re:mote voices

Title: Dirt Music
Author: Tim Winton
Publisher: Picador

Georgie Jutland has hit forty and is stuck in a rut. As a nurse she travelled the world, experienced all sorts of things. But when she got fed up being a nurse, and started avoiding the relationship she was in, then she hooked up her fortunes with Jim Buckridge. Three years ago, when they met, Buckridge was a lonely man, his wife not long dead, and struggling to raise his two sons. That held an appeal for Georgie, so before he knew what had hit him, she had moved into the small fishing town of White Point. White Point being the kind of place which is a bit of a drive from the big city, lives by its own rules, even relies on its inhabitants to be volunteers for things like the ambulance or fire brigade. However Georgie’s rut is in full effect – she drinks most nights, surfing random shite on the internet till the wee hours. Which is what she is doing when she first witnesses Luther Fox sneaking out in the dark to steal from the town’s lobster pots.

Dirt Music is a raw music, a combination of folk, country with a heavy dose of the blues. The kind of thing that is a real hybrid form, extremely raw and emotive, and particularly live – especially in a town like White Point. The Fox family and the Buckridges describe the two extremes of the community. Something Georgie is only starting to discover, she has kept herself to herself, but is now starting to spot that there is a lot she doesn’t know about White Point. The Buckridges rule White Point with an iron fist, always coming in with the best catch, meaning the make the most money, and enforcing their rule with violence. On the other hand the Fox family are grubbers, poachers, the bottom rung if it weren’t for their ability with the music. But that is the past.

Dirt Music is about the past, and the way it effects people, lingering in their present. Jutland, Buckridge and Fox all have tragedy and darkness, which they’ve been pretending is behind them. But Winton brings these characters together, and in doing so forces them to confront their pasts, to strive for some kind of happiness, or at least a form of peace. In doing so there are chunks of Dirt Music where the narrative might not tell an epic tale, but Winton’s writing is vividly painting the pictures, composing his own form of dirt music through the interactions between these characters.

Dirt Music was shortlisted for the 2002 Booker Prize, and created a certain buzz at the time of its release. About that time I had read an extract on the publisher’s website, pretty much the first chapter, which was enough to catch my interest. With which, I have finally gotten round to and enjoyed reading Dirt Music. Though from all that, Dirt Music isn’t entirely what I expected, suspecting that there would have been more of the Jutland/Fox angle and less of the Buckridge. But instead the key struggles are between Jutland and Buckridge as they behave like caged animals, circling each other trying to decide who is going to make the first move. Fox in the meantime does undertake something of an epic journey, Fox in some ways takes a trip into the aboriginal dream time – some of the things that happen to him lending the narrative a hallucinogenic edge at times.