I've just read Sarah Winman's When God Was a Rabbit which was of interest on several levels. One of Winman's favourite authors is Tim Winton and the book she would most like to have written is his magnum opus Cloudstreet.
While When God Was a Rabbit is not as substantial a novel as Cloudstreet, the two books do share some characteristics. Both authors use a significant amount of biographical material in their novels and, as Winman hails from Redbridge, this is of particular interest for those of us in the borough because she sets the early part of her story in Ilford.
Both also use elements of magic realism within their stories. Winman has said: "I believe in mystery, whatever form it comes in. I like to think that the inexplicable exists in our world, that somehow there is room for a kind of magic, whatever that might be."
Winton's novel has "twin themes of social consensus and spiritual transcendence" with "ordinary family life … seen as sacred and devotional." Similarly, Winman's novel "is the story of a fabulous but flawed family and the slew of ordinary and extraordinary incidents that shape their everyday lives." Several of the younger characters in the novel are intrigued by religion. Winman has explained this theme in the following terms:
"I look at it that all the characters are haunted - have ghosts - and are searching in some ways to put these ghosts to rest. When that happens, they gain a certain amount of freedom - spiritual, emotional - but most of all they gain themselves. Do I think about this? Yes, I suppose. How to balance loss, acceptance, attain some kind of redemption ... I write about these themes, maybe because they're mine."
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Midnight Oil - Dreamworld.
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