Let me say right from the start – this has to be Tim Winton’s best novel without a doubt.
Two families flee their rural livings to share a house in the Perth suburb of West Leederville. The two families are contrasts to each other; the Lambs find meaning in industry and in God’s grace; the Pickles, in luck. The Lambs’ God is a maker of miracles; the Pickles’ God is the ‘Shifty Shadow’ of fate. And so the story is unfolds all against post-world war II Australia.
As the back page synopsis states: "Cloudstreet a broken down house of former glories on the wrong side of the tracks, a place teeming with memories of its own, a place of shudders, shadows and spirits.
The Lambs and Pickles together roister and rankle in a divided house that begins as a roof over their heads and becomes a home for their hearts. In this novel full of wonder and dreams, the author weaves the threads of lifetimes, of 20 years of shouting and fighting, laughing and grafting, into a story about acceptance and belonging.
Reminiscent of the Merry-Go-round in the sea the novel is riddled with teasing slang, expressions unique to down under, and humor in the face of adversity and a much simpler Australia.
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