Cloudstreet is the story of two families struggling to make ends meet in a run down house in Perth during the twenty years after World War II. It is a book about community that stirs deep hungers for belonging. Fish Lamb's Sadness Radar The significance of the title of this chapter is shown in the opening sentences. "Quick Lamb reads the paper every day and sees the long lists of the missing believed killed, and …showed first 75 words of 956 total…

…showed last 75 words of 956 total…to retrieve her drunken mother and direct her home, but Dolly is "...rooted to her soft chair in the ladies lounge..." with all the old girls that Rose hates. The relationship between Rose and her mother is firmly established, with Rose stating that she thinks her mother should be at home taking care of her and her brothers, not in the pub getting drunk and leaving them all at home alone to fend for themselves.