Customer Reviews

The Ultimate Aphrodisiac

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This is an unusual and, for me, a highly entertaining book.

Somehow, the characters in this book touched a deeply entrenched race memory in the Australian psyche. I mean, wow, what more could one ask for than to be plucked from obscuring and given the opportunity to live with on a tropical island with ultimate surf, parties all night with all you can drink cocktails, dope and no hangovers, beautiful and available babes, eternal youth and great mates that love the exactly the same thing as you.

Right down to the Aussie slang, never ending cups of coffee, cold beers and eskies of sandwiches, Bobby captures exactly the carefree and endless summers of childhood and youth that us fortunate ones who grew up in Australia remember.

If you didn't grow up in Oz, you may find some of the lingo mystifying, and even non-Sydneysiders may not follow terms like `Westie'. For me though, that's part of the charm of reading the book - where everyone speaks in a way that matches the lifestyle that all true-blue Australians want.

The story is not particularly fast moving, but who cares when I can read it and feel the luxurious nostalgia of it all?

Americans politicians are portrayed extremely negatively - with it being fairly obvious that Bush, Rumsfeld and others in the Republican party are taken from reality, names changed and dropped into the story as stupid bullies that look for an excuse to smash up a small, apparently defenceless country for internal political gain.

Outside of the US, this feeling of the Bush administration is very common and the parallels with the second Iraq war are striking.

The French are also portrayed negatively, reflecting the general Australian sentiment that the French are similarly arrogant, just not as powerful. There are pointed reminders of the Auckland harbour sinking of the Rainbow Warrior by the French foreign intelligence Service and the generally resented French presence in the South Pacific where they like to set off nuclear devices.

Being a comedy, its fun reading the effortless and massive loss of life dealt out to the US and France by this tiny underdog island. On a serious note though is the definite political message that this sort of thing happens for real all of the time - usually with western powers dishing it out to 3rd world countries.

I have to say that I was wondering how Robert was going to wind up the novel, and for some reason has the only sad parts in the whole book. Its different - that's all I'll say. Perhaps Robert is eluding to the sometimes shallow nature of relationships and families in Australia, and that despite the fun and magnificent environment, it can be vacuous and nihilistic as well.

Nice one, Bobby. 5 stars.