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Private Notes
Set in and around Perth during the 40s and 50s, Cloudstreet tells the story of two rural families who suffer separate catastrophes and flee to the city to pick up the pieces of their lives and start again.
Brought together in the same house at No.1 Cloud Street, the Lambs and the Pickles share numerous tragedies and triumphs that draw them closer together, until the roof over their heads becomes a home for their hearts.
Fate robs Sam Pickles of his fingers and the Lamb's son suffers a near-drowning. Sam inherits a house in Perth, but bad luck leads him to rent half of it out. The Lambs move in to No. 1 Cloud Street.
Years have passed, but little has changed. The Lambs are still bustlers, the Pickles do little.
The Lambs have established a successful local store in the front room of their half of the house, while the Pickles are still blown by the winds of fate in their half. Both families have ups and downs but then good times seem to be there for both.
Rose's antipathy towards Dolly has grown — particularly when Dolly tells her she has to leave school and get a job. Rose's brother, cheeky little Ted (Dolly's favourite) is now a jockey and a hit with the girls. And Quick Lamb is still looking after his little brain-damaged brother Fish, and still feeling a sense of guilt over the fishing accident in which Fish nearly drowned.
Soon, the pressure of those feelings leads him to snap and he walks out of Cloudstreet — despite his mothers orders for him to stay.
Winning moments never last, however, and news arrives from Adelaide that Ted has died of a heart attack in a sauna while trying to lose weight (as jockeys do). Dolly is inconsolable, although she makes renewed attempts to see if alcohol will console her. Rose makes a token effort to comfort her mother, but her fundamental contempt for Dolly makes this impossible.
The house is still groaning and suffering — worse than ever. Life is now as divided and dislocated as it will ever be. Rose is, emotionally, as far from her mother and her family as she will ever be. Quick is physically as far from Fish and his family as he will ever be. Oriel is furthest away from the faith she once had. And Sam, as always, is just waiting to see what happens next.
