ClOUDSTREET
By Tim Winton
The title, Cloudstreet, although a bit plain, couldn't be more appropriately named as everything that happens within the story revolves around the house nicknamed Cloudstreet. Winton sets this book around Perth, Western Australia, around the time of the second end of the Second World War over a span of twenty years. From reading other Winton novels it's easy to see that his part of the country has had a big impact on him and he has a strong affinity with his country and me being from the West makes it easy for me to relate to the novel. Winton uses words that only someone who has had the experience of growing up or living in country Western Australia would understand, for example he uses the word "boondie" which, if you had lived in country western Australia, is word used to describe a clump of hard sand and you use it to throw it at people, "boondie wars" and because he doesn't explain this to the reader it gave me a little smile on my face and made me feel I had some sort of relationship with the author.
East Perth, Western Australia.
Cloudstreet
English: Geraldton Marina, Western AustraliaBefore Chapter One opens there are about two pages of prologue. Winton sets the prologue on the bank of a river; a big happy family picnic is taking place in what he describes as a very picturesque scene, "Yachts run before an unfelt gust with bagnecked pelicans riding above them, the city their twitching backdrop, all blocks and points of mirror light down to the waters edge." The prologue is written from the view of a narrator though it was hard to figure that out, for in the first few lines it says, "will you look at us by the river!" this makes it sound like its written...