Oriel Lamb
Oriel is the matriarch of the massive Lamb family. She's Lester Lamb’s wife and Quick, Fish, Lon, Hattie, Red, and Elaine’s mother. Throughout the novel, Oriel is the…
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Lester Lamb
Lester is Oriel's husband and the father of Quick, Fish, Lon, Hattie, Red, and Elaine. At various times in his life before the events of the novel, Lester was…
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Fish Lamb
Samson Lamb (nicknamed Samsonfish or just Fish, “for his wit and alertness”) is the second oldest son of Oriel and Lester Lamb, and Quick, Lon, Hattie, Red, and Elaine’s…
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Quick Lamb
Mason Lamb (nicknamed Quick because he’s “as unquick as his father”) is the eldest son of Oriel and Lester Lamb, and Fish, Lon, Hattie, Red, and Elaine’s brother. Quick…
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Rose Pickles
Rose is Sam and Dolly Pickles’s eldest child and their only daughter. Ted and Chub are her brothers, though she doesn't share much of a bond with them and she usually prefers reading or…
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Sam Pickles
Sam is Dolly’s husband and the father of Rose, Ted, and Chub. After losing his right hand and his brother Joel in quick succession, Sam has no choice but to move…
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Dolly Pickles
Dolly is Sam’s wife and the mother of Rose, Ted, and Chub. She’s an alcoholic who constantly struggles with the pain of her past and her longing to travel and experience a…
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Hattie Lamb
Hattie is Oriel and Lester Lamb’s eldest daughter. She seems to grow up much more quickly than her sisters, and she becomes the marbles champion of the neighborhood. She’s overjoyed to marry a dull…
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Elaine Lamb
Elaine is one of Oriel and Lester Lamb’s three daughters. Throughout the novel, Elaine is consistently glum and lonely, always pining for a husband of her own. She becomes jealous when Hattie is the…
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Red Lamb
Red is one of Oriel and Lester Lamb’s three daughters. She's the self-proclaimed tomboy of the family, enjoying her reputation as rougher and more “boyish” than her sisters. As a young adult, she becomes…
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Lon Lamb
Lon is Oriel and Lester Lamb’s youngest son He’s an infant at the beginning of the novel, but as he reaches childhood, he considers his mentally impaired brother Fish to be the baby of…
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Ted Pickles
Ted is one of Sam and Dolly’s two sons. He grows up without interacting with his sister Rose very much, and he eventually moves away from Cloudstreet to live with a young woman after getting…
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Chub Pickles
Chub is one of Sam and Dolly Pickles’s sons. During childhood, he behaves much like his brother Ted, getting into trouble and failing to get along very well with his sister Rose…
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Beryl Lee
Beryl is a lonely widow who lost her husband in World War II. She confides in Oriel at the Anzac club, saying that she sensed Oriel was a Christian woman. Moved by Beryl’s story and…
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Toby Raven
Rose Pickles meets Toby Raven over the phone at work, and she finds him instantly charming and exciting. Toby appears to be an interesting and cultured gentleman, intimidating Rose but appealing to her desire for…
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Lucy Wentworth
Lucy Wentworth is the daughter of one of Quick Lamb’s employers, during the period when Quick lives on his own as a kangaroo hunter. Lucy immediately flirts with Quick and gropes him as he recovers…
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Earl Blunt
Earl is Lester Lamb’s cousin. He lives on a farm in Margaret River with his wife, and the two of them are stern and humorless, hardened by the intense difficulties of the Great Depression. Quick…
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Joel Pickles
Joel is Sam Pickles’s brother, who seems much luckier than Sam until his sudden, fatal heart attack while fishing on the beach. Joel owns the pub that the Pickles family inhabits at the beginning…
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G. M. Clay
G. M. Clay is a World War II veteran and the owner of a shop near Cloudstreet. He becomes Oriel’s competition for a brief period, and Oriel is determined to make her own…
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Minor Characters
Geoffrey Birch
Geoffrey Birch is a dull but polite young man who marries Hattie Lamb. While the rest of the Lamb family doesn't seem very impressed with him on the whole, Hattie adores him, and the two of them seem to live happily together after their wedding.
