Lonely Planet Sean & David's Long Drive (Travel Literature) [Paperback]

Sean Condon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2009 | Series: Travel Literature

Sean Condon is young, urban and connoisseur of wax. He can't drive, and he doesn't really travel well. So when Sean and his friend David set out to explore Australia in a duck-egg blue 1966 Ford Falcon, the result is a decidedly offbeat look at life on the road. Over 14,000 death-defying kilometers, our heroes check out the re-runs on tv, get fabulously drunk, listen to Neil Young and wonder why they ever left home. Sean and David's Long Drive mixes sharp insight with deadpan humor and outright lies. Crank it up and read it out loud.

Editorial Reviews

Review

a hilariously detailed log of two burned-out friends' --Rolling Stone
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 296 pages
• Publisher: Lonely Planet; 2nd edition (February 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1741795222
• ISBN-13: 978-1741795226
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #928,611 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An entertaining slacker travelogue of Australia, April 25, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Minneapolis, MN, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sean & David's Long Drive (Paperback)

I'm an American who will be traveling to Australia for the first time in one week, so I read this book for "background." It's quite funny-- Sean Condon has a certain sarcastic yet empathic way of looking at the world. He's sort of a Gen-X cross between Bill Bryson and Dave Barry.

What was also interesting to me is the degree to which American pop culture had totally saturated Sean and David's worldview and vocabulary as they talk back and forth during the trip. They not only reference the easy stuff that everyone in the Western world knows-- Charlton Heston, Disneyland-- but also obscure pop cultural references that I thought we had agreed to keep within our own borders-- e.g., The Hawaii epsiodes of "The Brady Bunch" and Snuggle the Bear. It sort of depresses me; I wished there was more of an even exchange, but I guess the only Australian pop cultural references shared by my generation here in the US are that "Kookaberra/gum tree" song and Crocodile Dundee.

All in all this is an entertaining book. It shatters the impression of a desolate Outback when Sean can tune into bad TV shows from a hotel near Ayers Rock. I'm really looking forward to their next book, their drive across the US.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hilarious novel, and not to be read as a travel guide!, June 26, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Sean & David's Long Drive (Paperback)

This was a side-splitting jocular good read! As an American, I really thought it was intriquing to read about the continent of Australia by an Australian who had not ventured out in his country until his late 20's. Condon's neurotic travel mannerisms are marked, and they can get on your nerves after awhile, but it makes it all the more real-life. Read for enjoyment of a good story rather than a travel guide to Australia, it is enjoyable and funny. The drunken adventures of two Gen-Xers is really one of a kind fun! I look forward to reading their adventures here in the states. Now Sean, try to have a little more fun here, and leave the neurotic stuff in Australia and have a ball here in the good old US of A!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I even loved Angry Terry!, August 28, 2003

By 

Tony Hughes "stellarossa, From Fear to Flatte... (Cincinnati, Ohio United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sean & David's Long Drive (Paperback)

Sean fills his debut novel with enough wit, information, inaneness and Condonia to keep you smiling throughout this lengthy travelogue. I loved this book the first time I read it and my opinion hasn't changed yet.

A lot of us readers will never get to visit many or most of the places Sean and David do so we have to rely on what Sean writes as a sort of (occasionally very) offbeat guide to Australia and Australians.

Driving through the snow in Northern New Mexico I read then re-read a line in this book (Fossey Sisters in case you want to read that bit). I could not utter it to my girlfriend for laughing so much.

I would recommend this to anyone who has an interest in travel.