My ambivalence towards Tim Winton novels

At the conference today Roberta Kwan gave a fascinating paper on the theological dimensions to Tim Winton's novel Cloudstreet. This is a classic Australian novel and Roberta did a great job teasing out the "authorial intent" [within the framework of Kevin van Hoozer' theological hermeneutics] of the novel.

For a while I read quite a few of Winton's novels and enjoyed them, but I eventually found them too dark and too ambiguous. Two years ago I read Breath but I found the content too disturbing, but I know I am missing a lot. A post by Ben Myers extracts a section which shows both the subtlety, profundity, and disruptive character which I find so characteristic of Winton.