A Long Way from Home by Peter Carey
Irene Bobs like driving quickly. The best car salesman in southeast Australia is her spouse. They both sign up for the 1954 Redex Trial, a motor race that rounds the entire continent over the course of several weeks. Their lanky, fair-haired navigator, former quiz show champion and failed educator Willie Bachhuber, is among them. If they succeed in the Redex, Bob’s name will be enough to secure them a dealership, and Willie will have revived a life that had come to a grinding halt. But before any of that could happen, their official strip maps will abruptly take them outside of the familiar, cosy white Australia. A fast-paced, frequently amusing, eye-opening journey that simultaneously reminds us of how white people acquired a timeless culture—the lofty goals they set, as well as the crimes they committed along the way.
A Long Way from Home by Peter Carey
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Along with elements like 1950s car culture and the dangers of travelling on poor roads in distant areas, the novel throws light on abstract concepts like ambition (or the lack of it), suburban family dynamics, and the contentious connection between indigenous and white Australians.
Irene Bobs, a vivacious young wife and mother who married against the wishes of two dads and now may have too much on her plate, and William Bachhuber, an intellectually minded former teacher who longs for castles on the Rhine, serve as the book’s two narrators.
They first get along as neighbours before becoming friends and working together in a hyped-up “contest” that is sponsored by a car business. The prize is a Ford dealership, and Titch Bobs, Irene’s husband, is fervently hoping to win it. The three must deal with indigenous people and practices that test them on many levels when they leave their stuffy white communities, which is a polite way of stating that upsets and surprises are waiting around every corner. The plot is humorous, surprising, fast-paced, and languid at times, with one significant twist that, at least to this reader, seemed more like a manufactured contortion. At that time, the bridge of suspended disbelief breaks into nothingness.
