Dirt Music
by Tim Winton.
This is the second Tim Winton novel I have read, the first being That Eye, The Sky, which I reviewed here
I was really excited about reading this novel because I am such a fan of music but I was expecting there to be more music references than there ended up being. Still, there were some nice ones scattered throughout to give the landscape of Western Australia and the tragic events experienced in life and by the characters a bit of a soundtrack.
Tim Winton writes with just a bit of a lyric sense himself with the sort of flow that almost leaves you wondering what exactly is happening in the story until you are used to the way he meanders and describes things. The book alternates between two major perspectives, that of Georgie who chooses to have an affair and Lu Fox who she has the affair with. Winton follows them on their separate paths as we keep listening to Dirt Music, the music of sex and lust, loss, grief, and luck.
I have to say that this is the kind of book that doesn’t hit you completely at first but you find yourself thinking back to it. Kundera does the same thing to me. It’s almost too full of poetry to take in with one large gasp. You need a while to contemplate each character for a while.
(now playing: The Go-Betweens: The Friends of Rachel Worth.)