Binding: Digital
Format: HTML
Label: Midwest Book Review
Manufacturer: Midwest Book Review
Number Of Pages: 5
Publication Date: 2005-01-01
Publisher: Midwest Book Review
Release Date: 2005-07-13
Studio: Midwest Book Review

This digital document is an article from Reviewer's Bookwatch, published by Midwest Book Review on January 1, 2005. The length of the article is 1241 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The Turning.(Book Review)
Author: Magdalena Ball
Publication: Reviewer's Bookwatch (Newsletter)
Date: January 1, 2005
Publisher: Midwest Book Review
Page: NA

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Customer Rating:
Summary: Strangely compelling but depressing
Comment: I had heard a lot about this writer and this was my first foray into his work. I was immediately struck by the 'Australianness' of Winton's voice -that peculiar empty and isolated feeling, which brought to mind images and memories of my childhood in a very vivid way. The story-telling was compelling and masterful but the overall feeling was one of a complete and engulfing depression - so much so that it became a struggle to finish and when I did I was disinclined to seek out any more of his writing.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: A Very Thoughtful Collection
Comment: Some of the stories are only four star, and that says a lot about the standard to which I hold Tim Winton. "Only four star." I've been writing for years and publish three-star work sometimes. This collection, meanwhile, is five stars overall.

This is a collection of thought-provoking stories which are loosely linked, always excellent, always natural, never showy or forced, always observant, and a pure pleasure to read. He's such a gifted author that you're actually not always aware of how gifted he is.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Beautiful
Comment: If you are looking for writing that takes your breath away and stories that make you look deeply into yourself and your life and the lives of others, then read this book. You will not be disappointed.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Not always a fan but this book may be one of the finest collections
Comment: Sometimes Mr Winton seems to be straining to be profound riddling his books with impressive literary devices - or maybe I'm too dumb to recognise great art. But with THE TURNING he seems completely at ease and as a consequence the stories ring with a truth - an emotional and spiritual truth firmly set in a believable landscape. The title story about Raelene's physical and spiritual journey, is in the patois of we Australians - a ripper! Mr Winton's great contribution to world literature may indeed be the way in which he is liberating the Australian language and bringing the voice and stories of our caravan dwellers, fishermen, and other inhabitants of small town Australia - working and otherwise - to the fore.
The Lockie Leonard trilogy and THE TURNING I expect have joined or will be joining our collective memories much as Blinky Bill, Ginger Meggs and Voss already have.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Antics in Angelus
Comment: There's a special appeal to the "linked" short story collection. Although the same names and places appear, each is new with the next story. The desperate men, the battered wives, the confused and bewildered children. They interact in their own ways, coming together and breaking apart over the years. In the hands of a master storyteller like Winton, each tale is a spark of reality. Every individual comes almost startlingly alive in but a few pages. As the sequence unfolds through the view of the protagonist, you gain fresh insights on circumstances. Absolute values have no place here, a lesson most of us would do well to remember.

The tales are set in a coastal town in Western Australia. Angelus is a fishing community - often under stress from unemployment, it is a contained locale. Children grow up as neighbours, move through school together, and interact in almost wildly varying ways as they mature. There are mysteries - why was a boy left broken and battered on a beach? Who was the girl found dead in a school loo and how did she die? Who escaped the almost desolate town and how bound do they remain to it in later years? These are common situations and questions in a small town, and the economic pressures add intensity to the expected conditions we all endured in adolescence. It is a credit to Winton's outstanding prose skills that beauty emerges within this forlorn community. A coastal location always provides a sense of expanded view lacking in inland towns. Yet here, as almost everywhere in Australia, the desert looms as an ever-present menace, poorly understood and a block to escape even mountains fail to match.

Vic Lang, the character around whom these stories weave, emerges first as a young child at a beach party. His life is complex. While in school, a girl with a facial birthmark fascinates him, but that's not the girl he marries. His attachments are intense and sometimes offbeat. He takes up with "Boner" McPharlin [the term comes from his job in an abattoir], the Huckleberry Finn of his time and place. Totally without ambition, Boner's presence gives Vic a basis for comparison with his own life. It's a shaky foundation to launch into adulthood. Vic symbolises the small-town outlook with his sense of being under constant scrutiny. In "The Long, Clear View", Vic reflects on his life and how the town imposed so much of itself on his later life.

North American readers often balk at the "culture shock" of Australian conditions and language. Winton's deft touch softens the shock to what might be deemed a "culture tickle". His character portrayals and the manner in which he deals with the passage of time among what become familiar people, guide the reader effortlessly through some unfamiliar terms and conditions. What does "shoot through" mean? It has nothing to do with weapons. It means "escape" or "desertion" depending on the protagonist's viewpoint. A "jacaranda" turns out to be a tree, ugly when not blooming, but a stunning array of colour in the proper season. If a blossom falls on while walking underneath, it is said to be a sign of good luck. Does that happen in Angelus?

Winton's realistic view of people and events is at odds with much of today's literature. His voice, while grim and sometimes even bleak, doesn't overwhelm the reader with despair. His people aren't crushed by events, they remain battlers even in the most seemingly desperate circumstances. You must, however, traverse the entire sequence to understand how they accomplish that feat. While each story stands entirely on its own, like a brick-built building, they must all be taken together to perceive the entire stunning edifice. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

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