Juice, by Tim Winton - Tom
Tim Winton is a well-regarded and excellent story teller. This book is just over 500 pages and is not the sort of book that can be read in one or two sittings. (Not even if, like me, reading is a main pastime). Having said that, this is what I call a page turner – anxious to know the next chapter. If you are the type to read the last few chapter first to decide whether you want to persevere with the book, DON’T. You will miss so much of interest. The last chapters do not explain what you have missed. I tried it and had to go back to reading the entirety of the story.
The story is set in the harsh landscape of Western Australia after what, I presumed, to be a major apocalypse, such as a nuclear war. The narrator and a young girl feature in the first chapters and throughout the book to a varying degree. Man’s inhumanity to man is a main feature of this book in my interpretation. Those with the power seek to subjugate or defeat the rest by fair means or foul.
The survivors of the apocalypse exist rather than live, and depend on the work of the subjugated. Although set in Australia, the story could be transplanted to any part of the world in which a superior power took over the land. My interpretation is that the powers in this book could be found in Central and South America; America before it became the United States, or Eastern Europe under the Russian Empire. i.e. the subjugation of the native population. (Or anywhere the British/English controlled)
This story also introduces the possibility of artificial intelligence being developed in humanoid form and being seen as the enemy.
I may be wrong in my interpretation of this book but I do recommend it as a brilliant story and something to cause the reader to think more deeply about this lovely planet of ours and where we are going.
Tom
