Minutes October Book: Breath by Tim Winton

Breath

by Tim Winton

(chosen by CH)




CH chose this book because she couldn't believe that over a ten year period, we hadn't read any books by Tim Winton before.


Tim Winton began his first novel, An Open Swimmer (1982), at the age of 19, while on a Creative Writing course at Curtin University, Perth. It won the Australian/Vogel National Literary Award, and he has since made his living as a full-time writer. He was born in Perth in 1960, and is the author of several novels for adults. Many of his books are set in his familiar landscapes of Western Australia. He has also written books for children and collections of short stories.

Breath is his most recent novel and was winner of the 2009 Miles Franklin Award.

Tim Winton been named a Living Treasure by the National Trust, and awarded the Centenary Medal for service to literature and the community. He has lived in Greece, France and Ireland, but has now settled in Western Australia with his family.

(General biographical details from here.)

What the publisher says about the book:

More than once since then I've wondered whether the life-threatening high jinks that Loonie and I and Sando and Eva got up to in the years of my adolescence were anything more than a rebellion against the monotony of drawing breath.

Breath is a story about the wildness of youth - the lust for excitement and terror, the determination to be extraordinary, the wounds that heal and those that don't - and about learning to live with its passing.

In his first novel for seven years, Tim Winton has achieved a new level of mastery. Breath confirms him as one of the world's finest storytellers, a writer of novels that are at the same time simple and profound, relentlessly gripping and deeply moving.

What we discussed about the book:

• The sense of place in Tim Winton’s writing. Is the location immediately recognisable? What makes it so distinctive?
• Was Eva a believable character?
• The impact of events in adolescence on the rest of your life.
• What was Pikelet looking for in the relationship with Sando and Loonie? Did he get it?
• Was the relationship between Eva and Pikelet abusive?
• Did Eva’s risk-taking replace the thrill of the risks of her extreme sport?
• In how many ways was ‘breath’ represented in this book: drowning, dreaming, hyperventilation, held-breath diving, sleep apnoea, asthma, didgeridoo playing, asphyxia, resuscitations, extracting oxygen from surf foam...
• Were some of these means of fighting the natural monotony of unconscious breathing? Was it a metaphor for pushing against the monotony of life?
• How did the non-use of quotation marks affect our reading of the book?
• In what ways did Pikelet’s surfing exploits make his feel ‘special’?
• Was the end of the book satisfactory?
• Were we at times holding our breath reading some of the surfing scenes?
• Is this a book which is more about mood than plot? The evocation of the senses? The notion of place?
• Did we feel we were on a wave in reading the book? How had Winton created that sensation?
• What was the purpose of the paramedic scenes? How did they enrich the plot?

And then we were sidetracked into:

• Is surfing the only thing that men do that is both elegant and pointless?
• How fabulous is the Panadol ad with the 70yo surfer man?
  How had the culture of surfing changed between the 1960s and the 1980s. And what about now?
• Why was there little mention of the mechanics of Eva and Pikelet’s relationship in any of the reviews of the book we read?
• What did we think of other endings to Tim Winton novels?
• Why are Tim Winton books so highly acclaimed? What makes a ‘great’ book in an award sense?

In other news:

• We sympathised with Elster over her foot injury and wished her a speedy recovery.
• We discussed the finer details of fructose malabsorbtion.

Ratings:
Ratings average: 7.45
Ratings range:6.5 to 8

Next book: The Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald (chosen by Elster)