Travelling By Thumb In Search Of New Zealand
Written: Nov 19 '05 (Updated Nov 26 '05)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Amusing and insightful, an intelligent book.
Cons: Doesn't quite compare to the best in the field.
The Bottom Line: Perhaps more of interest to those with specific New Zealand-interest than general travel book fans, but a decent book nonetheless.
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| smadakcin's Full Review: Joe Bennett - A Land Of Two Halves |
When I came to New Zealand I expected to stay for a year. I've stayed for sixteen. I like it here.
For Joe Bennett, an Englishman prior to becoming an adopted Kiwi, this book is an attempt to track down and bottle that enigmatic appeal which has kept him for so much longer than planned. As it unfolds, it feels very much like it's as much for his benefit as ours - in fact, probably more so; the reader is just a spectator on his journey.
The "gimmick" of this book, insomuch as a travel book need have one, is an attempt to hitch-hike round New Zealand, starting off from his home near Christchurch and completing a lap of the South Island before heading north. Immediate similarities to Tony Hawks' Round Ireland with a Fridge, then, except these are only skin-deep. Although both books are undoubtably amusing, the humour was the main element of Hawks' book - this is something more. Bennett's agenda is to try to characterise the unique appeal of the country, largely through the people who inhabit it.
He conveys his points through his encounters with the people who give him lifts, those he meets in the towns along the way (invariably in pubs) and via recollections of tales concerning various members of the population. The land in question being New Zealand, there are some issues that are inevitably going to crop up, the Maori/Settler culture clash prime amongst them. Switching smoothly between a humurous take on his travels and a more considered approach to serious matters, the author discusses such points exceptionally well. Although the tone is more heavily dominated by issues of racism and oppression in the second half of the journey, these sections are broken up well enough that the light-hearted core of the book is never forgotten. However, when such debates are examined, they are done so in an intelligent, even-handed manner, and although this is no scholarly effort, there's a significant danger that the reader might just learn something.
The humour that comes from the book fits in well with the feeling of New Zealand that Bennett is trying to portray - he doesn't go over the top in looking for it, rather it is observational humour, little ironies and dry reflections on essentially mundane situations. The nature of his undertaking provides much amusement - in his various drivers, he is provided with a line of characters through whom he can explore the country. These parts of the book are often the most insightful; the views of each lift-giver allow a perspective on New Zealand from a different angle, be they local, tourist, drifter, Maori ...
As a hitch-hiker, Bennett has to endure plenty of waiting by the side of the road as a procession of cars ignore him. At these times, his mind wanders on the page, to pleasing effect. He ponders his numerous temporary travelling companions, the state of New Zealand at large, and, often, things that make nothing at all to do with the here and now. These slower-paced sections sit nicely in contrast to the repeated pattern of arriving in a new town, finding lodgings, seeing a little of the place, eating and drinking to excess and leaving again. Thankfully there is enough variety across New Zealand, from the remote outposts on the coast to the extreme-sports playground of Queenstown, that these latter sections don't become too samey.
Over the course of the journey, so much is unearthed about New Zealand; about the land itself, the people, the economy, the history, the future - and it is to Bennett's credit that he is able to shift through all of this and present an entertaining, well-rounded description of the country as a whole. As someone who is almost a local, but still, by virtue of the first half of his life, retains an outsider's critical distance, the author is well-placed to judge what New Zealand means to him. And, of course, this is his tale - the overriding impression given is that the nation is something that really has to be experienced, rather than read about.
There's very little here to be critical about - the nearest thing I can get to a negative is to say that A Land of Two Halves isn't brilliant, which is a rather bland and unhelpful criticism, but as close as I can get. The book's insightful, amusing and well-written, but isn't something I'd rush to recommend - there are many better travel books that possess something elusive that is missing here. A "spark", for want of a better word. It reads like a slightly weaker version of the late Pete McCarthy's McCarthy's Bar, if I were to draw comparisons. However, on its own merits, this is a fine book, and for anyone with a specific interest in New Zealand, at least, a wholly worthy read.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
smadakcin
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Location: Brighton, West Sussex, England
Reviews written: 87
Trusted by: 20 members
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