These stories cover important issues such as birth, life, death, identification, dreams, parenthood, belief in god or not, mental stress, emotional breakdowns and renewal, family, beginnings and endings and ambitions.
The main focuses of these stories are connected by are birth, life, death and renewal as mentioned earlier. These stories show us the joy of having a child, the situations we face in life and the pain in death.
“The Water was Dark and It Went Forever Down” is centrally set on a beach during the Summer school holidays. It traces the feelings of an un-named girl who has an alcoholic, badly burnt mother, through her recognition that to live life to the fullest, she must leave her mother. This comes at the cost of realising that “[living, surviving] they are the same thing.” “No difference.” The linear timeline with flashbacks created by Tim Winton clearly displays that birth, death, life and renewal are prominent themes.
“.By her foot, she saw the carcass of a small bird all over the island she found dead birds: whole, mutilated broken
that was it the web of life.
.The sick and the week died and the young and the strong lived and thrived
. there was no more room, she decided, for feeling sorry for dead things and dying things and sick things: for her mother or even herself . now there was only time to live, survive.”
The tone of this short story is of holding on to a free life at all costs, but still not forgetting who you were before.
“Death Belongs to the Dead, His Father Told Him, and Sadness to the Sad” is set in a café, down the road from a bookshop. It is probably set in Melbourne because there are “Moreton Bay figs in the park.” It is told in the third person as a linear narrative, with the narrator observing everything impartially in the present tense, in the same way that The Man observes the life passing though his café.
The central issue that the story revolves around is The Dying Gentleman’s daily visit to the cafe. At the beginning of the story, The Man does not allow anything to impact on his life, ignoring even the screams for help from a man being chased by an axeman. However, he is attracted to The Dying Gentleman, becoming involved with the struggle that The Dying Gentleman is having with death. At the end of the story, The Man catches The Dying Gentleman as he falls from life, and is left with a dead body.
The ending to the story is effective, bringing the story to a close, practically before the tale has started. The entire story is only about 4 pages long, but it makes an impact on the reader because of the poignant images brought to life by Tim Winton. In this story about death, life is portrayed as something to be looked after, because you never know when death is going to come for you.
Before The Dying Gentleman entered The Man’s life, The Man was not moving forward in life, instead clinging to the words of his father in a futile desire to keep the world the same. The Dying Gentleman’s death is the catalyst for change in The Man’s life, impressing on the reader the importance of living life to the fullest.
At the start, the story “Holding” is situated in Calvin’s car in the city. It’s also set at the houses of the three main characters Calvin and Jan’s and Hart’s, Hart’s work, and the restaurant ‘Picnicks’. The entire short story is set over a period of one to two weeks. It is a third person narration, told in the present tense as a linear narrative. However, Hart has dreams which relate to the future.
“Unexpected but good news, Jan’s pregnant”. Then there was a sad angry tone when Jan has a miscarriage.
The main crisis is that Hart has been having nightmares that Jan gets pregnant and she dies because of a miscarriage. Not long after his dreams Calvin announces in a joyful, happy tone that there is “unexpected but good news. Jan’s pregnant.” Nonetheless, soon after this, Calvin calls Hart and tells him the devastating news, Jan’s had a miscarriage and that it is “fucking awful, worse than having a live one”. Hart’s dreams do not come true however, because Jan survives. After her miscarriage, both Jan and her husband want to keep on moving with their lives and go to the ‘Picnicks’ restaurant to continue past the problem. This end to the story is emotional and has a large effect on all the characters because that’s when Calvin calls Hart to let him know that Jan had a miscarriage.
During Hart’s dream he has a visitor he says A telephone ringing. He swam up, floated across to where it shook spastically on the wall. Took up the receiver. He heard a calm, authoritative voice. ‘I am obliged to tell you that your friend Janice Genders has died as a result of a miscarriage. Goodbye.’ These are very strong words in the story that have a lot of meaning. Also the boy that had cinders as eyes was a major symbol because his dark black eyes have a connection with death. That is why Hart feels it is important to break ‘The Pusher’ because he thinks that doing this will save Jan from death.
A minimum of two is displayed by the relationship between Calvin and his wife Jan and the relationship between Calvin and his best friend Hart.
“Distant Lands” is set in the newsagency which is owned by Fat Maz’ father. The bulk of the story is set at lunch hour and also at night, as a linear narration. The story revolves around the novel Distant Lands and the man who reads it every day in the newsagency. Fat Maz is unhappy about her weight, looks and life but she enjoys watching the man reading the novel because it makes her feel happy to see someone else enjoying something so deeply. Fat Maz is intrigued by the man and goes out of her way to keep the book there for him to read. The ending is effective because when the man finally finishes reading the book and leaves the girl picks up a piece of hair he left in the book. The feeling is of excitement, but also of confusion.
The story promotes that even if there are problems you can still be happy as long as there is at least one other person in your life, hence the relevance of a “minimum of two”
All of the stories in this collection contain the message that you should move on when troubles occur. It is impossible to turn back time, so there is no point in dwelling over things that can’t be changed.