Rating: 
Summary: The Real "Sunburnt" Country
Review: Tony Horwitz, with an Australian bride is residing in Sydney, and thoroughly fed up with the sameness of city life, embarks upon a hitchhiker�s tour of the Outback. At the outset, I couldn�t quite get my mind around the premise of trying to hitch rides in an area so desolate, a day or two might go by before a car was even seen, let alone a driver that would extend the courtesy of a ride. Tony is here to tell you it can be done with a lot of determination on his part and friendliness and compassion on the part of his Australian hosts. (At certain junctures, I would call these affable drivers �life savers� as well.) The author has unique encounters with the �real� people of the Outback: truck drivers, farmers (�cockies�), Aboriginals, and opal miners. I enjoyed his laid-back sense of humor, his insightfulness, and �most of all�his willingness to be human like the rest of us. He dislikes spending the night under the stars, can�t pitch a tent, is agonized by flies and mosquitoes and becomes violently sea-sick while catching a �ride� in a crawfish trawler. The chapter �Pearls Before Matzo Balls� describes trying to find a Jewish family with whom to celebrate Passover in the delightful town of Broome in Western Australia. He looks in the telephone book in vain for a Jewish name, but finally gets steered in the right direction by an unusual Catholic priest. This chapter epitomizes the hilarious strangeness of his entire trip to the red hot center of Australia. It is a good idea to read the glossary at the back before you begin. I found that a �Pub� is called a �hotel� in the Outback, and I kept wondering why in world all these Holiday Inn/Marriott-types were sitting in the middle of nowhere. Another warning, the Outback is awash in beer. In the Western Territory, the average yearly consumption is 52 gallons (!) for every man, woman and child. Distances between �hotels� are measured in six-packs rather than miles or kilometers. A fun, sprightly read, though when you reach the end of the journey, you might�like Tony�have a bit of a hangover!
Rating:
Summary: Australian Outback pub crawl...
Review: Two of my favorite books are Tony Horwitz's Confederates in the Attic and Blue Latitutdes. So I was anxious to read his earlier works. One for the Road was actually published in 1987, but was re-released in 1999 after the success of his later books. Twenty seven years old and freshly married to a girl from Australia, Horwitz decides to take a break from his newspaper job and follow a teenage fantasy to hitchhike through the Outback of Australia.
The Outback is more desolate than you could even imagine. Thousands of miles of highway snake through this barren area, and many of them are not even paved. In many spots, livestock outnumber people by as much as 2000 to one. The landscape has very few distinguishing characteristics save for the many abandoned cars and trucks that dot the roadway. People who travel through Aboringinal areas need special permission. And maps are totally undependable when it comes to landmarks in that rivers are dry, lakes are nonexistent, and towns may consist of a few houses, a petrol station and always a pub. Even a large town sneaks up on Horwitz in that almost all the houses, hotels, shops and restaurants are burrowed underground. Kangaroos, wombats and emus far outnumber cars, and a busy road might see three vehicles in a day. Traveling becomes more an act of survival than a pleasant pastime.
The Outback is made even more interesting by the people Horwitz meets. A young couple with a baby travel 800 miles round trip every 2-3 weeks for supplies. Young men give up their jobs to try their luck in the opal mines. A Tasmanian family rides through on vacation. A group of Japanese scientists are searching for a clearer view of Halley's Comet. And ranchers and Aborginals abound. The Outback is truly a melting pot, and Horwitz finds people from almost all parts of the glove. What ties all of them together are the pubs. Very few of the inhabitants of the Outback will drive by a pub with out stopping for brew, and then stocking up more for the road. Alcoholism is a major problem in Australia.
Horwitz loves to travel and seems to have made it a career. One for the Road is entertaining, but this book is a lightweight next to Confederates in the Attic (where he travels through the south) and Blue Latitudes (following the journeys of Captain Cook). Still, for a person who will probably never travel to Australia, it's a fascinating look at a very remote area. One for the Road also gives us a peak at the future of what this talented writer will become. And finally, as a young groom, it allowed Horwitz one last folly before settling down for good.
Rating:
Summary: A dusty, irreverent, beer-soaked adventure
Review: When I finished reading this book, I felt like I had spent a month swatting flies, drinking Darwin stubbies, riding in the back of utes, breathing dust, and choking on diesel exhaust. Having spent some time hitchhiking through the Australian Outback myself, I can say honestly that Horwitz's observations about the people there are true. I did find myself amazed at his inability to find anything naturally beautiful except for Uluru (Ayers Rock)--on numerous occasions he misses beautiful places narrowly, in favor of the next pub or the next mining town, and ends up claiming that the Outback connsists of nothing but barren plains and dry lake beds. Not entirely true. But he certainly captures the essential desperation and loneliness of the people of the Australian bush. The book is at times a little monotonous, but at least Horwitz knew enough to keep his adventure short. His observations are wry, a little condescending, and usually perceptive. Not a great work of literature, but an above-average travel book and a must for anyone hitching through the Outback.
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