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Winner of The Miles Franklin Literary Award, The Christina Stead Award, WA Premier's Book of the Year, Book Data/ABA Book of the Year Award, Goodreading Award-Readers Choice Book of the Year Set in the dramatic landscape of Western Australia, Dirt Music tells the story of Luther Fox, a broken man who makes his living as an illegal fisherman--a shamateur. Before everyone in his family was killed in a freak rollover, Fox grew melons and counted stars and loved playing his guitar. Now, his life has become a "project of forgetting." Not until he meets Georgie Jutland, the wife of White Point's most prosperous fisherman, does Fox begin to dream again and hear the dirt music--"anything you can play on a verandah or porch," he tells Georgie, "without electricity." Like the beat of a barren heart, nature is never silent. Ambitious and perfectly calibrated, Dirt Music resonates with suspense, emotion, and timeless truths.
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Review:
Arguably one of the finest of all Australian novelists, Tim Winton shows that he remains on top mid-season form with Dirt Music, a wistful, charged, ardent novel of female loss and amatory redemption. The setting is Winton’s favourite: the thorn-bushed, sheep-farmed, sun-punished boondocks of Western Australia. The cast is limited but spirited: the two chief protagonists are a fortysomething adoptive mother with a vodka problem called Georgie Jutland, and a brooding, feral, bushwhacking poacher, Luther Fox.
Review:
The plot is something else altogether: an elegantly wearied, cleverly finessed mutual odyssey, that opts to follow the sometimes intertwining, sometimes diverging lives of poor Georgie and Luther, as they try to deal with the odd alliance they comprise, as well as the complex and fractured lives they want to leave behind. The way Georgie deals with her unwitting inheritance of two dissatisfied adopted kids is particularly touching, poignant, and well written.
Best of all, though, is the prose. Somehow it manages to be simultaneously juicy and dry, like a desert cactus. This is especially true when Winton touches on the scented harshness of the Down Under outback: "the music is jagged and pushy and he for one just doesn’t want to bloody hear it, but the outbursts of strings and piano are as austere and unconsoling as the pindan plain out there with its spindly acacia and red soil". This is a wise and accomplished novel. --Sean Thomas
"Mr Winton's prose is irresistible." (The New York Times Book Review)
"Winton is not a great Australian novelist; he is a great novelist, full stop." (The Times)
"A terrific novel. Winton's best yet." (Kirkus Reviews)
"Winton keeps writing fiction that makes the novel feel alive to a continent of possibilities." (Evening Standard)
"Literary fiction from a highly respected Australian novelist. Shortlisted for the 2002 Booker Prize. A novel of lives stifled by grief and regret, set in the wild landscape of Western Australia. Written in seemingly effortless prose that never puts a foot wrong." (The Sunday Times)
"Georgie Jutland, a risk-taker who drinks too much, is almost happy living with widowed lobsterman Jim Buckridge. Then she meets Luther Fox, a former musician who makes his living as an illegal fisherman. When Luther runs to Australia's tropical wilderness to escape trouble, Georgie follows. What then takes place is an unusual love story by one of Australia's most distinguished novelists. Suzi Dougherty offers a nice range of Australian voices, which help color the characters' words. Her relaxed "cocktail-time" style perfectly suits the moody story. Well done." (AudioFile Magazine)
"As a reader, what I love about Winton's books are his characters. Flawed, complex, and very human, they make the story for me in all of his books. Listening to an audio version of Dirt Music, I found myself focusing on the dialogue, which is plain and circumspect. As a result, it took a lot longer for me to engage with the book when listening than it ever has when reading. In the end, however, the audio version was incredibly powerful. When you're riding on a suburban train on a dark Melbourne autumn night, the evocation of Winton's hot, dry, windy Western Australia―as told through Suzi Dougherty's incredible narration―is so powerful. I found myself slitting my eyes against the sun in the middle of the night and waiting until the last possible minute to switch the iPod off and stop the book, just so I could snatch an extra few seconds of the story. Twelve hours seemed a huge time commitment in the beginning, but once I engaged with the narrative, the book just flew. Dougherty's Georgie Jutland is perfectly voiced and her narration captures the other, very Australian, characters beautifully. Dirt Music would make a fantastic accompaniment to a driving holiday. 4 stars." (Australian Bookseller+Publisher)
"Winton is not a great Australian novelist; he is a great novelist, full stop." (The Times)
"A terrific novel. Winton's best yet." (Kirkus Reviews)
"Winton keeps writing fiction that makes the novel feel alive to a continent of possibilities." (Evening Standard)
"Literary fiction from a highly respected Australian novelist. Shortlisted for the 2002 Booker Prize. A novel of lives stifled by grief and regret, set in the wild landscape of Western Australia. Written in seemingly effortless prose that never puts a foot wrong." (The Sunday Times)
"Georgie Jutland, a risk-taker who drinks too much, is almost happy living with widowed lobsterman Jim Buckridge. Then she meets Luther Fox, a former musician who makes his living as an illegal fisherman. When Luther runs to Australia's tropical wilderness to escape trouble, Georgie follows. What then takes place is an unusual love story by one of Australia's most distinguished novelists. Suzi Dougherty offers a nice range of Australian voices, which help color the characters' words. Her relaxed "cocktail-time" style perfectly suits the moody story. Well done." (AudioFile Magazine)
"As a reader, what I love about Winton's books are his characters. Flawed, complex, and very human, they make the story for me in all of his books. Listening to an audio version of Dirt Music, I found myself focusing on the dialogue, which is plain and circumspect. As a result, it took a lot longer for me to engage with the book when listening than it ever has when reading. In the end, however, the audio version was incredibly powerful. When you're riding on a suburban train on a dark Melbourne autumn night, the evocation of Winton's hot, dry, windy Western Australia―as told through Suzi Dougherty's incredible narration―is so powerful. I found myself slitting my eyes against the sun in the middle of the night and waiting until the last possible minute to switch the iPod off and stop the book, just so I could snatch an extra few seconds of the story. Twelve hours seemed a huge time commitment in the beginning, but once I engaged with the narrative, the book just flew. Dougherty's Georgie Jutland is perfectly voiced and her narration captures the other, very Australian, characters beautifully. Dirt Music would make a fantastic accompaniment to a driving holiday. 4 stars." (Australian Bookseller+Publisher)
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- PublisherPicador
- Publication date2002
- ISBN 10 0330363239
- ISBN 13 9780330363235
- BindingHardcover
- Rating
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