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When paramedic Bruce Pike is called out to deal with another teenage adventure gone wrong, he knows better than his colleague, better than the kid's parents, what happened and how. Thirty years before, that dead boy could have been him.A relentlessly gripping and deeply moving novel about the damage you do to yourself when you're young and think you're immortal.
User reviews
LibraryThing member Pippa222
This was the first book of Tim Winton's that I'd read, and I was knocked sideways by it. The quality of writing is superb, and the imagining of a child's experience is also excellent. It is all set around the sea and it is about people who love adventure - and need it, sometimes to an unhealthy
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extent. Very highly recommended! Show Less
LibraryThing member bregog
Set in a rugged and remote part of the West Australian coast, the story is about a young boy growing up in a small town, who develops a passion for surfing at a time when the sport was at its purest. The passion quickly escalates into one of risk taking as he and his new friends take on bigger and
However, as time progresses, people change and the bond begins to fracture. Life's outcomes are not always as planned. Some bizarre sex finds its way into the book and some may find it a little offensive. Nevertheless, the writing style of Tim Winton is truly magical and he delivers a story that captures your imagination from page one. The distinctive Australian flavour is a refreshing change.
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more dangerous surf. These risks extend beyond the surf and to life in general and cement the bond between the boy and his 'mates'.However, as time progresses, people change and the bond begins to fracture. Life's outcomes are not always as planned. Some bizarre sex finds its way into the book and some may find it a little offensive. Nevertheless, the writing style of Tim Winton is truly magical and he delivers a story that captures your imagination from page one. The distinctive Australian flavour is a refreshing change.
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LibraryThing member whirled
Reading Breath was as unsettling experience. There is a sense of foreboding that pervades this tale of adolescent risk-taking which led me, as a reader, to hold my breath, and sigh with relief upon turning the last page. Winton balances this darkness by conveying the exhilarating joy of surfing
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better than any novelist has managed before. I really felt I was out beyond the breakers with Pikelet and his friends, and it was that insight that made reading the book worthwhile. Show Less
LibraryThing member MarkKeeffe
Great descriptive words. Exactly how it feels.
LibraryThing member jayne_charles
It's not mentioned on the cover, and only once in the acres of reviews quoted on the first few pages, but this novel is about surfing. It's the elephant with long blond hair and baggy shorts in the room.
I'm guessing this author writes about surfing a lot. I would never have believed the experience
Seekers of deep literary meaning will enjoy the many ways in which the theme of breath is explored within the novel; people like me will be happy just to be entertained by a story of people addicted to living on the edge.
It would have been five stars for sure but...would it really have hurt just to add speech marks?
I'm guessing this author writes about surfing a lot. I would never have believed the experience
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of "riding" a 20ft wave, falling off and being knocked about by the sea could be adequately conveyed just using words on a page, but the description was superb time after time. The writing takes you right into the world of surfing so that you feel as though you were really there in the water. He certainly knows his element.Seekers of deep literary meaning will enjoy the many ways in which the theme of breath is explored within the novel; people like me will be happy just to be entertained by a story of people addicted to living on the edge.
It would have been five stars for sure but...would it really have hurt just to add speech marks?
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LibraryThing member ChazzW
How can put this any more simply?: Breath is one of the most beautiful books I've read in quite sometime. My dilemma is, do I read the books I have on hand and on hold at the library? Or do I run out and grab every Tim Winton I can find until I'm satiated? Even the video for the book is
Though I grew up near the ocean (A stone's throw from Miami Beach) - and in the 60's - I was never a surfer, though in love with the ocean's waves. Winton writes with a vivid love and respect for the ocean that is remarkable. Anyone who has ever surfed needs to read this book. But it's not a surfer book, or just a surfer book, by any means. It's a book about breath and breathing: the breath of life and how fragile it is, the thin barrier that separates us in our lives from death. And it's not just a coming of age novel, though it is a heartbreaking and tender one of those. It's a novel of yearning and fear and coping and acceptance and finding one's place. It's a novel of lost hopes, the loss of innocence, middle age and of coming to terms with the parents we thought we'd never want to become. But not just those things. It's a novel of learning how to live with the fact of separation, of being different, of loneliness, of friendship, of rivalry and first love, of sexual awakening. But more than that. It's a novel of the understanding that comes through failure rather than the oblivion of total triumph that comes from never understanding the power of fear.
Bruce Pike is a 50-ish paramedic who is called to the scene of an apparent teenage suicide. But it's more than that. Pike sees it for what it is and so we are taken back to the young fourteen year old "Pikelet" growing up in a small Australian mill town. He and his friend "Loonie" fall in with the enigmatic and guru like Sando and his bitter, damaged wife Eva. And so, through the truly memorable narrative voice of Pikelet, we circle back and around to the Bruce Pike of the novel's inception.
My reading pattern usually accelerates at the last 50-60 pages. I want at the same time to see how it all ends up and to start something new. whether I've loved or been only mildly interested in what I'm reading, this has seemed to be the case. Here, I found myself slowing down intentionally. The book was getting too close to the end. I didn't want to leave.
Ever hear Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most? One of the great jazz ballads of all time. It came into my head near the end of Winton's novel:
There are spring days down south when all the acacias are pumping out yellow blooms and heady pollen and the honeyeaters and wattlebirds are manic with their pillaging and the wet ground stearns underfoot in the sunshine and you feel fresher than you are. Yes, the restorative force of nature. I can vouch for its value - right up to the point of complete delusion. I go down sometimes on leave to cut the weeds and burn off the way my father did, to surf the point and collect my frazzled wits. But I've learnt not to surrender to swooning spring. In spring you can really ease off on yourself, and when that happens you'll believe in anything at all. You start feeling safe. And then pretty soon you feel immune. Winters are long in Sawyer. A bit of sunshine and nectar goes straight to your head.
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beautiful.Though I grew up near the ocean (A stone's throw from Miami Beach) - and in the 60's - I was never a surfer, though in love with the ocean's waves. Winton writes with a vivid love and respect for the ocean that is remarkable. Anyone who has ever surfed needs to read this book. But it's not a surfer book, or just a surfer book, by any means. It's a book about breath and breathing: the breath of life and how fragile it is, the thin barrier that separates us in our lives from death. And it's not just a coming of age novel, though it is a heartbreaking and tender one of those. It's a novel of yearning and fear and coping and acceptance and finding one's place. It's a novel of lost hopes, the loss of innocence, middle age and of coming to terms with the parents we thought we'd never want to become. But not just those things. It's a novel of learning how to live with the fact of separation, of being different, of loneliness, of friendship, of rivalry and first love, of sexual awakening. But more than that. It's a novel of the understanding that comes through failure rather than the oblivion of total triumph that comes from never understanding the power of fear.
Bruce Pike is a 50-ish paramedic who is called to the scene of an apparent teenage suicide. But it's more than that. Pike sees it for what it is and so we are taken back to the young fourteen year old "Pikelet" growing up in a small Australian mill town. He and his friend "Loonie" fall in with the enigmatic and guru like Sando and his bitter, damaged wife Eva. And so, through the truly memorable narrative voice of Pikelet, we circle back and around to the Bruce Pike of the novel's inception.
My reading pattern usually accelerates at the last 50-60 pages. I want at the same time to see how it all ends up and to start something new. whether I've loved or been only mildly interested in what I'm reading, this has seemed to be the case. Here, I found myself slowing down intentionally. The book was getting too close to the end. I didn't want to leave.
Ever hear Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most? One of the great jazz ballads of all time. It came into my head near the end of Winton's novel:
There are spring days down south when all the acacias are pumping out yellow blooms and heady pollen and the honeyeaters and wattlebirds are manic with their pillaging and the wet ground stearns underfoot in the sunshine and you feel fresher than you are. Yes, the restorative force of nature. I can vouch for its value - right up to the point of complete delusion. I go down sometimes on leave to cut the weeds and burn off the way my father did, to surf the point and collect my frazzled wits. But I've learnt not to surrender to swooning spring. In spring you can really ease off on yourself, and when that happens you'll believe in anything at all. You start feeling safe. And then pretty soon you feel immune. Winters are long in Sawyer. A bit of sunshine and nectar goes straight to your head.
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LibraryThing member gonzobrarian
What Tim Winton does very well in his novel Breath is his convey his ability to describe the helpless suffocation of being poleaxed, not only by the unforgiving western Australian surf but also by the fleeting acquaintances who enter our lives and turn them upside down. Yes, Winton assuredly hints,
Pikelet is nary a teenager before becoming introduced to the world of surfing along the lonely Western Australian coastline. Winton retraces Pikelet's growth with his friend Loonie as they compete for the "wisdom" of the cryptic surfing master Sando. It's a story that not only deals with the typical coming-of-age themes, it's a story that deals with the concept of fear and the nature of accomplishment, both in and out of the ocean. It's about finding and acknowledging that invisible line across which one will find themselves flailing helplessly when in search for the next rip-current of reality. Moreover, it's about our tendency to use and abuse our so-called friends in the process, and the sacrifices we make along the way (school, family, etc.). Specifically, the tension between Pikelet and Loonie is unnervingly palpable; not necessarily sinister, but dangerous nonetheless.
Breath is a concise yet moving novel that touches upon multiple facets of Australian and surfing culture. Winton writes in a style that's similarly sparse to McCarthy, but flows well in clarity. One complication of the work is that I feel he lingers a little too long on Pikelet's relationship with Eva, Sando's wife. Though too much is left unsaid between the two, Winton dwells on several of Eva's proclivities which could comprise a separate novella. Otherwise, Breath is a sad, thoughtful yet worthwhile read.
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we will thereby grow into better surfers and more complete human beings, but only after being thoroughly dashed and mangled against life's currents, gasping for some sense of stability.Pikelet is nary a teenager before becoming introduced to the world of surfing along the lonely Western Australian coastline. Winton retraces Pikelet's growth with his friend Loonie as they compete for the "wisdom" of the cryptic surfing master Sando. It's a story that not only deals with the typical coming-of-age themes, it's a story that deals with the concept of fear and the nature of accomplishment, both in and out of the ocean. It's about finding and acknowledging that invisible line across which one will find themselves flailing helplessly when in search for the next rip-current of reality. Moreover, it's about our tendency to use and abuse our so-called friends in the process, and the sacrifices we make along the way (school, family, etc.). Specifically, the tension between Pikelet and Loonie is unnervingly palpable; not necessarily sinister, but dangerous nonetheless.
Breath is a concise yet moving novel that touches upon multiple facets of Australian and surfing culture. Winton writes in a style that's similarly sparse to McCarthy, but flows well in clarity. One complication of the work is that I feel he lingers a little too long on Pikelet's relationship with Eva, Sando's wife. Though too much is left unsaid between the two, Winton dwells on several of Eva's proclivities which could comprise a separate novella. Otherwise, Breath is a sad, thoughtful yet worthwhile read.
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LibraryThing member readingwithtea
"It's easy for an old man to look back and see the obvious, how wasted youth and health and safety are on the young who spurn such things, to be dismayed by the risks you took, but as a youth you do sense that life renders you powerless by dragging you back to it, breath upon breath upon breath in
Tim Winton's tale of growing up in the surf of Western Australia in the 1970s won the Miles Franklin Literary Award in 2008 along with a variety of newspaper awards, and I strongly disagree with their judgement. While it has the self-important and philosophical bent of the prize-winner (see also: A Visit From The Goon Squad and The Sense Of An Ending... and The God Of Small Things, while we're listing prize-winning books I can't stand), and the first phase of the book, telling how Bruce Pike's disenchanted teenage years with his shy parents were rescued by his gung-ho pal Loonie and surfing, is readable enough, midway through it rapidly descends into sexually-charged, faux-suicidal garbage, then putters along to its vapid conclusion.
Pike is Everyboy, annoyed with his meek parents who are scared of the sea, quite a good student without being exceptional, sociable without being a leader. He meets Ivan Loon, town tearaway, and the two strike up a solid although occasionally fraught friendship, in which Loonie demands devotion and admiration, and cannot bear to be outdone. When the boys discover the allure of the surf and a mentor who used to be a champion surfer, their teenage rebellion is harnessed and they spend 100 pages enjoying life and being pretty normal. Winton struck the balance between carefree enjoyment and the thrall of danger, the discontent of youth and the battle between egos well here.
Unfortunately, as apparently with almost every book these days, that wasn't enough. We had to have the infidelity, the unconventional and dangerous bedroom episodes, the betrayal and lying and drama. This passage ruined the book for me as it was an unnecessarily dark twist and felt like Winton was trying far too hard.
The book gets 3 out of 1o rather than zero because of the quality of the writing and the authenticity of the teenage voice, but on the whole that is all there is to recommend this prize-winner.
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an endless capitulation to biological routine, and that the human will to control is as much about asserting power over your own body as exercising it on others."Tim Winton's tale of growing up in the surf of Western Australia in the 1970s won the Miles Franklin Literary Award in 2008 along with a variety of newspaper awards, and I strongly disagree with their judgement. While it has the self-important and philosophical bent of the prize-winner (see also: A Visit From The Goon Squad and The Sense Of An Ending... and The God Of Small Things, while we're listing prize-winning books I can't stand), and the first phase of the book, telling how Bruce Pike's disenchanted teenage years with his shy parents were rescued by his gung-ho pal Loonie and surfing, is readable enough, midway through it rapidly descends into sexually-charged, faux-suicidal garbage, then putters along to its vapid conclusion.
Pike is Everyboy, annoyed with his meek parents who are scared of the sea, quite a good student without being exceptional, sociable without being a leader. He meets Ivan Loon, town tearaway, and the two strike up a solid although occasionally fraught friendship, in which Loonie demands devotion and admiration, and cannot bear to be outdone. When the boys discover the allure of the surf and a mentor who used to be a champion surfer, their teenage rebellion is harnessed and they spend 100 pages enjoying life and being pretty normal. Winton struck the balance between carefree enjoyment and the thrall of danger, the discontent of youth and the battle between egos well here.
Unfortunately, as apparently with almost every book these days, that wasn't enough. We had to have the infidelity, the unconventional and dangerous bedroom episodes, the betrayal and lying and drama. This passage ruined the book for me as it was an unnecessarily dark twist and felt like Winton was trying far too hard.
The book gets 3 out of 1o rather than zero because of the quality of the writing and the authenticity of the teenage voice, but on the whole that is all there is to recommend this prize-winner.
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LibraryThing member macsbrains
This book reminded me of novels like "Catcher in the Rye" and "The Perks of Being a Wallflower." Of those I liked the first and hated the second. I am on the fence with this one.
Bruce Pike is a withdrawn and strikingly humorless boy growing up in a small Austrailian logging town not far from the
The language is simple and evocative. We see everything through the main character's eyes and he sees with intense emotion. The beauty of the waves breaking on the sea the image is clear and vivid, and the grace inherent in performing a physical skill is well described. This book causes you to feel a lot, and quite strongly, and when it comes down to it, that is what bothers me most.
For most of the book (excepting when you are engrossed in the poetry of riding a wave - each moment singularly laid out in front of you) you are face to face with the suffocating blanket of melancholy, sadness, and lonliness that pervades the whole piece. On the whole it is quite depressing. And when things started to shift for him and he began a destructive sexual relationship with an older woman, I started to wonder if there was any hope left at all.
The last part of the book, a quick detail of his adult life, felt rushed and choppy, written without the smoothness of the rest of the narrative.
I think the author succeeded in delivering to the reader the feeling of being just short of drowning. In the end, despite the profound and insightful look into the emotions of such, I felt as relieved to be done with it as to find breath at the surface of the sea.
Bruce Pike is a withdrawn and strikingly humorless boy growing up in a small Austrailian logging town not far from the
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coast. He becomes friends with Loonie, a local boy, with whom he explores the physical, mental, and emotional highs of risk. Extremely introverted, Bruce feels asleep inside most of the time, and he seeks to find life through forces outside of himself. When he finds Sando, an aloof and adept older surfer, to be his surfing mentor it takes him further down the path to addiction to fear and risk and being on the edge. The structure is a flashback of the main character's early teen years framed between two brief glimpses of his adulthood. The language is simple and evocative. We see everything through the main character's eyes and he sees with intense emotion. The beauty of the waves breaking on the sea the image is clear and vivid, and the grace inherent in performing a physical skill is well described. This book causes you to feel a lot, and quite strongly, and when it comes down to it, that is what bothers me most.
For most of the book (excepting when you are engrossed in the poetry of riding a wave - each moment singularly laid out in front of you) you are face to face with the suffocating blanket of melancholy, sadness, and lonliness that pervades the whole piece. On the whole it is quite depressing. And when things started to shift for him and he began a destructive sexual relationship with an older woman, I started to wonder if there was any hope left at all.
The last part of the book, a quick detail of his adult life, felt rushed and choppy, written without the smoothness of the rest of the narrative.
I think the author succeeded in delivering to the reader the feeling of being just short of drowning. In the end, despite the profound and insightful look into the emotions of such, I felt as relieved to be done with it as to find breath at the surface of the sea.
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LibraryThing member broughtonhouse
This short, highly readable, remarkably complex novel is a worthy winner of the Franklin Award. Is it about ordinariness contrasted with high risk-taking and the rewards of either? Are there extreme risks with being ordinary, just as there are with its oposite? Pikelet the narrator turns out to be
An excellent piece of work. Don't miss it.
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the most ordinary of the four main characters but his life is unsatisfying. Loonie his friend and extreme risk taker ends up dead. Sando the mysterious surfing guru is also a high risk taker but apparently ends well, while injured Eva his wife is also at the high risk end but draws sexual adventurism from Pikelet against both their better judgment. An excellent piece of work. Don't miss it.
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LibraryThing member oldblack
For me, most of this book was not worth reading. Perhaps 80% of it is really just one of Winton's books for boys, the Lockie Leonard series about boys having adventures while growing up, with an almost exclusive focus on surfing and water culture in 20th century Australia. That's not a bad thing to
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write about...but it's not for me, and it's not adult. I'm not only grown up; I'm an old man. It was all rather predictable and boring. In the last 20% of the book Winton then rushed through the remaining 35 years of the main character's life, introducing some interesting relationships and reflections on the first 15 years, but with a speed and a superficiality that left me wishing that these years had been the focus of 80% of the book, not the first 15. I reckon he probably had an old YA book manuscript in his second drawer and thought he could make more money by turning it into an adult book. Tim's got potential to do much better than this. But the critics and prize judges seem to disagree with me. Show Less
LibraryThing member mjmorrison1971
I read this really quickly and am still wondering about it - an easy read, interesting and intriguing characters but the central them of the book - the use of strangulation for sexual gratification cast a dark shadow over the whole book and left me feeling a little dirty when I had finished like I
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had been watching myself. The book draws you in slowly and by the time you find out the truth you cannot look away. I would have like to know more about the life of the man character between the ages of 18 and the scene at the beginning novel rather than the simple out line given in to book that would have expanded out understanding of him. Show Less
LibraryThing member presto
Bruce Pike, or Pikelet, now in his fifties looks back over his life and especially the years just prior to and through his early teens. He grew up in the 60s/70s in a small town near the South Australia coast, something of a loner until he meets Looney, a year older and with a lust for danger. They
Breath is a captivating story, beautifully told. The relative innocence and freedom of the period is well portrayed; for one thing what today would be made of a man in his thirties taking an interest in two boys, ten and eleven years old? Yet there is not the slightest hint of impropriety here in that particular respect. For a time the story seems locked into surfing and living on the edge for pure thrills; but then events take a different turn and it becomes very much a story of Pikelts coming of age.
In the last few pages Pikelet quickly take us through the rest of his life up to the present, and we become aware of the long term effects of his early life. Such is the power of the story that by this hard to believe that it is not autobiographical, with the consequence that it all the more moving, and reassuringly sad; however dissimilar our life may be from Pikelet's, we are bound to feel a connection, a common ground.
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become mates and take to surfing. Sando, in his thirties married to an American woman, a surfer treated with a detached reverence by the other regular surfers takes the two boys under his wing; and Sando's home becomes open house to the two boys. But relationships between the boys, and Sando and his wife are not always what they seem, and there are some surprising developments.Breath is a captivating story, beautifully told. The relative innocence and freedom of the period is well portrayed; for one thing what today would be made of a man in his thirties taking an interest in two boys, ten and eleven years old? Yet there is not the slightest hint of impropriety here in that particular respect. For a time the story seems locked into surfing and living on the edge for pure thrills; but then events take a different turn and it becomes very much a story of Pikelts coming of age.
In the last few pages Pikelet quickly take us through the rest of his life up to the present, and we become aware of the long term effects of his early life. Such is the power of the story that by this hard to believe that it is not autobiographical, with the consequence that it all the more moving, and reassuringly sad; however dissimilar our life may be from Pikelet's, we are bound to feel a connection, a common ground.
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LibraryThing member VirginiaGill
Usually I really enjoy a coming of age story but Winton's character never really grabbed a hold of me in ways that made me care about them. I will probably take a look at some of his other books just out of curiousity though.
LibraryThing member mtranter
Beautiful language, place etc... didn't like the sexual scene..took me to palces I hadn't been and didn't really wish to go.Breath. Tim Winton
Plenty of discussion has already emanated from this title. 8/10
The language and the sense of place were what made this book for me.
The use of the
Winton captures the whole physical experience of the surf.. waves, the culture.., the long summers, the winter storms. .. the smell and the sounds.
Risk taking. in all its forms is described to make me understand a little more why people engage in extreme sports and activities.
Plenty of discussion has already emanated from this title. 8/10
The language and the sense of place were what made this book for me.
The use of the
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“breath’ image/symbol is used powerfully. Winton captures the whole physical experience of the surf.. waves, the culture.., the long summers, the winter storms. .. the smell and the sounds.
Risk taking. in all its forms is described to make me understand a little more why people engage in extreme sports and activities.
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LibraryThing member endnote
To be swept away with the imagery Tim provided was enough to take away one's breath! A retrospective view of growing up and how the influence of others in the community can make an impression that will make a difference to your life.
LibraryThing member therealbookish
Reading Tim Winton’s Breath is as if plunging into the water, having a good swim, and then re-immerge, feeling refreshed. This is one of the most beautifully written books I have read. Winton’s writing is magical; I finished it in two sittings despite the limited time I have for reading.
This
Be it surfing or skiing, the two main sports favoured by the characters (surfing for Sando, Loonie and the narrator Pikelet or Bruce; skiing for Eva), are means for them to feel free: riding the waves, feeling airborne; but the addiction to it makes them prisoners to their choice sports. They are not as free as they seem to be.
Winton doesn’t try to overtly manifest the issues (which are subtly presented) contained in the book but let them for the readers to find out themselves. For Loonie and Pikelet, surfing is a form of escapism; the former from his broken family, and the latter the normality of everyday life. We can see how the different backgrounds shape the personalities of these two characters: one hard, has nothing to loose; the other careful, more responsible.
The entanglement between Pikelet and Eva, who is ten years his senior, brings up the troubles of Eva. Locked in her relationship with Sando, who only cares about surfing, and her regret of not being able to ski again, Eva is a disturbed woman, and Pikelet becomes mature as he watches Eva sink deeper and deeper. Although the ending is predictable but it is the process, the happenings that are important.
Winton writes with smells and sounds, and makes the reading experience longlasting. I was gutted when he didn’t get longlisted for Man Booker.
This
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book is more about a lost youth (as publicised on the jacket). It is about irresponsible adults, the things they do to release their pains and the consequences of their actions that leave not just scars and bruises on the innocent teenagers, but ruin their lives forever.Be it surfing or skiing, the two main sports favoured by the characters (surfing for Sando, Loonie and the narrator Pikelet or Bruce; skiing for Eva), are means for them to feel free: riding the waves, feeling airborne; but the addiction to it makes them prisoners to their choice sports. They are not as free as they seem to be.
Winton doesn’t try to overtly manifest the issues (which are subtly presented) contained in the book but let them for the readers to find out themselves. For Loonie and Pikelet, surfing is a form of escapism; the former from his broken family, and the latter the normality of everyday life. We can see how the different backgrounds shape the personalities of these two characters: one hard, has nothing to loose; the other careful, more responsible.
The entanglement between Pikelet and Eva, who is ten years his senior, brings up the troubles of Eva. Locked in her relationship with Sando, who only cares about surfing, and her regret of not being able to ski again, Eva is a disturbed woman, and Pikelet becomes mature as he watches Eva sink deeper and deeper. Although the ending is predictable but it is the process, the happenings that are important.
Winton writes with smells and sounds, and makes the reading experience longlasting. I was gutted when he didn’t get longlisted for Man Booker.
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LibraryThing member mthomson
A book both beautiful and devastating. Bruce Pike, Piklet, is remembering his adolescence from middle age and signals from the start that damage has been done. Winton writes of a breathtaking ocean landscape and a landscape of friendship and influence which scarred his young soul, already an
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introverted one. Great writing. Inspite of the young characters, surfing scenes and atmosphere of risk, not a book for young readers generally. Show Less
LibraryThing member skystyler
Halfway through this. The surfing descriptions are unreal. That is, they are so good they brought back those times I was surfing in waves that were too big for me. Scary stuff.
LibraryThing member susancourt
I had to read it quickly and now I need to read it again and savour it. It keeps haunting me and I am thinking about it on so many levels. It seems like such a 'boys' book but he sucked me in again. I 'd like to talk to someone who's read it.
LibraryThing member 1morechapter
Ugh. I thought this was about a teen boy surfing in Australia. I wanted it to be about a teen boy surfing in Australia. And it was, for about 150 pages, then it goes off into a weird and extreme area that I will not mention here. I feel ripped off because I enjoyed the first 3/4 of the book, but
Pikelet and Loonie are two teenage boys obsessed with surfing. They meet up with Sando, a guy in his mid 30’s who coaches them in the sport and sometimes encourages them to go a little too far with it. Sando’s wife, Eva, was an extreme skier but now has a blown knee. Consequently, she’s bitter because her husband still gets to do what he loves and because he’s not spending any time with her. Breath is about pushing everything in life to the extreme to see how far one can go.
I’m giving it 2 stars because Tim Winton is a good writer and I enjoyed all but the last fourth (which totally ruined the whole thing for me.)
Here’s an example of a passage I did enjoy:
I will always remember my first wave that morning. The smells of paraffin wax and brine and peppy scrub. The way the swell rose beneath me like a body drawing in air. How the wave drew me forward and I sprang to my feet, skating with the wind of momentum in my ears. I leant across the wall of upstanding water and the board came with me as though it was part of my body and mind. The blur of spray. The billion shards of light. I remember the solitary watching figure on the beach and the flash of Loonie’s smile as I flew by; I was intoxicated. And though I’ve lived to be an old man with my own share of happiness for all the mess I made, I still judge every joyous moment, every victory and revelation against those few seconds of living.
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then to have to be subjected to…blech.Pikelet and Loonie are two teenage boys obsessed with surfing. They meet up with Sando, a guy in his mid 30’s who coaches them in the sport and sometimes encourages them to go a little too far with it. Sando’s wife, Eva, was an extreme skier but now has a blown knee. Consequently, she’s bitter because her husband still gets to do what he loves and because he’s not spending any time with her. Breath is about pushing everything in life to the extreme to see how far one can go.
I’m giving it 2 stars because Tim Winton is a good writer and I enjoyed all but the last fourth (which totally ruined the whole thing for me.)
Here’s an example of a passage I did enjoy:
I will always remember my first wave that morning. The smells of paraffin wax and brine and peppy scrub. The way the swell rose beneath me like a body drawing in air. How the wave drew me forward and I sprang to my feet, skating with the wind of momentum in my ears. I leant across the wall of upstanding water and the board came with me as though it was part of my body and mind. The blur of spray. The billion shards of light. I remember the solitary watching figure on the beach and the flash of Loonie’s smile as I flew by; I was intoxicated. And though I’ve lived to be an old man with my own share of happiness for all the mess I made, I still judge every joyous moment, every victory and revelation against those few seconds of living.
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LibraryThing member seldombites
Breath is an enjoyable coming-of-age novel written in a refreshingly light style that is easy to read. Tim Winton captures the feel of small-time Australia well, and the characters could be anyone from our own childhood. Despite its simplicity, Pikelet's story is filled with hidden sinkholes and
Breath is a simple but memorable read and I recommend it for adults and teens alike. I will certainly be seeking out more of this author's work.
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rips, reminiscent of the ocean that plays such an important role in his life. The thrills and exhilaration of surfing are described with such intensity that we almost feel as though we are there, and the hidden pitfalls of everyday relationships are aptly demonstrated.Breath is a simple but memorable read and I recommend it for adults and teens alike. I will certainly be seeking out more of this author's work.
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LibraryThing member chrisv
Best book that I read in 2008. Ostensibly about surfing, which of course it is, it's also about growing up. The concerns Pikelet, boy living in western australia and his obsession with surfing. The descriptions of the sport are amazing and one can begin to see why someone might become infatutated
Because of what happens to him the narrator becomes damaged psychologically, but ultimately finds a way of living despite this.
Incredibly powerful and understated. The book is ultimately not about triumph but about enduring. He must surely be the best living australian novelist.
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with the sport.Because of what happens to him the narrator becomes damaged psychologically, but ultimately finds a way of living despite this.
Incredibly powerful and understated. The book is ultimately not about triumph but about enduring. He must surely be the best living australian novelist.
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LibraryThing member Adrianburke1
I've read several other books by Tim Winton and have enjoyed the way he deals with people's feelings of estrangement from the familiar. This one starts well with some really engaged writing about surfing. However I found the last part where the narrator (midteens falls for an older woman and gets
This is what two reviewers thought:
Tim Winton Breath
Review by Russell Celyn Jones in the Times
“This is a very good book marred by occasional empty posturing and a poor finish, where everything Winton has set up so well folds into itself.”
Patrick Ness
Guardian
“Because, finally, this is not a story about surfing; it's a story about fear, about pushing beyond fear, and about becoming addicted to the pushing. Moreover, it's a story about the price of being more than ordinary.”
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her pregnant) sooooo predictable. Why would she? Not convinced. This is what two reviewers thought:
Tim Winton Breath
Review by Russell Celyn Jones in the Times
“This is a very good book marred by occasional empty posturing and a poor finish, where everything Winton has set up so well folds into itself.”
Patrick Ness
Guardian
“Because, finally, this is not a story about surfing; it's a story about fear, about pushing beyond fear, and about becoming addicted to the pushing. Moreover, it's a story about the price of being more than ordinary.”
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LibraryThing member sea-anne
The exhilaration of surfing, leaning to overcome fears, or not, and being tossed around by natural forces is very well described and engaging. This is an elemental story, with a sinister sub-plot unfolding quietly in the background, a bit like the shark that might be under the waves. I love the way
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the author handles dialogue and the way he reveals the deeper story so powerfully but with such restraint. Show Less
Awards
Dublin Literary Award (Longlist — 2010)
Commonwealth Writers' Prize (Shortlist — 2009)
The Economist Best Books (2008.47)
Australian Book Industry Awards (Shortlist — Book of the Year — 2009)
Miles Franklin Literary Award (Winner — 2009)
The Indie Book Award (Longlist — Fiction — 2008)
Victorian Premier's Literary Award (Shortlist — Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction — 2009)
Western Australian Premier's Book Awards (Shortlist — Fiction — 2008)
The Age Book of the Year Award (Winner — Fiction — 2008)
Publishers Weekly's Best Books of the Year (Fiction — 2008)
The New York Times Notable Books of the Year (Fiction & Poetry — 2008)