image of person or book cover 5870258666487272608.jpg
This image has been sourced from online.
y separately published work icon The Penguin Book of the Road anthology   short story   biography   travel  
Issue Details: First known date: 2008... 2008 The Penguin Book of the Road
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Australia is a nation of drivers. We spend more time behind the wheel than almost anyone else, on fast highways, lonely bush tracks, jammed city lanes and suburban streets. The road is the place where the great dramas of our lives unfold, the route to our greatest pleasures as well as our worst nightmares. It is sexy, dangerous and unnerving.

'In this landmark collection, acclaimed novelist and essayist Delia Falconer brings together some of our very best writing on every aspect of the road.' (Publisher's blurb)

Contents

* Contents derived from the Camberwell, Camberwell - Kew area, Melbourne - Inner South, Melbourne, Victoria,:Viking , 2008 version. Please note that other versions/publications may contain different contents. See the Publication Details.
A Bloody Expat, Robert Hughes , single work autobiography
Hughes passes in and out of consciousness on a highway in the remote Kimberley, the wreck of his car folded around him.
(p. 1-15)
The Great Journey of the Aboriginal Teenagers, Robert Bropho , single work prose biography (p. 16-26)
Nhill, Patrick West , single work short story (p. 61-70)
American Dreams, Peter Carey , single work short story (p. 95-109)
The Burial and the Busker, Gillian Mears , single work short story (p. 110-123)
A Dreamer, Barbara Baynton , single work short story (p. 128-136)
An Australian Rip Van Winkle, William Gosse Hay , single work short story
An uncanny story wherein strange inexplicable events befall a stockman at an isolated location in the bush. 
(p. 137-175)
Across the Plains, Over the Mountains and Down to the Sea, Frank Moorhouse , single work short story (p. 176-179)
Idylls of Youth, Miles Franklin , extract novel (p. 189-197)
The Horse You Don't See Now, Rolf Boldrewood , single work autobiography (p. 309-318)
Republic of Love, Delia Falconer , single work short story (p. 322-329)
Lone Pine, David Malouf , single work short story (p. 354-369)
A Happy Story, Helen Garner , single work short story (p. 370-374)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Camberwell, Camberwell - Kew area, Melbourne - Inner South, Melbourne, Victoria,: Viking , 2008 .
      image of person or book cover 5870258666487272608.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: xxvi, 385p.p.
      ISBN: 9780670071517 (pbk.)

Works about this Work

Untitled Christian Mondeil , 2009 single work review
— Appears in: Fiction Focus : New Titles for Teenagers , vol. 23 no. 1 2009; (p. 63-64)

— Review of The Penguin Book of the Road 2008 anthology short story biography
'The Poetry of the Earth is Never Dead' : Australia's Road Writing Delia Falconer , 2009 single work criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , Special Issue 2009;
This article discusses the process of editing The Australian Book of the Road. It uses William Hay's 'An Australian Rip Van Winkle' as an exemplary Australian road text. With its diffuse sense of hauntedness, multiple time-warps, and eerie appropriation of northern hemisphere literary texts, Hay's story offers a suggestive frame for reflecting on our relationship with the road in Australia and the way it is figured in our writing; to consider the road not only as a material artefact represented by our road texts but a set of cultural traditions and tropes. Its layered hauntings offer paths to unpacking of the odd sense of unease that permeates so many of these road stories. Using 'road writing' (my own term) as a strategic generic category through which disparate works can be interpreted, this paper will consider them as instances of 'spatial history', following Paul Carter, opposed to more triumphalist literary traditions. It will also, finally, consider the Australian road within a global context; in particular, the strategic ways in which these stories play with strategies of adaptation.
On the Road to Everywhere Owen Richardson , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 22 November 2008; (p. 27)

— Review of The Penguin Book of the Road 2008 anthology short story biography
The Stink of Diesel and a Whiff of Sex Christopher Bantick , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 8-9 November 2008; (p. 31)

— Review of The Penguin Book of the Road 2008 anthology short story biography
Potholes in Prose Richard King , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 25-26 October 2008; (p. 13)

— Review of The Penguin Book of the Road 2008 anthology short story biography
The Great Nothingness Peter Pierce , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , October no. 305 2008; (p. 18-19)

— Review of The Penguin Book of the Road 2008 anthology short story biography
Review Ian Nichols , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: The West Australian , 4 October 2008; (p. 44)

— Review of The Naked Truth : A Life in Parts Graeme Blundell , 2008 single work autobiography ; The Penguin Book of the Road 2008 anthology short story biography
On the Road-and Off-for an Uneasy Ride Robert Hefner , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 11 October 2008; (p. 14)

— Review of The Penguin Book of the Road 2008 anthology short story biography
Potholes in Prose Richard King , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 25-26 October 2008; (p. 13)

— Review of The Penguin Book of the Road 2008 anthology short story biography
The Stink of Diesel and a Whiff of Sex Christopher Bantick , 2008 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 8-9 November 2008; (p. 31)

— Review of The Penguin Book of the Road 2008 anthology short story biography
'The Poetry of the Earth is Never Dead' : Australia's Road Writing Delia Falconer , 2009 single work criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , Special Issue 2009;
This article discusses the process of editing The Australian Book of the Road. It uses William Hay's 'An Australian Rip Van Winkle' as an exemplary Australian road text. With its diffuse sense of hauntedness, multiple time-warps, and eerie appropriation of northern hemisphere literary texts, Hay's story offers a suggestive frame for reflecting on our relationship with the road in Australia and the way it is figured in our writing; to consider the road not only as a material artefact represented by our road texts but a set of cultural traditions and tropes. Its layered hauntings offer paths to unpacking of the odd sense of unease that permeates so many of these road stories. Using 'road writing' (my own term) as a strategic generic category through which disparate works can be interpreted, this paper will consider them as instances of 'spatial history', following Paul Carter, opposed to more triumphalist literary traditions. It will also, finally, consider the Australian road within a global context; in particular, the strategic ways in which these stories play with strategies of adaptation.
Last amended 30 Jan 2017 14:53:46
X