Cloudstreet

Cloudstreet is the story of two families struggling to make ends meet in a run down house in Perth during the twenty years after World War II. It is a book about community that stirs deep hungers for belonging.
Fish Lamb’s Sadness Radar
The significance of the title of this chapter is shown in the opening sentences.
“Quick Lamb reads the paper every day and sees the long lists of the missing believed killed, and the notices in memoriam for sons and fathers and brothers. The war’s over, he knows, but he picks up sadness like he’s got a radar for it.”
We are introduced to the ‘poor kids’ that Quick sees at school. They are brothers, Wogga & Darren McBride. He notices that they have a strange way of eating their lunch, and he watches them every day at school. “… he knows what he’s begun to suspect – Wogga McBride and his brother aren’t eating anything at all; they’re just pretending. Out of pride, they’re going through the motions of unwrapping, passing...