Comment

Community comment are the opinions of contributing users. These comment do not represent the opinions of Christchurch City Libraries Ngā Kete Wānanga o Ōtautahi.
jr3083
Apr 18, 2019jr3083 rated this title 4.5 out of 5 stars
The thing that struck me most about this book was the strong narrative voice of Jaxie, a runaway from his violent father. Jaxie is rough, crude but not a bad kid. When he meets Fintan, who seems to be some type of elderly, defrocked priest, he is wary of him, although Fintan seems to take Jaxie as he finds him. The book is violent and seeped through with twisted masculinities. After my early love affair with Tim Winton with Cloudstreet (on the page, of course) I haven’t found another of his books that captured the magic of the first Winton I ever read. I have found myself tiring of his books about beaches and waves, and broken people. There are broken people in this book too, but this book comes closest, I think, to Cloudstreet in terms of narrative control and voice. See my complete review at https://residentjudge.com/2019/04/19/the-shepherds-hut-by-tim-winton/