Tim Winton - Juice (Picador, 2024) ****

Set in a dystopian future, somewhere in Australia, a man and a girl are being held captive by an armed man, and locked up underground in a former mine. The man has to explain, to justify who he is in order to persuade his captor to let them live. The book tells the story of the man, like a modern-day Sheherazade, trying to persuade their captor, story after story to extend the time they have to live, or to be convincing enough to be released. As a consequence, this is a thick book. 

The environment plays a key role as backdrop: the world is scorched, people have to live underground for half the year to avoid the blisters they get from the sun, while cultivating their land and collecting water for the other half of the year to be able to survive. The environment is harsh, and so are the people. They distrust one another, they trade out of necessity, and strangers are always suspect and risk to rob you of all your belongings. 

The narrator gets recruited by The Service, a vague and secret organisation that keeps order and attacks the few oligarchs and corporate dynasties who live in all unimaginable wealth in self-constructed hidden places and palaces. The attacks are a kind of retribution, an act of vengeance for the world they destroyed.

The world is brutal, harsh, violent. Even his relationship with his mother is one of distance and secrecy, despite the fact that they live together. His relationship with his partner is also transactional more than a relationship of love. 

Even if the destruction of our environment is the theme of the book, its reflection on human interaction, on social and psychological consequences are as important. 

You may say that the subject is not very original, that many other books and movies cover the same subject, and that is of course true, but Winton's approach is sufficiently disconcerting, unique and compelling to stand out in this long list of dystopian literature. Winton writes with power, in a style that reflects the experience and the personality of the narrator. Like his almost voiceless captor, you wonder whether or not he is telling the truth, whether all the details he provides are invented or real, whether all his efforts to work for The Service have actually happened or not. 

And maybe that is the most interesting part of the novel. You have to listen and assess what's being said. Like the captor, you know the narrator has an agenda, one that must make him the good guy, so that he can hope to live in the end. 

Up to you to decide whether you keep him alive or not. 

Tim Winton - The Shepherd's Hut (Picador, 2018) ****

 

I think this is the sixth novel I read by Tim Winton and it's an easy one to recommend. 

It's the story of an adolescent who runs away from home after both his parents died, to find refuge in the outback, and encountering a kind of elderly hermit living in a shack in the middle of nowhere. Both men have nowhere to go, and secrets they do not wish to share. 

The novel brings to live the hesitant exploration of human nature through two individuals who met by chance. As usual, Winton's style and tone are amazing: told in the language of the boy, direct, like a long internal monologue, describing with feeling and anger every single thing he does or sees or is the victim of. This lyrical power is sustained throughout the novel, and drives the limited action. Nothing much happens and yet it is a page-turner. 

"Mum said school mighta been different for me if I only give a damn. Maybe it was wasted on me like the teachers said. I didn't have any philosophy in me then, so I didn't know what to listen for .. Most of it was pointless crap. Don't reckon I met a single wise person all the years I stayed but like I say, I wasn't paying close attention. And the thing is I miss it a bit. That's something I never thought I'd hear myself say. I didn't know what I was, what I could do. Except the lame things I did do. But shit was always being done to me, every single day, and sooner or later you figure you should be the one doing unto others. So by Year Four kids were scared of me. And I spose I liked that. By the time I got to Dally District High they thought I was a psycho. Which suited me fine." 

Winton's main characters are usually young people with limited power and in vulnerable situations, struggling to find their place in their community and the world.  The world is a harsh and cruel place, but with space for feelings, and deep spiritual questions too. 

Recommended!

Tim Winton - That Eye The Sky (Penguin, 1986) ***

 I have read several novels by Tim Winton that I really appreciated, and so I read this one too. It is the story of a young boy, Ort Flack, whose father becomes the victim of a car accident, and who now lives in their house, paralysed, and not aware of what's happening to him. The family gets the unexpected support from a religious man who helps out and moves into the house. From the perspective of the young man, the situation is both incomprehensible as welcome. He no longer understands his mother, nor his grandmother, who increasingly withdraws within herself, and least of all his older sister who lives in a permanent state of anger. 

As usual, Winton's writing is strong, and he manages to create a very sophisticated novel full of ambiguity and shifting loyalties. 

If you're interested, I can easily recommend "Cloud Street", "Breath" and "Dirt Music" by Winton. 

Tim Winton - Breath (Picador, 2008) ****

Nederlandse titel : Adem

Tim Winton is zonder enige twijfel één van de betere Australische schrijvers van het moment. Deze roman gaat over Pikelet, een jongetje dat zich wil losrukken van de benepen houding van zijn ouders en omgeving, op zich geen uitzonderlijk thema, ware het niet dat de zoektocht naar menselijke warmte en een ruimere zingeving gepaard gaat met een zoektocht naar het extreme risico om deel uit te maken van een groep, om respect te kunnen krijgen van de mensen naar wie hij opkijkt. Dit is een boek over surfen, zoals je er waarschijnlijk geen twee zal vinden. De stijl van Winton is direct, gevoelig en aangrijpend. Prachtig.