Customer Reviews

One for the Road: Revised Edition

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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.

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.

Tony Horwitz, with an Australian bride is residing in Sydney, and thoroughly fed up with the sameness of city life, embarks upon a hitchhikers tour of the Outback. At the outset, I couldnt 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 allhis willingness to be human like the rest of us. He dislikes spending the night under the stars, cant 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 mightlike Tonyhave a bit of a hangover!

As another American who lived in Australia for many years, let me assure any prospective buyer of this book that the author really gets the place.

He started out like many, seduced by life in megalopolitan Sydney, thinking that the superficial similarites between two essentially suburban cultures mean that there's little for an American to learn from his adopted home.

Life on the road teaches him otherwise.

There's a certain melancholy to life in Australia, which Horwitz comes to understand over his journey; the physical journey across a forbidding continent contrasts with his internal journey as a moden young man, a lapsed rebel, a faithful husband and a sentimentally observant Jew (Is this trip his own wandering in the desert, perhaps?)

I was moved by the story of Horwitz's passage across the northwest of Western Australia (beginnning on page 136). It's here that he surrenders his obsession with getting to the next town, and begins to understand the weft and weave of his surroundings.

The story of finding a Jewish family in Broome with whom to celebrate Passover--an Akubra sunhat acting as a makeshift yarmulke--warmed my heart, simply because I know that any true Australian would be equally welcoming to a displaced stranger.

And the story of Anzac Day the following morning...well, I've never heard anyone capture the curious mixture of joy and pain that marks the Australian Memorial Day as succinctly as Tony did. An ostesnsible victory witout glory--what kind of a nation does this make? He summed it up in three paragraphs or so.

Buy it, even if you never intend to visit Australia. It will help you understand the mind of an eventual Pulitzer Prize winner, and the experiences that opened his mind.

Oh, by the way, Tony, I'm serious about the offer of a beer.

The best kind of book - a non-fiction page turner. Horwitz writes about his slow grinding hitchhiking tour through the expanse and heat of the Australian outback. He does so with constant wit and determined irreverance. It is just plain fun to be along for the ride.

But I don't think his only purpose is entertain us. I think he also wants to show us the character of the Australian people. He succeeds. We discover a tough, independent, hard drinking, hard fighting, and hard laughing people. He tells his stories so well that we are left changed. We are left with a fresh new look at the what Australia is about.

Read this book. You'll look forward to every new page and when you are done, you are left a little changed. What more could you want in a book?

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.

There are some constraints to Australian road travel - the chief one being that the cities, hence, the roads, hug the coasts. There are dangers, desolation, loneliness, above all, heat. And flies. It takes some courage to face these conditions alone, even in modern times. Tony Horwitz faced them alone and on foot - some of the time. The result was a fantastic voyage and a superb account.

Horwitz is an unlikely prospect for an Australian adventurer. A transplanted Yank [Washington, DC to Sydney], urban [New York City to, again, Sydney] and Jewish [novel in the Outback]. These conditions might fatally impair the less adventurous, but Horwitz can "boldly go" [as he did in a later book] and so he does. With singular dedication, he even starts his trek heading West from Sydney past Dubbo to the Alice. With no direct Sydney to Alice route, the journey is circuitous, a fine introduction to the later expedition. Here, Horwitz encounters people and displays his talent at recording them. The limited number of roads implies limited options and few rides. It's a closed world and he becomes "the crazy Yank we heard about back in Nevertire."

Constricted view doesn't inhibit Horwitz' abilities. He has an advantage over many travel writers - he's a journalist first and a traveller after. A perceptive eye and a talented pen record his reaction to the land of Australia. And the people he encounters, which become the focus of his attention. He's good with people, drawing them out - fulfilling the image of the chatty Yank, entertaining, but somehow provocative. The drivers, pub keepers and drinkers respond to his novelty. He records them with lively asides, keeping your interest with every page. 'Surely, these can't be real people,' you may think. No worries - Horwitz has captured them intimately, intruding only lightly as they respond to his queries.

A poignant chapter, describing his search for a Jewish family in Broome with whom to celebrate Passover, is the highlight of the book. Noting the town's multiracial population, he observes: "Australians . . . seem uncomfortable when the subject of Judaism is raised." He attributes the feeling purely to ignorance, not prejudice, a welcome change from attitudes toward the "Abos." Horowitz, although claiming atheism, remains drawn to the family assemblage of the seder. Alone in Broome, he discovers a new level of solitude - in this polyglot community, Jews are rarer than jewels. He pores over the telephone directory which only displays "an Anglo-Saxon litany of Browns, Harrisons and Smiths." A solution beckons in the guise of a local priest. "It is a common sort of misconception. If there's no rabbi about, well, try a priest. One religious ratbag's as good as another." The solution, however, lies elsewhere. The situation amply portrays Horwitz' humanity, absolving him of any stigma of the detached, unfeeling journalist. His roots are a significant element in his life, one that gently, but insistently, haunts him. This book can haunt you - as it does me.

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.

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.

This is Tony Horwitz's intial entry his into travel series preceding "Confederates in the Attic" and "Blue Lattitudes". As a Yank living in Sydney Australia, he leaves his newspaper to journey 7,000 miles, in the mid 1980s, across the outback and western Australian coastline with his thumb and a ruckasack. Horowitz has a gift for being descriptive of not only the landscape but also the people, capturing not only their lifestyle but even their dialogue. That includes both intersting and amusing descriptions or talk. Crossing barren country dependent on a wide variety of transportation in various forms of condition, particular the Australian Ute panel truck, as well as riding with friendly aborigines who in one instance use him to buy beer where it is illegal to sell to the natives as part of a hospitality exchange for a ride. You get a real feel for the hard life in the outback and a view of the different yet hard forms of work that is done by the people of the outback while on on the roads or of course the pubs that are the main centers of every town no matter how small. Each town, driver and interesting person has a story and Horowitz captures them all. He also mixs a little history and travelers education of the land both past and present. Of course, Horowitz sprinkles it all with dry humor particularly as he runs into some interesting situations such as the outback man's love of beer, particularly Fosters, "the blue one". A defining qoute from Horwitz' Australian wife is very striking when she comments that Americans tend to panic when they cannot see evidence of another person while out in the wilderness whereas in Australia, that is the norm in most of Australia. An enjoyable book where the land and the people are captured like verbal snapshots. After finishing this book, I had to go out and buy Fosters beer. I only found it sold in a 24 ounce can, which seems appropriate as a man in the outback can empty the contents quite readily on a hot day after a long day of work.