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| One for the Road: Revised Edition | 
 enlarge | Author: Tony Horwitz
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: $13.00
Buy New: $4.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (21 reviews)
Sales Rank: 81161
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Edition: Revised
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.6
ISBN: 0375706135
Dewey Decimal Number: 910
EAN: 9780375706134
ASIN: 0375706135
Publication Date: October 5, 1999
Release Date: October 5, 1999
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
Fair dinkum April 1, 2005
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
When you go to a good movie about boxing, like Rocky, you come out of the theatre thinking you could be a boxer and you shadowbox your way across the parking lot. After reading Tony Horwitz's "One for the Road", you'll find yourself thinking you can speak in Aussie slang. Same effect is people will look at you like you're a blithering idiot.
This is the first book by Horwitz that I've read and I will be reading his others soon enough. As for this one, I truly enjoyed the book in its simpleness and easy flow of readability. The author takes a break from his job and decides he's going to finger it across the bush and outback of Australia. You join Horwitz as he gets ride after ride from small towns (usually nothing much more than a pub) and encounters a wide blend of personalities and lifestyles as he hitchhikes through the land.
The lightness of Horwitz's writing is enjoyable and relaxing. His adventures through Australia consists of continuous short rides in which distance is measure in how many beers you need to drink to fight off the heat. He takes the circuitous route to get from Sydney to Darwin, travelling up the east coast, going inland, coming south through the middle of the continent, swinging over to Perth, and then coast crawling the west coast up to Darwin. Through it all he survives a nasty car wreck near Uluru (Ayers Rock), delves into the spiritual status of Uluru among Aboriginies, meets desperate opal miners, sleeps in a ditch with underwear over his head during a cyclone, peaks at Halley's comet, rides with a complaining Tassie family, endures the roadside junkyards of dead vehicles, fears to be the only Jew in the land during Passover, manages to realign himself with 'Nor'west Time', and strives to push through his dwindling interest in hitchhiking as he rounds the northern coast of Australia.
Overall, "One for the Road" is an expression of survival by travelling through the central deserts of the land down under. It's a pleasureable read and a good introduction into what will become a favored author in travelogues in the form of Tony Horwitz. Whew, I made it throuw the review and only used one Aussie term in the title so as not to look like a mug, ocker, or cockie so now she'll be jake.
Australian Outback pub crawl... September 15, 2004
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
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.
Funny and lucid travel writing January 29, 2004
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
The author, an American ex-pat living and working as a newspaper reporter in Australia, gets the wanderlust and decides to hitch around Australia. He circumnavigates the continent, nearly, and travels deep into the Northern Territory and South Australia. (He wisely avoids the utter emptiness of Western Australia.) He meets a variety of Australians: truckies, anti-environmental loggers and tourists, racists, Aborigines in beat-up "utes" (utility vehicles, like pickup trucks), and professional wanderers. He hunkers down in a ditch during a cyclone, wonders at the oddities of Australian cartography ("rivers" and "lakes" are plentiful in name, but dry as dust in reality), and watches as his chauffeurs down dozens of beers per hour. It seems that the Outback, for all its barren aridity, is dotted with pubs. Horwitz is an excellent writer. He descibes the heat and the flies with great detail, finds poingnacy in meeting one of the only other Jews in Broome at Passover, and draws humor from the most aggrieving situations, such as the publican who hates serving food or letting rooms. This book is a page-turner, but more than that, it introduces a great part of Australian culture with wit and skill. Great reading.
 Seen better on the subject November 7, 2003
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
I agree with some of the other reviewers regarding Horwitz's other works. He has certainly served up much better fare with his other works.The story is very formulaic and lacks the cooky characters you'd think you might encounter on a journey like this. Don't get me wrong, there are a few odd and interesting people we meet here and there, but much of the book feels rushed. Get picked up, drive X amount of miles, get dropped off, wait in the sun, till get picked up and repeat cycle. There are some classic Horwitz one liners and oberservations but I'm not sure it warrants reading this book. He has a car accident in the middle of his journey, ironically as he's driving himself not hitchhiking, and I wonder if this affected the whole story arc. That's what was lacking here; a sort of purpose to the whole thing. "Confederates in the Attic" for instance is a brilliant mix of history and social studies. They are both handled in A+ fashion. With "One for the Road," there is some history and even less social study. The history that is discussed is handled quite well as I learned many things. The whole CIA/Alice Springs connection is very interesting. The description of the towns and various climates, terrain, and settings he comes across is also handled very well. It is probably the best feature of the book. But, the one thing missing is the people. His interaction with people was not written about very well and in many cases felt forced (i.e. hunting down another Jew so he could celebrate Passover). Simply put, nothing really interesting happens. It's okay Tony, I forgive you. You've gotten to be a much better writer : )
Young Horwitz September 16, 2003
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
Having greatly enjoyed "Confederates in the Attic" and "Blue Latitudes," as well as "Baghdad Without A Map", I am a Horwitz fan. This book, "One For The Road" was his first book, written as a 27 year old and about his hitchhiking journey across Australia.The book is thin and narrowly focused in comparison with Horwitz's later work, particularly "Confederates" and "Blue". While these books combine the road trip with the local history and background of related topics, "One for the Road" is all about the trip. The basics of the book can be summed up as follows: wait in the hot sun for a ride, get picked up by an Aussie (transplant or Aborigine), drive with the Aussie as they consume tinnies of beer as fast as they can pour it down their gullets, get off at the first pub in the next town to drink, find a place to sleep (often the dirt beside the road). Repeat 57 times as you wind your way around the continent. While Horwitz's wit and descriptive skills are evident, this is a drinking and travel book. The people he meets are all pretty much cut out of the same cloth. Part of the problem is that he often travels to two or three places in each day, leaving little time to reflect or penetrate the continent beyond the confines of the nearest roadside tavern. There are exceptions. He writes well of Ayer's Rock and the Aborigines who live in it's shadow. A day spent on a lobster boat in rough seas is also a diversion for both author and reader. His attempt to find one Jewish person in Broom with whom to share Passover introduces a few Australians whose existence can be described more broadly than by the number of beers they can quaff. But for the most part, this book plods on as relentlessly as the roads over which he travels. Bill Bryson's journey book of Australia is a much better read, with more varied characters and much more of Australia's interesting history and peccadilloes. This is not a bad book, but I am glad I read Horwitz's latter books first before trying this.
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