Zen Notions of Landscape and Self Reflected in Tim Winton's 'Cloudstreet'

Abstract

Nine-year-old Samson "Fish" Lamb drowns when on a family fishing expedition. Seemingly through her concrete will, his mother brings him back to life; but what seems miraculous turns out otherwise, for Fish is alive but abnormal. The Lambs' quid pro quo kind of Christianity cannot withstand the assault. As newly converted atheists they head for Perth, where they rent half of the Pickles' decaying mansion, where for the next twenty years they swim in their own sea of incompletion. And for the next twenty years whenever he is near water, Fish must be tied to a tree or the seat of a boat to stop him plunging himself into eternity.