I think Tim Winton is a national treasure. I love to hear him speak about the writing process; I love his advocacy work for the environment. These are a few of my favourite things about Tim Winton.

But I must admit I have found many of his recent books hard work. Juice is the hardest. It’s a melange of The Road, Mad Max and The Hurt Locker. It’s told in the first person, as the narrator tells his story to a man who could kill him at any moment. This is hugely problematic as no-one, let alone a bloke who has little education and is basically rough as guts, speaks the way Winton writes - it doesn’t work!

The mood is relentlessly bleak with no humour to lift the story. I couldn’t understand why the characters kept going, to be quite honest. Living was merely existing, with no joy or hope for the future. And the story could have been told in a book with half the word count. It was repetitive, with the narrator talking about different battles with different combatants - it was impossible to feel any empathy with him or any of the characters, who we never got to know or understand.

So, I love the author, but didn’t love the book!