Breath
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Review
'Winton's way with a breaking wave shows off all the springy dash of his action-laden prose. Yet, much as Pikelet adores the sea, what lends Breath its buzz is the kid's rite-of-passage rendezvous with love and sex.'
--Independent
--Independent
Review
A simple story effortlessly told, and deeply satisfying snapshot of growing up near the surf.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is the fourth Tim Winton novel I've read and is certainly as enjoyable as the likes of Cloudstreet, The Riders or Dirt Music. If anything, in each successive work Winton seems to further refine his amazing ability to write so sparsely and yet convey so much. In particular, the opening section of this novel lasts for just a few pages and yet immediately paints a devastating portrait which, when you stop to think about it, has mostly been painted by you in your own mind as it expanded on the brief but perfect promptings of the text. The mark of a master novelist.
The story takes place in an Australian coastal town dominated by its sawmill and not much else. Two bored teenagers become friends and then fall in with an older man who turns out to be a world-class surfer. As the narrative develops, there are numerous accounts of surfing adventures which, on the face of it, could grow tedious - and yet, once again, the precision with which Winton describes the moods of the ocean, and the exhiliration and danger experienced by those who seek out the big waves, leaves you with a very real picture.
It's almost like watching a movie and it builds to a tense climax and then cleverly brings you back to the beginning. I won't go into specifics as I don't want to spoil it for anybody. In short, this is one of those books that is hard to put down, which you live whilst you read it and which leaves you with a satisfying sense of having learnt something you can't define. Very, very good.
The story takes place in an Australian coastal town dominated by its sawmill and not much else. Two bored teenagers become friends and then fall in with an older man who turns out to be a world-class surfer. As the narrative develops, there are numerous accounts of surfing adventures which, on the face of it, could grow tedious - and yet, once again, the precision with which Winton describes the moods of the ocean, and the exhiliration and danger experienced by those who seek out the big waves, leaves you with a very real picture.
It's almost like watching a movie and it builds to a tense climax and then cleverly brings you back to the beginning. I won't go into specifics as I don't want to spoil it for anybody. In short, this is one of those books that is hard to put down, which you live whilst you read it and which leaves you with a satisfying sense of having learnt something you can't define. Very, very good.
44 of 48 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is the best book I've ever read about surfing. But apart from that, it's also a beautiful novel about how you grow up to be the person you are, and what experiences make you; and the descriptions of the natural landscape of Australia are gawpingly gorgeous.
Everything I found frustrating about Peter Carey's last book was made exactly right in this stunning book from Tim Winton. I already loved his writing on the basis of Dirt Music, where he was preoccupied with a coastal Australian town similar to Sawyer (I don't think the name can be an accident, as the book is all about boys' adventures). We hear the story from Pikelet's point of view, a lonely young boy on the fringes of growing up, who makes friends with a bit of a danger merchant called Loonie.
Winton's characters are often self-sufficient loners who can't talk about their feelings, and reading him dealing with the technical problems of writing down the thoughts of someone fairly inarticulate is impressive on its own.
But add in the power Winton has to describe the ocean in all its different moods, glassy on a calm day, deafening in a swell, and all the tensions of boyhood relationships moving into being a young man... And then the meditation which runs all the way through about the human ability to take risks in life, and what the desire for risk and adventure means.
Quietly moving, faultlessly written, gets right into your heart.
Everything I found frustrating about Peter Carey's last book was made exactly right in this stunning book from Tim Winton. I already loved his writing on the basis of Dirt Music, where he was preoccupied with a coastal Australian town similar to Sawyer (I don't think the name can be an accident, as the book is all about boys' adventures). We hear the story from Pikelet's point of view, a lonely young boy on the fringes of growing up, who makes friends with a bit of a danger merchant called Loonie.
Winton's characters are often self-sufficient loners who can't talk about their feelings, and reading him dealing with the technical problems of writing down the thoughts of someone fairly inarticulate is impressive on its own.
But add in the power Winton has to describe the ocean in all its different moods, glassy on a calm day, deafening in a swell, and all the tensions of boyhood relationships moving into being a young man... And then the meditation which runs all the way through about the human ability to take risks in life, and what the desire for risk and adventure means.
Quietly moving, faultlessly written, gets right into your heart.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is the first book I've read by Tim Winton, but certainly not the last one. I have no real love for the sea and absolutely no interest in surfing, yet i was mesmerized by the intensity of all the scenes on water and how viscerally vivid they felt. It almost felt i caught a glimpse of what it is that surfers find so compelling in riding lethal waves (though still not tempted, me!).
This book is a beautiful love letter to the sea, but also a rather touching coming-of-age story. One more of those i hear you sigh.... well trust me: it is not. Don't feel I have the words to pinpoint why, but the story and the characters felt fresh and I just could not put the book down.
Winton is one of those annoying people that make writing seem easy (and probably a reason for many talentless readers to run for creative writing classes), and if I know that I could never write like he writes (or surf like his characters do), I certainly intend to enjoy his gift for many books to come.
This book is a beautiful love letter to the sea, but also a rather touching coming-of-age story. One more of those i hear you sigh.... well trust me: it is not. Don't feel I have the words to pinpoint why, but the story and the characters felt fresh and I just could not put the book down.
Winton is one of those annoying people that make writing seem easy (and probably a reason for many talentless readers to run for creative writing classes), and if I know that I could never write like he writes (or surf like his characters do), I certainly intend to enjoy his gift for many books to come.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Underlying sadness
I love the way Tim Winton writes and this is another beautifully written lyrical work with prose that is almost poetic in it's execution.. Read more
Published 15 days ago by C. R. Tregidgo
Two's company, three's a crowd
Never having surfed in my life, I was agog at the author's lyrical mastery in describing the majesty and beauty of a posturing sea. Read more
Published 28 days ago by charlie
'you feel ALIVE,completely awake and in your body. Man, it's like...
5o year old paramedic Bruce Pike looks back on his adolescence: an average child with normal parents, he starts to grow up when he befriends Loonie, a 'mouthy urchin'. Read more
Published 1 month ago by sally tarbox
A Stunning Read
I cannot praise this book highly enough, it is a wonderful piece of work and one that I would reccommend to anyone wanting to dive between the pages and escape. Read more
Published 10 months ago by M. S. Harris
Mind-bendingly good
If you have ever surfed, and even if you haven't, this book is masterful in the way it takes you out there. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Claire Marshall
near-death experience changes you for ever
Don't think that this is just a book about surfers. It is so much more than that. For me this was a very thought-provoking book. Read more
Published 16 months ago by E. Betty
waste of breath
I read another Tim Winton book a few years ago and was left cold by all the characters in it. I remember the female characters were particularly unbelievable. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Mrs Miggins
Coming of age novel packed with obsession and compulsion
Bruce is a paramedic - he narrates this book as a retropective view of his teenage years when he developed an obsession with the sea which deeply effected him for the rest of his... Read more
Published 20 months ago by Janie U
'BREATH' BY TIM WINTON
I found the beginning and the end disappointing - the former too obviously contrived and the latter almost inconsequential. Read more
Published 21 months ago by BENYA KRIK
Deep breath
The title of this book is perfect. It's all about being alive, about pushing being alive to the very limits, and about how breathing is so integral to everything that happens to... Read more
Published 22 months ago by Love Books
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