A review by jeffmauch
One for the Road: An Outback Adventure by Tony Horwitz

3.0

I'm a sucker for amusing travelogues, but this one just wasn't quite that entertaining. There's really two reasons for this: 1. The outback of central Australia is a boiling hot, desolate, lonely place. 2. Tony Horwitz, whom I enjoy, is just not that humorous or interesting on this go around. I think most of us forget that when we think of Australia the majority of us are thinking of the coast. It's because that's where almost the entire population resides. The heart of the continent is a wasteland and what towns survive, if you can call it that, exist solely because they are or were attached to an industry or because they are a stopping point for food, gas, or mostly alcohol between two other sad and dull places on the road. I find Australia fascinating still, but an entire book on hitching around the outback is really just as boring as it sounds. If you want a better travelogue on the continent check out "In a Sunburned Country" by Bill Bryson, which is both more interesting and far more well rounded.