One for the Road: Revised Edition

The author has unique encounters with the yrealy people of the Outback: truck drivers, farmers (ycockiesy), Aboriginals, and opal miners. I enjoyed his laid-back sense of humor, his insightfulness, and ymost of allyhis willingness to be human like the rest of us. He dislikes spending the night under the stars, canyt pitch a tent, is agonized by flies and mosquitoes and becomes violently sea-sick while catching a yridey in a crawfish trawler.

The chapter yPearls Before Matzo Ballsy 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 yPuby is called a yhotely 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 yhotelsy are measured in six-packs rather than miles or kilometers.

A fun, sprightly read, though when you reach the end of the journey, you mightylike Tonyyhave a bit of a hangover!


Hitch-hiking in Australia   May 13, 2001
 3 out of 3 found this review helpful

This was my second Horwitz book. I had quite high expectations after "Confederates in the Attic" and I was generally satisfied with this one (actually one of his first works). Horwitz's tale is a true personal account of hitchhiking through Australia. He moves to Sydney with his Australian-born wife and can't resist the pull to see the high country.

He gains quirky inisights into the culture and land, and is nearly killed in a freak accident along the way! By the end of the book you'll be fluent in slang Australian...Horwitz even encloses a dictionary for your convenience.

"One for the Road" gives you a good flavor for the Aussie culture...but I was left with an uncertain feeling as to his purpose. It oscillates between a curiousity of Australia and a longing for his boyhood days of hitch-hiking. So it seems that from the start of his book to the end, he changed his purpose for writing it. Still a very enjoyable read. Horwitz writes as true seasoned journalist...his Aussie anecdotes will keep you intrigued in this page-turner.


A backpack and a sense of adventure   August 16, 2000
 27 out of 27 found this review helpful

Tony Horwitz is fast becoming my one of my favorite authors. I loved "Confederates in the Attic" and "Baghdad Without a Map" and looked forward to reading "One for the Road", his very first book which describes his adventures hitchhiking across the Australian outback in 1987 at the age of 27.

With only a backpack and a sense of adventure, he shares his journey with the reader, skillfully describing the mostly desolate terrain and the people he meets along the way. His sense of humor and instinctive quest for the quirky detail made me smile often and I tried to read this small 206-page book as slowly as possible because I just wanted it to last.

I'm a mature city-dwelling grandmother and it's unlikely I'll ever stand by the side of the road with a cardboard sign and an outstretched thumb (or index finger as they do in Australia) waiting for a stranger to open a car door and share a little piece of his or her life with me. But for the moments that I was engaged in the book, Tony Horwitz brought me right there.

He made me feel the 100-degree-plus heat, the flies so dense he had to squint his eyes. My head swirled with the countless bottles of beer he described drinking as he tried to ignore the fact that most of the drivers who picked him up were drunk. He slept in his clothes by the side of the road, met aboriginals and opal diggers and got seasick working as a deck hand on a fishing boat.

And I also experienced the wonder of it all, the freedom of waking up in the morning and not knowing what the day will bring, the time to relish each moment, and the writer's eye to make the trip real for the many people destined to read his book. Occasionally, the book got a bit slow, but that is not a criticism, but rather just part of the reality of the experience.

I really loved this book. And wish there were more books out there by this author. Hopefully, he'll write another book soon. And I know I'll be one of the first in line to order it.


on the road again with Horwitz   February 8, 2000
 14 out of 14 found this review helpful

No book by Horwitz can be categorized easily. Rather than a "travel" book, it reads more like an existential narrative in which the author immerses himself in the Australian outback and studies the persons he encounters as well as the places. In the process, he seems to take a journey inward, and discovers some things about himself. I learned some about the outback from this book; Horwitz addresses racial tensions (though without the depth of understanding that he later shows in "Confederates"). He is terrifically funny, with just a thin edge of cynicism. To me, however, this book's real draw is what it teaches about humans who choose to live in the "bush", i.e., far from civilization. Those who do so often gravitate to one of two extremes. Either they become gregarious and extroverted (read: constantly ready and able to tell fabulous whoppers in which they are cast in the starring role), or they eventually see interaction with other humans a frightful chore (read: a thousand yard stare in a ten foot room). The characters vignetted by Horwitz portray this accurately, as I daily see the same two extremes, living in "bush" Alaska for 7 years. It's just colder here. Read this book if you're interested in people who choose to live outside the lines. I recommend it.


Great Adventure/Coming of Age story   December 23, 1999
 5 out of 5 found this review helpful

Great book, fast and fun read. If you've read Horwitz's later books (Confederates in the Attic and Baghdad Without a Map), you can see his writing progressing from near greatness to greatness. This, as are all his books, is lucid, compelling, insightful and witty and just plain fun to read.

A 27-year-old traversing the Australian outback is bound to be a hilarious experience. Indeed, it is. If you're looking for a great coming of age book and cultural experience, I highly recommend this book.