"THE SHEPHERD'S HUT" - Tim Winton (Aust 2018)
As I said the other week when I was only part way into this very readable book, other than the fact that it's a great read, this is an object lesson in how to write a novel. By the time you're about ten pages in it has hold of you, and as the action unfolds the narrator (set in current day and told in the First Person) steadily drip feeds you the back story.
Jaxie Clackton - even Winton's truly brilliant choice of a name says a bundle, it sounds so edgy and so bloody prickly! (and godknows that's Jaxie! - a 15 year old going on 40 with excesses of angst and attitude) is from a dysfunctional home north of Perth somewhere, and he's on the run, living off the land and his wits, telling his story in retrospect.
Out in the hard country in the north of Western Australia, Jaxie runs into a strange old coot (an exiled Irish Catholic priest with a past that doesn't get entirely explained) living on his own in a deserted hut, and the two of them create a rough sort of a relationship, which provides Winton with the opportunity to explore philosophy and ethics and survival, with a brutal ending. But the rest you need to find for yourself. This copy - from an Op Shop - is definitely a keeper, added to my Tim Winton collection.
And what can I say, if you aspire to write both well and marketably, get hold of a copy and digest it whole. It'll do you a world of good!
Cheers....
T.R.E.
ps - I forgot to add this classic bit of back blurb, great lesson in that as well...
"For the first time in me life I know what I want and I have what I want to get me there. If you never experienced that I feel sorry for you. But it wasn't always like this. I been through fire to get here. So be happy for me, and for fucksake, don't get in my way."
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>