Rating: 
Summary: A beautiful read - Unravelling journey to the past
Review: "Dirt Music" is more than just a story about a tangled relationship between Georgie Jutland, Jim Buckridge and Luther Fox, it's also a journey to uncover the ghosts of their past. It's a story that is well-written by Tim Winton, without being too artificial or too practical. Sensitive without being soppy; practical without being mechanical.Through the bleak landscape of Western Australia, we learn that protagonists also have weaknesses and the 'bad' guys also have their own reasons to behave the way they do. This is the reason why I can identify with the characters and understand the way they behave. Having lived in Australia for some years also makes me recognize the 'aussieness' of this novel - it seeps through every sentence that is written: how the locals are afraid of the Asian invasion; how men are suppposed to be men; and many more little themes that are included within the novel. The book is also seasoned with Australian cheekiness and humour which makes it a delight to read - however, that doesn't mean that the book is a trivial read. Tim Winton brings us to scenes and makes us breathe in the surrounding, stand and witness whatever that is happening in the following pages. I heartily recommend this book to those who want to visit Western Australia, and to read how each character deals with the ghosts of their past. A great read - full stop.
Rating:
Summary: A beautiful read - Unravelling journey to the past
Review: "Dirt Music" is more than just a story about a tangled relationship between Georgie Jutland, Jim Buckridge and Luther Fox, it's also a journey to uncover the ghosts of their past. It's a story that is well-written by Tim Winton, without being too artificial or too practical. Sensitive without being soppy; practical without being mechanical. Through the bleak landscape of Western Australia, we learn that protagonists also have weaknesses and the 'bad' guys also have their own reasons to behave the way they do. This is the reason why I can identify with the characters and understand the way they behave. Having lived in Australia for some years also makes me recognize the 'aussieness' of this novel - it seeps through every sentence that is written: how the locals are afraid of the Asian invasion; how men are suppposed to be men; and many more little themes that are included within the novel. The book is also seasoned with Australian cheekiness and humour which makes it a delight to read - however, that doesn't mean that the book is a trivial read. Tim Winton brings us to scenes and makes us breathe in the surrounding, stand and witness whatever that is happening in the following pages. I heartily recommend this book to those who want to visit Western Australia, and to read how each character deals with the ghosts of their past. A great read - full stop.
Rating: 
Summary: Great writers want to be able to write as well as Tim Winton
Review: "What's it about?", I'm asked after a friend hears me give a low whistle of appreciation while reading, Dirt Music. Umm...well, it's set in Australian townships...rather gritty...a love story is involved...Something called an Ute rolls over...I think that's a vehicle and it's a tremendous tragedy... Lookit...I can only recommend picking it up and reading it for yourself. Winton writes so bloody well, his book doesn't need a plot. Now, I know that doesn't sound too promising and indeed, rather odd, however, let me ask others readers this question. Have you read as many books as I have that possess a magnificent story line only to leave you groaning in parts where the author's writing just isn't worth the effort to read? Oh, please...just read this book like you're listening to music. Don't try real hard. Winton does all the work. It's not a tidy story. It's music.
Rating:
Summary: booker for sure
Review: a poet pretending to be a novelist. the plot is lean but not the point. the descriptions of the loneliness of western australia fishing communities resonates.if this does not win the booker-impossible
Rating: 
Summary: well written but not my cup of tea...
Review: A well crafted and intelligent novel but do be warned. The text is thick and dense, the sign of a confident author, but often at the expense of story, a trait I value highly. Also, it is a brave move to populate a book with unlikeable characters. Not a good move though, as you end up not caring what happens to them and I was hoping one of them would hurry up and die so that the story could move along. A lot of people will really like this, but if you want a good story told well then avoid.
Rating:
Summary: "Woman overboard!"
Review: Anyone suggesting yet another book about "the eternal triangle" would normally be sent packing. When the name "Tim Winton" graces the cover, however, a pause to reconsider inevitably follows. Winton's ability to draw characters and evoke imagery has few peers, and he doesn't disappoint here. That the theme is as old as literature and well shopworn fails to erode the quality of how Winton presents it. The triangle here looks a bit unstable - two long, extended sides reaching from a narrow base. The two major sides are Georgie Jutland and Lu Fox. The base is Jim Buckridge, firm and strong in his Western Australian seaside community. His role as base gives him more presence in this unusual tale than might be expected. Winton gives him more presence than ink. Georgie has been looking for a strong foundation, both emotionally and geographically. She's been in Arabia, America, the West Pacific, all the while seeking some unrecognized resting place. And someone to rest with. Jim's position in the town, his successful fishing operation, and the family stability of two sons [he's a widower] seemed ideal to Georgie. She's been with him for three years, and the ideal image has washed away with the tides. Georgie feels she's on the deep sea - "overboard . . . with nowhere to swim." Itching to leave, yet with nowhere to run, any excuse becomes plausible. The reason she finds is perfectly convincing to her, yet seems specious to anyone not suffering her malaise of spirit. She needs "somewhere to swim," but her sense of direction is missing. The only buoy to grasp couldn't be a worse choice. It's Lu Fox, the town's blacksheep. Fox, among his other failings, is a poacher. In a fishing community there could be no worse label. Fox also carries an overwhelming burden of grief. That burden is tempered by his needs, which Georgie, alone in the village, perceives almost immediately. Her discovery comes too late as Lu's poaching is revealed and retribution is taken. Lu, in a way possible only in Australia, "goes bush." He disappears from White Point and very nearly from human ken. The loss forces Georgie into decisions about her life, and this time, with unexpected support, she pursues them with vigour. Winton's powers of imagery and imagination are outstanding. A multi-prize winner, he has justifiably earned an elevated place in the pantheon of current writers. He captures the minds, hearts, lives of his characters with unerring talent. We follow his matchless depictions with a mix of sympathy, horror and fascination. The story is skillfully woven around them. While they may seem out of control at points, Winton guides us through the shoals of their disordered lives like a storm-tossed pilot. The effect demonstrates his surety at conveying feelings of many types and expressions. These are not "simple" seaside folk - their lives, no matter how imaginary, bear telling. Winton has told their stories, for there is more than one, or even three, here, each in their individual voice. It takes a special talent to shift writing styles within a story without losing the reader. As with any Winton book, this one is worthy of repeated reading. Add it to your library.
Rating:
Summary: This book will be with me for a long time
Review: By a stroke of luck I stumbled onto Dirt Music at the library. What a find. Winton's writing is concise but rich; true and real. Exploring selfishness, regret, grief, loyalty and betrayal, the novel is, at its core, a love story - caked in the red dirt of the western Australian badlands. When I hear what I now know to be "dirt music", I think of Georgie and Lu.
Rating:
Summary: Good story, obscure language
Review: Despite the lavish critical praise heaped on "Dirt Music", one of last year's Booker nominees, I can't say that I enjoyed it. The problem doesn't lie with the story but with Winton's language which others may find poetic and lyrical, but just seems jarring and obscure to me. His characters spit out half sentences, phrases, punctuated by local slang and references that nobody unfamiliar with the Australian outback will be able to understand.
Notwithstanding, "Dirt Music" has a decent story going about two people, one unhappy and listless in a loveless marriage, the other strung out and catatonic with grief after a car accident which wipes out his entire family, how they ignited the last spark of life in each other when their paths crossed one day, with devastating consequences. Damaged people recognise and are drawn like magnets to each other, Winton seems to be saying.
Surprisingly, Georgie and Lu share very little page space. Whereas Georgie's past and character is revealed in words, Winton relies on language and imagery to express Lu's situation, which lies buried beneath his deep freeze reserve. Lu's solitary flight into the wilderness may be key to the story but it goes on for far too long and becomes interminable. The Georgie chapters are far more satisfying.
Not as good as "The Riders". Disappointing.
Rating:
Summary: A Wild Ride
Review: Dirt Music is a wild ride -- a story of love, death, the mess people make of their lives, and their redemption through love. It is essentially the love story of Georgie Jutland and Luther Fox: Georgie, on the verge of alcoholism and finding herself in an unsure relationship with a widower named Jim and his two boys; Lu, the survivor of a world of death (everyone he loved has died in ghastly, gory ways) terrified of the thought that he is cursed, that anyone he loves will meet a horrible fate. The other characters are just as dodgy but only Jim (who, in his desire for his own redemption, seeks to help Georgie discover herself, even at the cost of their relationship) is drawn with any of the detail with which Georgie and Lu are delineated. These rough characters exist in a rough landscape: Western Australia, somewhere north of Perth, in a fishing town where most of the locals (who are literally White Pointers) have become rich from harvesting lobster but still maintain their frontier ways, often solving disputes with shotguns. Georgie is a blow-in, unsure of how she ended up living in this wild west town; Lu is a local but he's an outcast in a town of outcasts. He plays the dobro but, after the grim fate of his music-playing family, he is afraid of the psychic pain returning to music might give him so he makes a living poaching fish and crustaceans from his fellow townsfolk - a dangerous game in this unforgiving place.
Through this landscape, and the even harsher landscape of the Kimberley, the love story (it would be too banal to call it a romance) of these two is played out. The novel is a genuine page-turner and a quick read, partly because of the effortless prose and partly because we can't wait to see what happens next -- in that sense it's full of suspense as well, almost like a thriller/mystery. The dialogue is both sharp and blunt at the same time and only occasionally strays into unbelievability. The characters speak in metaphors laced with morbid and acerbic wit, to cover their real emotions:
"She's on the way out, son. Cancer of the bowel. Like it's goin outta fashion ... I'm for circlin the wagons and takin every pill and poison they give her but she wants to go out with her boots on, give it the big Up Yours. You know, blaze of glory. Wants to drive into the eye of the storm sorta thing."
The novel's climax is in the extreme northern country, where Lu escapes after he is nearly killed by redneck White Pointers. Georgie and Jim follow and try to find this lone, dazed, half-mad figure hiding in the wilderness. The ending is cataclysmic and I won't tell you whether Lu's curse is played out again .. you'll have to read the book for yourself and get deep into the world of Tim Winton, a genuinely original Aussie voice.
Rating:
Summary: To linger over
Review: Fox is the social outcast of a small village in Western Australia, a poacher, and the sole survivor of his ill fated family. Georgie is a social outcast from middle class Australia who crashlands in this small fishing village after forays to far lands that have not delivered her from her troubles. They both are adrift, they have their own journeys to make, and at some point their journeys intersect. Dirt Riders is a portrayal of a particular way of life at the ragged edges of western civilization. All human frailties are here, in this small village. Violence and racism and ignorance are all here. Yet there is a freedom here that one can find only far from the concrete cities and malls, the freedom of a small faraway place, where the stars still shine in their abundant glory, where you catch your own food and heal your own wounds. The landscape embraces it all - the sea, the sand dunes, the mangroves, the baobabs, the rivers, the red rocks. As I was reading, I could feel the ocean breeze stirring up from the pages of the book, I could see the lagoon shimmering in the heat, I could taste the dust and the salt. And that is the wonder of this book. With short and pithy descriptions, it is both lyrical and simple. Though it is slow going at times, this is a book to savour, to linger over, it is a book you do not wish to part from. If you have ever sought out the remote places, where the people are few and the dunes last forever, you will love this book.
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