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y separately published work icon An Open Swimmer single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 1982... 1982 An Open Swimmer
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Jerra and his best mate Sean set off in a beaten-up old VW to go camping on the coast. Jerra's friends and family want to know when he will finish university, when he will find a girl. But they don't understand about Sean's mother, Jewel, or the bush or the fish with the pearl. They think he needs a job, but what Jerra is searching for is more elusive. Only the sea, and perhaps the old man who lives in a shack beside it, can help. An Open Swimmer is a remarkable first novel by one of Australia's most loved and respected writers.' (Publication summary)

Notes

  • Dedication: This book is for John and Beverley Winton, two of my best friends.
  • Epigraph: Lines 77-94 from 'Diving into the Wreck' by Adrienne Rich.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Sydney, New South Wales,: Pan , 1983 .
      image of person or book cover 5155435663252195144.jpeg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 175p.
      ISBN: 0330270451
    • Sydney, New South Wales,: Picador , 1987 .
      image of person or book cover 4297171511027317148.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 175p.
      ISBN: 0330270974
    • Ringwood, Ringwood - Croydon - Kilsyth area, Melbourne - East, Melbourne, Victoria,: McPhee Gribble , 1993 .
      image of person or book cover 9191319086654098179.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 163p.
      ISBN: 0869142585
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Collected Shorter Novels of Tim Winton Tim Winton , London : Picador , 1995 Z1487345 1995 selected work novel

    'From the winner of the Australian Vogel Award and Miles Franklin Award. An Open Swimmer is a meditation on the horrors and joys of adulthood; That Eye, the Sky concerns a boy's vision of the world, and In the Winter Dark opens when a dog is torn from its leash by something unseen.' (Publication summary) 

    London : Picador , 1995
    pg. [341]-[442]
    • Camberwell, Camberwell - Kew area, Melbourne - Inner South, Melbourne, Victoria,: Penguin , 1996 .
      image of person or book cover 7528177780120859649.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 163p.
      Reprinted: 1998
      ISBN: 0140257659
    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Penguin , 1998 .
      image of person or book cover 2134317891425710014.jpg
      Cover image courtesy of publisher.
      Extent: 192p.
      Note/s:
      • Published anuary 3, 1998

      ISBN: 9780140274028
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Picador ,
      2003 .
      image of person or book cover 1362535545999926895.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 192p.
      Reprinted: 2011
      ISBN: 0330412582

Other Formats

  • Sound recording.
  • Large print.

Works about this Work

Australia : An Inescapable Cultural Paradigm? Cross- and Transcultural Elements in Tim Winton’s Fiction Tomasz Gadzina , 2016 single work criticism
— Appears in: Journal of the European Association for Studies on Australia , vol. 7 no. 2 2016; (p. 30-40)
'The article considers Tim Winton’s fiction in terms of its cross- and transcultural character. Despite the fact that local Australian settings permeate the writer’s narratives, Winton creates an imaginary space that is both local and transnational in terms of its quality of the domestic culture, which Winton extends beyond its original field of practice. Winton achieves the transcultural quality of his fiction through transgressions and boundary breaking that are possible due to his frequent reworking of the traditional Australian themes and concepts of the unknown, supernatural, mystical, numinous and sacred, exploitation of leitmotifs of journey, transit and in-betweenness, use of cross-cultural symbols as well as various utopian and dystopian topoi such as Arcadia and Heimat.' (Publication abstract)
‘Over the Cliff and into the Water’ : Love, Death and Confession in Tim Winton’s Fiction Hannah Schuerholz , 2014 single work criticism
— Appears in: Tim Winton : Critical Essays 2014; (p. 96-121)

'Tim Winton's female characters show a strong tendency towards self-threatening behaviors, transience and ferocity. This is evident in the violent deaths of Jewel in An Open Swimmer, Maureen in Shallows, Ida's murder in In the Winter Dark [...], Tegwyn's self-harm in That Eye, the Sky, Dolly's alcoholism in Cloudstreet, Eva Sanderson's Hutchence-lookalike death in Breath and, obviously, the ephemerality of mothers in Dirt Music...' (96)

Bodies that Speak : Mediating Female Embodiment in Tim Winton's Fiction Hannah Schuerholz , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , vol. 27 no. 2 2012; (p. 32-50)
An Open Swimmer : In Quest of Wisdom and Emancipation Ajay Khurana , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: IJAS , no. 5 2012; (p. 22-41)
Ajay Khurana examines Tim Winton's first published novel, An Open Swimmer.
Shadow of the Dead : Stories of Transience in Tim Winton's Fiction Hannah Schuerholz , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: Westerly , July vol. 57 no. 1 2012; (p. 164-181)

Explores Tim Winton's treatment of female characters in his fiction and their linkage with images of transience and death.

Prize Winners Robin Marsden , 1983 single work review
— Appears in: Quadrant , June vol. 27 no. 6 1983; (p. 83-84)

— Review of Fly Away Peter David Malouf , 1982 single work novella ; An Open Swimmer Tim Winton , 1982 single work novel
Recent Fiction Helen Eliot , 1983 single work review
— Appears in: Island Magazine , Spring no. 16 1983; (p. 47-48)

— Review of The Terms Jennifer Maiden , 1982 single work novel ; Getting Away with It : A Novel Kevin Brophy , 1982 single work novel ; The Harlots Enter First Gerard Windsor , 1982 selected work short story ; An Open Swimmer Tim Winton , 1982 single work novel ; The Birthday Gift : A Novel Thomas Shapcott , 1982 single work novel
Something's Biting Beside the Fish Elizabeth Riddell , 1982 single work review
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 5 October vol. 102 no. 5334 1982; (p. 112)

— Review of An Open Swimmer Tim Winton , 1982 single work novel
[Review] An Open Swimmer Helen Watson-Williams , 1982 single work review
— Appears in: Westerly , September vol. 27 no. 3 1982; (p. 78-81)

— Review of An Open Swimmer Tim Winton , 1982 single work novel
Unquestionable Talent Ralph Elliott , 1983 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 26 February 1983; (p. 17)

— Review of An Open Swimmer Tim Winton , 1982 single work novel
y separately published work icon Tim Winton : The Writer and His Work Michael McGirr , South Yarra : Macmillan Education Australia , 1999 Z1022919 1999 single work criticism Aimed principally at younger readers and students, this work contains biographical information about Winton which situates him in a Western Australian context and has chapters dealing with each of Winton's novels to date. Each chapter concludes with a section 'Questions and Activities'.
y separately published work icon Mind the Country : Tim Winton's Fiction Salhia Ben-Messahel , Crawley : University of Western Australia , 2006 Z1286107 2006 single work criticism
A Beach Somewhere : The Australian Littoral Imagination at Play Bruce Bennett , 2007 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Littoral Zone : Australian Contexts and Their Writers 2007; (p. 31-44)
A remarkable array of late twentieth and early twenty-first century Australian novelists and short story writers have presented images of West Australian beaches and coastlines. These authors include Robert Drewe, Jack Davis, Randolph Stow, Peter Cowan, Dorothy Hewett, and Tim Winton. Their human dramas have a peculiar poignancy when played out against the natural elements of these Western coasts. Sexual, emotional, or spiritual crises occur in maritime settings that both enhance their memorability and reveal humanity's fragile hold on the continent. (abstract taken from The Littoral Zone)
y separately published work icon Storymen Hannah Rachel Bell , Cambridge Port Melbourne : Cambridge University Press , 2009 Z1637200 2009 single work life story

'What do the artistic works of acclaimed author Tim Winton and eminent Ngarinyin lawman Bungal (David) Mowaljarlai have in common?

'According to Hannah Rachel Bell they both reflect sacred relationship with the natural world, the biological imperative of a male rite of passage, an emergent urban tribalism, and the fundamental role of story in the transmission of cultural knowledge. In Bell's four decade friendship with Mowaljarlai, she had to confront the cultural assumptions that sculpted her way of seeing. The journey was life-changing.

'When she returned to teaching in 2001 Tim Winton's novels featured in the curriculum. She recognised an eerie familiarity and thought Winton must have been influenced by traditional elders to express such an 'indigenous' perspective. She wrote to him. This resulted in 4 years of correspondence and an excavation of converging world views - exposed through personal memoir, letters, paintings and conversations and culminating in Storymen.' (From the publisher's website.)

Great Expectations Peter Craven , 2010 single work column
— Appears in: Australian Author , December vol. 42 no. 3 2010; (p. 6-9)
Last amended 19 May 2020 10:19:44
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