Review

I just finished 'The Turning' by Tim Winton, and it was just so good that I had to write about it straight away. It's a collection of short stories, but it ends up being more like a novel, just jumbled together like old memories. Which is kinda what it is. So that works well. Some characters turn up only once, others are seen from different perspectives at different times in a whole bunch of different stories. The whole things paints the backdrop of the town, Angelus, so that you feel you understand it at least as well as any of the characters by the end. They influence each other as well.
Most of all it's a beautiful book. The events and characters can be sad, even ugly, but the stories themselves are just beautiful. The book enemeshes you. The language is, as with most Tim Winton books, fairly simple at first glance. The way it's put together makes it gorgeous. It's reflective, but real. About middle-age I guess, but more about memory, and hope, and change. That sort of thing. I loved it for the stories and the language and the people and the way it was all put together. So what I'm saying is, read it. Read it now.