Set in Australia 1930s-1960s, it tells the tale of the Pickles family and the Lamb family. Both suffering from tragedy and shame, move into a large ramshackle house on Cloud Street in Cottesloe, and the stage is set for each character to tell their story , filled with day to day events, tragedies, happiness and danger. The last man to hang in Perth is also featured in the story.

some great characters; Fish is poignant and a fey introduction to the fantastical that also permeated the storiezs; some of the colloquialisms and working classness feel a bit archaic now...and even jarred when I first bought this...the happyish ending could more logically have gone the other way...but very quickly I did care about the main characters and hoped they ended up having some pleasure and release in their lives ( )

Cloudstreet is about two families, the Pickles and the Lambs who live together in a large house at Number 1 Cloud Street in Perth, Western Australia. The families are very different, Sam Pickles is a doomed gambler, his wife Dolly is a drunk, whereas Lester and Oriel Lamb are hardworking Christians who have suffered a crisis of faith since their middle son, Fish was nearly drowned and left brain-damaged. The book follows the fortunes of these characters over a twenty year period, from the end of the Second World War to the 1960s.

I know shamefully little about Australian literature, but saw this book recommended in a discussion on this topic and thought it sounded interesting as I like books about quirky characters and dysfunctional families. However, this book is much more than a standard family melodrama and has definite literary merits.

Cloudstreet has a fragmented structure with each chapter broken down into titled sub-sections from varying perspectives that switch occasionally from the third person to the first person. The book begins with a beautiful poetic description of a picnic by water, but the significance of this is not immediately obvious, but is revealed later.

The narrative is touched with hints of magical realism including a talking pig, and rich with symbolism, with the house and water taking on greater meaning. But along with these mystical elements, the book is grounded in history, with the spectre of war and the Depression looming over much of the narrative, Australia's politics and relationship with Britain mentioned repeatedly and the true story of a serial killer intersecting with the family lives.

I enjoyed the story of these two families and was compelled to find out what would happen to them, but equally I feel this was a good choice for a book from Australia. Perth and how it changed over this period is vital, many of the characters do seem typically Australian without ever becoming stereotypes and the dialogue is littered with Australian slang (which should be familiar to anyone who has watched any Australian soaps!) ( )

An interesting exploration of the lives of two families. Very well written, though at times confusing. The characters (well, some of them) grow on you throughout the book until you feel like you're kind of a part of Cloudstreet as well. I liked the way it was divided up as well. ( )

This is a book you can really dive into; it has lots of ineresting characters, and a twenty-year time span. It tells the story of two families, the Lambs and the Pickles, who share a large house on Cloud Street. Both families are poor and trying to restart their lives in Australia as WWII ends.

I loved reading about the two families, and came to feel as if I knew them all. The characters were real, the dialogue and conversations authentic. They all had weakneses, and all accommodated -- more or less willingly -- the weaknesses of family members.

The symbolism of the breathing house, talking pig and reappearing black man didn't hurt the story, but for me, it also didn't raise this book to a higher mystical level either. The house and the stranger seemed pretty obvious. I didn't really understand (or care) why the pig spoke -- like Fish Lamb, I just accepted it. And maybe that's the magic?

Well worth reading. ( )