Breath by Tim Winton
In his latest novel Breath, Tim Winton returns to Angelus, the fictional area in coastal south Western Australia. The setting is a small logging town on the coast and the time is the1970’s. The novel’s main character, Pikelet, is a young surfer devoted to riding the waves. One summer he and his mate Loonie meet the charismatic Sando who introduces the boys to a series of secret breaks with more and more improbable waves. Winton’s evocative language creates a sense of time and place–the surfing culture and a young man’s risk-taking during his transition to manhood, that is immediate. Highly recommended.
Mrs Chrisfield
July 29th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
I found the intensity created by Winton’s prose quite stunning. Throughout the book there is a palpable sense of impending menace, although in the end Pikelet’s life-changing damage comes from an unexpected source. I think this is Winton’s best work to date.