Macquarie Christian Studies Institute : Articles & Ideas

"The struggle to find harmony with our spirit"

Review of Breath, Tim Winton, by Kara Martin

For me a new book by Tim Winton is like opening a box of your favourite chocolates. You know you are not going to be disappointed, and there might be some surprises, and much of the joy is in the anticipation of the delights within. Winton is Australia's most celebrated author having won the Miles Franklin award three times, and twice been nominated for the Booker Prize. He is probably Australia's most recognised author in terms of an international audience.

Breath is his latest offering. Bruce Pike is the narrator of the book, and the story follows his life from a kid, when he was known as "Pikelet", through to late middle age, with the intensity of the focus on his teenage years. It is about him making sense of his life looking back at some of the events that formed him.

This is a very autobiographical book, in terms of the place and the initial subject matter. At the age of 12 Winton went to live in Albany, which was an isolated country town on the coast of Western Australia in the 70s; and he continues to love the thrill of surfing. Tim also almost drowned several times, and that's a recurring theme in this book.

Some reviewers have made the connection between the title of the book with the Hebrew definition of "breath" as "spirit" or "life force". There is very much a sense that all the characters are trying to control what should be natural, breathing. So they try and tame waves, they take risks and fool with the risk of death by drowning or asphyxiation. It's about fear and risk and thrills and hedonism. In reality though, the activities that Pikelet gets involved with as a teenager end up stealing his spirit, draining his lifeforce, such that he suffocates in the midst of his family and marriage. All the characters are struggling for breath in some way.

This is essentially a book about taking risks. Most of the riskiness involves surfing: trying to catch the biggest waves, surfing in shark breeding areas, surfing over reefs, swimming long distances to get there or back, surfing alone. However there is also some drug sampling, hanging out with people who don't have your best interests at heart, the riskiness of lying to your parents or cutting off your options at school...

Pikelet seems to be searching for a sense of feeling alive. He becomes an adrenaline junkie. He has begun to define himself by the riskiness of his behaviour, his courage. There's a sense of control and mastery that he gets when he surfs a wave, it's a moment of dancing and freedom. He gets intense highs from experiencing intense fear, and after that everything seems boring or ordinary.

This is an extraordinary book in that the crisis moment comes right at the end of the book; although there are hints and a sense of brooding danger all the way through. Pikelet ends up having an affair with an older woman and this relationship damages him forever. It's the sort of book where you just want to yell at the character, this silly but brave 15-yr-old: "Don't do it!" You want to reach in and rescue him. But there's no saviour available, and he must suffer the consequences.

There is much wisdom in this book, although Winton never preaches. I particularly was struck by the risk-taking behaviour even more prevalent among the young. I guess surfing is usually relatively harmless, while drug taking or binge drinking is the urban equivalent, or driving cars fast. It confirms for me that we need to provide challenging and real but safe risks for our kids, to help them to explore and develop their characters: activities such as hiking or abseiling or going to help out in a developing country. We also need to surround our teenagers with mentors and guides we can trust.

It also brought home a comment that Tim Winton made in an interview with Andrew Denton that middle age is the time when we tend to understand fully the impact of the risks we took in those teenage years. That's when it comes back to bite, or we see the mess we have made of our relationships since.

This is a beautiful and lyrical book that grabs you from the first breath. It isn't epic like some of Winton's previous work: Dirt Music or cloudstreet; but it is rich and deep and evocative and challenging. I cherished the reading, even if it did sometimes take me places I didn't want to go.

KARA MARTIN is a lecturer with Macquarie Christian Studies Institute, and is an avid reader and book group attendee. Kara does fiction reviews for Heart 1032's Open House (http://www.theopenhouse.net.au/).