer, but he slips and then, "He scrabbled hopelessly for a few seconds and then gave up. It was simple. He just desisted and listened in bitter relief to the sound of those boots ringing upward in the mist.... It was in him to get up, he had the will, the sheer idiot stubbornness in him to do it, he knew but he heard the clonk of furniture beneath him and the flicker of light and it was enough to lie there alive in the cold and feel the hawser against his face."

And who or what are the riders? These ghostly figures whom Scully first sees in Ireland down from his house, around the old castle, on steaming horses, oblivious to his presence, staring ahead at the castle as if waiting for a command. He hears them in his dreams. And the book ends with he and Billie among them where Billie sees that "he looked like one of them...waiting, battered, disappointed". For these are the spirits who have lived through hopes and dreams now lost, crushed, and trampled, after which the riders have no life, no hope, and cannot look within for guidance and direction. But Scully will not be one of them: "He knew them now and he saw that they would be here very night seen and unseen, patient, dogged, faithful in allweathers and all worlds, waiting for something promised, something that was plainly their due, but he knew that as surely as he felt Billie tugging on him, curling her fingers in his and pulling him easily away, that he would not be among them and must never be, in life or death." So Scully emerges from his ordeal bruised, battered, but strengthened by lifting his life to a new plane where he can live it for himself. show less

**MILD SPOILERS**

As a dutiful Australian I am trying to like Tim Winton's work, but I'm just not *getting it*. Don't get me wrong - he actually writes beautifully and you can visualise his scenes and his characters with little effort. With respect to this book, however, my question is - why would you want to?

Apparently deserted by his wife, a grief stricken Fred Scully sets off on a totally illogical and ill planned trip across (seemingly) every country they ever visited, in the hope of somehow finding her. Suspicious to the point of paranoia, he accuses, abuses and/or argues with every former friend or acquaintance he encounters, while becoming increasingly desperate and irrational in his behaviour. If this alone isn't sufficient to show more make him both pitiful and objectionable, he has in tow his 6 year old daughter for whom, despite claims of an incredible bond between them, he shows little regard. As the story unfolds and Scully's alcohol consumption increases and mental state deteriorates, she gradually takes on more and more responsibility for both his physical and emotional care, showing a level of wisdom and maturity that simply was not credible in a traumatised 6 year old. By two thirds of the way through this book I found myself just hoping it would end soon - then all of a sudden it does. No resolution, no explanation, just an ending that leaves you wondering why you bothered.

While I found the only other Tim Winton book I have read (Cloudstreet) somewhat more enjoyable and entertaining than this one, I am begining to suspect he is not the author for me. I have one more of his novels in my TBR pile, but unless it has significantly more redeeming features than did this one, I will be giving up on Mr Winton. show less

This is a tremendously well written story of a “perfect” life which suddenly evaporates. Scully is the father of Billie, a precocious seven year old, and husband of Jennifer. Scully is repairing and renovating an Irish cottage which the family saw while on vacation and Jennifer fell in love with. Scully has left his beloved Australia and is working on the house while Jennifer and Billie are selling their house in Australia. The first half of the book is told from Scully’s POV, and he tells us that he loves his wife and daughter, and that he would do anything for them. He explains his special relationship with Billie, who is much closer to her father than her mother. While awaiting his reunion with his family, Scully meets a few of show more his neighbors, some of whom are very entertaining, and begins to bond with them. When the Australian house is sold Jennifer sends Scully a telegram giving him the date and time of their arrival.

On the appointed day, only Billie steps off the plane to greet Scully, and she’s obviously experienced some form of shock (which has rendered her speechless) at the abandonment of her mother. Jennifer has left no note of explanation, so Scully is floundering, trying to understand what happened, where she’s gone, and why. Scully waits a few days to see if Jennifer will contact him, and then he takes Billie and begins the search for her. Their travels take them to Greece, Italy, and Holland and in each place Scully is confronted with more questions and frustrations. While on their travels, the narration shifts between Billie and Scully. In Billie we’re given a character who is old beyond her years, but sometimes still a child. With two exceptions, she handles their tribulations stoically and calmly and, as Scully begins to unravel, she assumes a “mother” role.

I felt a great deal of sympathy for the absent character, Jennifer, who becomes the elephant in the living room. She is pitiable as a woman who probably feels confined in a life that isn’t what she wants. She dreams of achieving fame, but doesn’t possess the talent. As Scully says, she’s good at many things, but she wants to be a genius. Unfortunately, she seems incapable of any realization of her failure. She surrounds herself with friends and teachers who are much more talented, some of whom laugh at her behind her back for her deficiencies and blindness. Her future will surely be a series of great disappointments and she will waste years (perhaps to the end) pursuing a fantasy life.

I have a book of Winton’s short stories and look forward to reading it. show less