Search - Dirt Music

This is a novel about an unlikely triangle among damaged loners, inept at expressing their feelings and skillful at deceiving themselves with work, alcohol, and travel. Cool though I was about the characters, I found that the unhappy trio stayed on my mind between readings, not so much for their depth (they don’t have any) but out of keen curiosity as to their fates. Winton's descriptions turn out to be the main attraction. They capture the verdant tropical northern coast and the sea and desert and rednecky small towns of Western Australia. The writing recalled to my mind Patrick White's Voss not only for beautiful evocations of nature but the lack of idealism about it. That is, both White and Winton know that nature can set us free but it can also make short work of us. Like White, Winton snipes at suburbanites. This book was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2002 but it lost to Life of Pi. It did win the Miles Franklin Literary Award, two Western Australian Premier's Book Awards, and the NSW Premier's Literary Award. The movie starring Rachel Weisz as Georgie and Colin Farrell as Lu is to be released in 2009.

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.

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.

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.