In this collection of stories, the characters are ordinary people who battle to maintain loyalty against all odds; women, children and men whose relationships strain under pressure and leave them bewildered, hoping, sometimes fleeing, but often finding strength in forgotten parts of themselves.
Minimum of two – Tim Winton
03
08
21
Fict.it.ious 
Comments on: "Minimum of two – Tim Winton" (7)
This collection of short stories is a simple, beautifully constructed reflection of human life and thought. Jerra and Rachel, the two main characters, appear in several of the short stories as they age and experience parenthood.
This is, in no way, a mystery or romance novel and can be hard for some people to find enjoyment in. It doesn’t inspire the imagination and isn’t light-hearted in the slightest; with stories of suicide, murder and rape. However, it is almost a crystal clear reflection of emotions and life. It serves as a mirror set against why we act the way we do and what prompts us to behave in certain ways. In this way, these simple stories have much deeper meanings. The use of metaphors and similes give depth and makes readers pause and contemplate.
It’s a thought provoking story if you apply yourself and read with an open mind. I rate it a 3/5 and recommend it for anyone over the age of 18; it requires a mature eye to be truly appreciated.
LikeLike
This book has many different short stories in it. However, many of these stories follow the life of Jerra Nilsam. Jerra is an ordinary Australian that goes through many struggles. These include; the loss of a loved one, the hardships of maintaining a stable income, the burden of responsibility and many more. The stories of Jerra Nilsam don’t happen in chronological order but are in fact, scattered in different orders throughout the book. This makes it hard to understand what is going on, it makes it easier to gather what is going on. The title of the novel is ‘Minimum of Two’ and it comes from the story, ‘Minimum of Two’. This story is very confronting as it talks about the rape of a man’s wife. Overall, this book is quite challenging to read as it may be hard to understand as well as it can be confronting in different stories.
LikeLike
I was really excited to start reading Minimum of Two, a collection of short stories by Tim Winton (a critically acclaimed Australian author who has written many books in fiction and non fiction for both adults, teenagers and young children). I had never read a collection of short stories before and found them very different from full-length novels. You only get a short snippet of the characters, their background and the overall context of the story such as the setting. They are a little annoying to read because I just to keep reading and discovering more about that particular story (such as why a character acts a certain or has a certain belief regarding a specific topic or event) but what I do enjoy about reading short stories is it gives you a glimpse into different genres of stories and ways of writing. Even though Minimum of Two is written by one author, he still writes and describes things differently depending on the plot and the characters involved. I rate this collection of short stories by Tim Winton, 3 out of 5 stars.
LikeLike
As apart of our year 11 criteria, we read Minimum of Two and I would highly recommend it. Its a novel full of different short stories that demonstrate the values of healthy relationship, family, love, and perseverance. It doesn’t take long to read and its not too hard to understand, I would recommend for mature readers , from year 10 and above and would rate it 8/1
LikeLike
This book is definitely not one of my favourites. I found that in this novel especially that Tim Winton’s style of writing is really quite hard to read. Also the fact that it is all just short stories, it really didn’t appeal to me. Though all the stories are muddled up there is one story that you can follow and it’s the story of Jerra and Rachel. It starts with the birth of their son right up until he is a young boy. It’s very lives a terribly miserable which makes this book even harder to read. I have found that in order to really understand the stories you need to analyse each one individually which it terribly time consuming. It is definitely not a light read at all and not something I would recommend others read.
LikeLike
This is a very difficult book to read. As the stories are not in chronological order it can be very difficult to follow the first time that it is read, I actually couldn’t finish it the first time as I was extremely confused with what was happening. For most of the stories they follow an Australian couple Jerra and Rachel, and the struggles they endured throughout different times in their lives such as childbirth and when Jerra has an affair. These stories were quite interesting, when they were analysed and broken down. The language of this book however is extremely easy to read, as it is concise with short sentences. If you are looking for a read that doesn’t involve much thinking, I wouldn’t recommend this book for you.
LikeLike
Reading this book at home, I had to force myself to get through each short story. The way in which they were written made them seem like they were all connected and related, which they weren’t. Similar themes were explored in each short story which created extra confusion. It wasn’t until the meaning of the book was explained to me by my teacher that I actually understood that some stories were related but not all. Reading single stories at a time unpacked each story a lot easier and it also helped me understand the meaning and story line of each story line a lot more. Despite reading the book through twice now I’m still very confused as I mix the stories up and the characters and their lives. The Jerra and Rachel stories were interesting and once the reader can figure out which stories are related to these characters you get an interesting look into their life, past and present. Some stories are extremely unusual, particularly ones involving murders and traumatic births.I wouldn’t recommend this book at all and would rate it a 2/10. A very switched on reader would be the only one able to understand this book and not get confused.
LikeLike