Cloudstreet by Tim Winton

As long as we have had storytellers, we have had stories about families--good families, bad families, absent families even. We don't all experience high adventure, existential anguish, or even romantic love, but we all experience family. We all have had a mother and a father, and someone who took care of us when we were helpless infants and children. We can all relate to the family story.

This is one of the best family stories I have read. It is the story of not just one family, but two: the Pickle family and the Lamb family, who share a huge, ramshackle house on Cloud Street in Perth, Australia, covering 20 years, from 1944 to 1964.

Sam Pickle, an inveterate gambler, has had a run of bad luck, having lost the fingers on his working hand in an accident. He has, however, inherited a large house, and he decides to rent half of it to help maintain his family of a wife, a daughter, and two sons. Enter the Lamb family, who have also suffered a tragedy--the near drowning of a son which left him brain damaged. The two parents and the six children rent half the house, and soon open a small grocery on the bottom floor. And the story begins.

This family story includes deaths, births, drunkenness, adultery, loss of faith, guilt, hate, love, and forgiveness--both forgiveness of others and forgiveness of self. It also includes ghosts, a talking pig, and a guardian angel. There's more than a touch of magic realism here. But that enhances the story, rather than detracting.

I think everyone could relate to at least one member of these two families. Quick Lamb says to his mother about the family, "Wierdos, Mum, flamin whakos." How many teenagers have felt that way about their parents? And then Quick says to his mother, "Let's face it, Mum....It's just that you're flamin bossy." I can certainly relate to that, because I happen to be "flamin bossy." I hope I can be forgiven, as this mother was.

A whole Course of Study of this novel could be written, including symbolism, use of opposition, etc., etc. But it's enough to say that it seems authentic and it's a damn good read.

Most highly recommended.