Hi

Have just begun to read Tim Winton’s Dirt Music and it’s superb. Vintage Winton, which means it’s gritty, real and crude at times. But boy does he get inside people and the land. It’s a story set in a fishing community at a mythical place called White Point in WA and is shot through with what Peter Corney recently described at Tas Clergy Conference as “human longings that are really at root longings for God.” It has to be one of the best Australian novels written for a long long time. And it’s compulsive. I can’t wait to get back to it. KMart in Tassie has it on special for $26.99 (HC) and I assume nationally, which raises all sorts of ethical issues about the big chains undercutting the smaller book stores. But it is a very good price! Regards Paul. PS There’s also a CD of the same title which sounds equally superb. Dirt Music is acoustic music. Heard Winton talking about it on ABC radio recently and the track they played was great. PPS I (sadly) get no commission for all this advertising. I just think it’s a brilliant read. PPS Happy Christmas.