Ep 407 - Cloudstreet

Sitting Under A Tree with Aidan Jones

I've just finished reading the book 'Cloudstreet' by Tim Winton - I've been reading it for like six months, so god damn it, it's about time! It struck me how all the characters had, by the end of the story, found some semblance of home by virtue of simply staying put. Some of them left, and in leaving they also departed the story, but the ones who stayed, even though many of them were deeply flawed, ended up in a happier place than when the story started. I also saw the film 'The Roses' with Olivia Colman this week and if I compare the two main characters in that film to those in 'Cloudstreet', the couple in 'The Roses' live much more separate lives from each other. It's not that they fight less, but they seem, maybe because of wealth, to be able to live independently of each other, and so their relationship suffers.

They don't need each other, and they chose over and over again not to prioritise their relationship, and so in the end their relationship dies.