Publisher: Hamish Hamilton (Penguin) 2008 Whatever you think about Winton, this is a review worth reading because it’s rare to find one from someone who didn’t ‘do’ Winton at school, or ‘love’ Cloudstreet. But Rough Ghost reads Winton with a freshness that respects what he has done in Breath. Perhaps Winton has, for some of us, become a victim of his own success and because we’ve read everything he’s written we want something new. PS (September 2014, five years later) I’ve just come across this thoughtful review from someone new to Winton. I know I’m going to be howled down by everyone for this dismissive review – try not to be too cross, dear readers!
He has written his own spoiler in the opening chapter (and he does it again on p157) because it is so obvious that the world-weary Bruce regrets the loss of a risk-taking friend, and it just becomes a matter of guessing which one it will turn out to be. It doesn’t take long before it’s also quite obvious where Winton is going with the theme of adolescent experimentation with risky behaviour and how it links up with Aaron’s death. There are long sections about the joys and perils of surfing, which I am soooooooooo not interested in. Instead we have the nostalgic boys-own-adventure story of Bruce and his mate Looney, who spend their adolescence chasing one risk after another, egged on by their guru Sando. The only interesting character is the ambulance paramedic from chapter one who disagrees with his colleague about suicide as the cause of Aaron’s death – and Bruce the Adult vanishes from the story. Why are all his characters such depressing losers?īy about half way through this novel, I was fed up. It’s his business, I suppose, if he wants to be the Thomas Hardy of whatever Western Australian coastal small town he lives in, but I think that he is wasting his talent because he hasn’t travelled enough and he doesn’t seem to meet a diversity of people. I thought so when I read Dirt Music, and I thought it again when I read The Turning.
I think Winton needs to get out a bit more. Oh dear, what can I possibly write about Breath without invoking great angst and derision from his legion of devoted fans? It’s Tim Winton’s first book in seven years, Winton the Environmentalist is a hero to lovers of pristine coastlines, the book’s on the Miles Franklin shortlist (which he’s previously won three times) and there are long lyrical passages about surfing…
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