Helpful Score: 1
When I first started reading this, I was a little skeptical that it would be worth the read. It was filled with a lot of Australian slang and was a little hard to get into. However, the more I read, the more I got sucked into the story. Winton really has a way with language and descriptions. He makes you feel like you are stuck in the little Western Australia town of White Point. And in the later part of the novel, his descriptions of the Australian back country are marvelous. I did have to use the internet quite a bit to decipher some of the language (including some of the flora and fauna such as a"quoll" which is a small carnivorous marsupial) but it was worth the trouble. His characterizations are also more than memorable, including Georgie, Lu Fox and his tragic family history, Jim Buckridge - the "king" of White Point, and some of the lesser characters like Beaver, Horrie, and Bess. Some of the themes of the story are lost love, fear of being left by yourself, and overcoming flaws in your own personality. For example, Lu has lost everyone he loves and somehow must face the reality of his present situation. Winton is able to develop these themes beautifully.
Helpful Score: 1
Dirt Music was, in the simplest terms, a very fun book to read. Below the surface of the entertainment is some very well thought out characters. There is Georgie, the driving force of the plot who tends to have the feeling that something is missing in her life, though she is unsure what. There is Jim, a man with twisted and yet sensible logic who takes matters of pride as gravely serious matters. And finally, there is Lu, a man suffering from the loss of family and haunted by dirt music and memories. All three are lost people trying to find each other in their own ways, making the book not only fun to read but something the reader can easily relate to.
The story of Luther Fox who is trying to forget everything until he meets Georgie. Set in Western Australia. Starts slow, but you must finish. Twists and turns you don't expect.
This book was wonderful. Tim Winton made me feel as if I were in Australia. It was interesting to me to learn more about the landscape and people there.
First book of Winton's I've read and I don't know that I will read another. Thankfully, I got this through paperbackswap.com so it only cost me a book credit instead of real money. I had read a few chapters and was almost going to quit reading. Georgie is a 40-year old "burned out" nurse who has a history of drifting from man to man and isn't shy about having sex with them a day or so after meeting. Jim, the guy Georgie's been living with the past three years, initially seems to be a solid guy--has lived in the same town apparently most or all of his life and earns a good living. However, he's a closed off character and even though the reader learns a little more about him as the book progresses, it still doesn't seem to flesh Jim out. And Lu is an outcast and poacher. As the book unfolds, we learn more about the backgrounds of Lu and Georgie but even that didn't make me care about them. I also didn't understand the attraction between Lu and Georgie or Jim's sudden interest in trying to find Lu after Lu splits. Supposedly, Jim is looking for redemption but it really doesn't make sense. The ending definitely had an unexpected twist but I was still left wondering how the relationship of the three main characters would shake out.
The author has some writing talent (otherwise I'd probably give the book two stars) but at times I also found it annoying as far as his descriptions of things. He didn't use quotation marks when people were speaking. He often used incomplete sentences which can be effective, I'm sure, in some instances but I thought they were overused. There were times when one of the characters--primarily Lu--either had a dream or was just thinking of things that really had no relevance to the story.
The author has some writing talent (otherwise I'd probably give the book two stars) but at times I also found it annoying as far as his descriptions of things. He didn't use quotation marks when people were speaking. He often used incomplete sentences which can be effective, I'm sure, in some instances but I thought they were overused. There were times when one of the characters--primarily Lu--either had a dream or was just thinking of things that really had no relevance to the story.
