Cloudstreet

Cloudstreet

new suburb in a new street. I want a
car out the front and some mowed lawn.
I want a small, neat house that only we
live in, Quick. I don’t ever want to live
anywhere old, where people have been
before. Clean and new, that’s what I
want.pg.326

After a month of being a copper Quick
Lamb discovered that in a shift he’d
walk further than a whore,
streetsweeper, salesman or vagrant and
look more out of place in the windripped
heart of the city than any of them. Up and
down he walked. People went to work,
got off and on trams and trolleys, they
parked cars, ate lunch, filled pubs and
went home. Evil seemed to evaporate
wherever he went. Pg.331

You stole from me. My
childhood, my innocence, my trust. You
were always a hateful bitch. A drunken
slut. You beat us and shamed us in
public. I hate you for all the reasons you
hate yourself, and I wanted to kill you
the way you wanted to kill yourself.
Everything, you stole from me. Even
when I was a teenager you competed
with me, your looks against mine. Shit,
even my grief you steal from me. You
can’t imagine how I hate you. Pg.352

We’re getting somewhere, Rose thought.
Our own house, a baby, money in the
bank. She had dreams of furniture, neat
rugs, lino tiles, a TV, the smell of Pine-
O-Clean. A clean, orderly, separate
place with fences. Pg.359

On the streets at night no
one moves. No one goes out. There’s a
murderer out there and no one knows
what he wants, where he is, who he is,
and why he kills. This is Perth, Western
Australia, whose ambitions know no
limit. And the streets are empty. Pg.365

The house was full of comings and
goings. Repairs were planned, though
nothing ever eventuated, and just the
idea gave the place a fresh look. Pg.390

It
was getting stupid, Oriel decided, the
way Rose and Quick wandered from
kitchen to kitchen, not knowing who they
were supposed to eat with, and besides,
if they ate with the Pickleses it was a
sure bet that poor...

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