CLOUDSTREET BY TIM WINTON

I finished! Yay! Here's the review, including features you will see in other reviews.

Cloudstreet by Tim Winton is a huge, epic novel about the lives of two families, the Pickles and the Lambs as they live together in one big house, which is actually called Cloudstreet (hence the name of the book). Both families have come out of tragedy in the countryside to start their new lives in Perth. The families are both complex and fairly dysfunctional, with relationship breakdowns, affairs, and fights frequently occuring. But the families also overcome differences and change the lives of each other and of the entire community.

The book is divided up into big sections, numbered with Roman numerals, and within those sections small headings divide up the rest of the text. These small sections are anything from a few sentences to pages long, which making understanding the plot slightly easier.

One of the hardest things about the book is just how many characters and plot lines there are, which is one of the reasons I made my family representation video, to help others who read it keep track of which family the characters belong to (and to help me).

Some characters have bigger roles than others, for example, out of the kids, Fish and Quick from the Lamb family play a much bigger role than their sisters, and Rose Pickles is a much more important character than her brothers.

Overall, the book was masterfully written and sophisticated in its character development, but personally, the book did not REALLY appeal to me. I found it interesting, but not gripping, and I had no trouble putting it down. I appreciate that it is a great piece of literature, but I felt that I would have preferred a shorter story, rather than one stretched over 20 years. That being said, the book did have a natural ending, and it felt like it ended at a good time with not too many loose ends. Even while writing this review I found myself becoming more and more appreciative of just how hard the book would have been to write and how amazing a writer Tim Winton is.

Butterflies (which are like stars but for this blog): 6 out of 10
Recommended for people: aged 15 and over and with patience and a good appreciation of the triumph of writing that this book is.
Warnings: lots of sex, quite a bit of violence, lots of swearing. Not for the easily offended or anyone younger than about 15. This is a book for adults, not for kids.

Overall, I would recommend this book to another person, if they were the right sort of person.