I’ve only read one Tim Winton novel The Ridersand I hated it. However, my mum passed this one onto me and my book club were keen to read it, so I took a deep breath (no pun intended – or maybe just a little) and read it.

Here’s the blurb …

When paramedic Bruce Pike is called out to deal with another teen aged adventure gone wrong, he knows better than his partner – better than the parents – what happened and how. Thirty years before, that dead boy could have been him.

Living in Perth, I loved the Australian references – meeting at the servo and the cold sausages in the fridge, Bill Sanderson being called Sando. I also kept thinking about what town Sawyer was based on – was it Walpole or Margaret River or somewhere else entirely.

This was a quick and easy read and for me it was all about plot. I raced to the end because I wanted to find out Pikelet’s fate. I’ve never really understood the surfing obsession and this novel highlighted that for me. If you’re at all interested in surfing it’s worth reading for all of the surfing stories.

I found the final third of the novel  – the aftermath of the amazing summer of surfing (amongst other things) slow going. Pikelet’s life had been derailed – he couldn’t maintain relationships, he drank too much and was addicted to risk taking (looking for the next adrenalin rush).

I would recommend this novel, but I won’t be reading it again.

Here are a few reviews …

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/may/10/fiction5

http://www.readings.com.au/review/breath-tim-winton

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23620233-25132,00.html