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Wake in Fright
Filmed as The Outback
Wake In Fright was first published in 1961 and the film version, The Outback, starring Donald Pleasance was released in 1971. Both the book and the film have achieved a cult status as the Australian answer to US and UK novels and films of 1960s youthful alienation. It is the gruelling story of a young Australian schoolteacher on his way back from the outback to Sydney and civilization when things start to go wrong. He finds himself stuck overnight in Bundanyabba, a rough outback mining town. An ill-advised and drink-fuelled visit to a gambling den leaves Grant broke and he realizes he has no way of escaping. He descends into a cycle of hangovers, fumbling sexual encounters, and increasing self-loathing as he becomes more and more immersed in the grotesque and surreal nightmare that his life has become.
Wake In Fright was first published in 1961 and the film version, The Outback, starring Donald Pleasance was released in 1971. Both the book and the film have achieved a cult status as the Australian answer to US and UK novels and films of 1960s youthful alienation. It is the gruelling story of a young Australian schoolteacher on his way back from the outback to Sydney and civilization when things start to go wrong. He finds himself stuck overnight in Bundanyabba, a rough outback mining town. An ill-advised and drink-fuelled visit to a gambling den leaves Grant broke and he realizes he has no way of escaping. He descends into a cycle of hangovers, fumbling sexual encounters, and increasing self-loathing as he becomes more and more immersed in the grotesque and surreal nightmare that his life has become.
174 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1961
102 people are currently reading
3415 people want to read
About the author
Kenneth Cook
51 books34 followersBorn 1929, died 1987. Kenneth Cook was a prolific Australian journalist, film director, screenwriter, TV personality and novelist. He is best known for his novel Wake in Fright, which became a modern classic and is still in print, and for his Killer Koala trilogy.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 473 reviews
May 24, 2024
"Un inquietante clásico de la literatura australiana"
J. M. Coetzee.
"Una gran historia, un auténtico clásico moderno"
Douglas Kennedy.
"La mejor y más aterradora historia que existe sobre Australia"
Nick Cave.
"Un libro interesante y de muy fácil lectura"
Guille.
August 2, 2017
This short novel blew my mind. Disturbing. Funny. Horrific. Hypnotic. Cinematic. Addictive. Reads like a David Lynch film written by the love child of Cormac McCarthy, J D Salinger and Patrick Hamilton. Oh my god, I can't even tell you!
August 31, 2017
John Grant’s quiet pleasure at the thought of six weeks away from the dust, the heat and the flies; of being away from the tiny community where he taught a few students; of being in Sydney at the beautiful beaches, relaxing and getting the dust out of his system was euphoric. As he locked the school doors he was smiling – the journey on the train to Bundanyabba where he was only staying the night before flying to Sydney was imminent. He was on his way…
“Yabba”, as the locals called it, was bigger and better than where he’d spent his last twelve months, but John wasn’t impressed all the same. But the beer was cold and quenching; the dust was washing from his throat. It was when he was directed to the local game of Two Up by a friendly cop that his troubles began. He had time to fill before his flight to Sydney the following day – he may as well enjoy himself; right?
Wake in Fright by Aussie author Kenneth Cook was originally published in 1961 and still has an enormous pull for readers, as well as viewers of the big and small screens. Though classified as horror, I felt it was more along the lines of a dark classic – definitely literary. A novella, it is highly readable and thoroughly enjoyable. This is my second by this author, the first being Fear Is the Rider – now THAT was horror! I have no hesitation in highly recommending Wake in Fright.
With thanks to Text Publishing for my ARC of this new printing; which includes an introduction by Peter Temple.
“Yabba”, as the locals called it, was bigger and better than where he’d spent his last twelve months, but John wasn’t impressed all the same. But the beer was cold and quenching; the dust was washing from his throat. It was when he was directed to the local game of Two Up by a friendly cop that his troubles began. He had time to fill before his flight to Sydney the following day – he may as well enjoy himself; right?
Wake in Fright by Aussie author Kenneth Cook was originally published in 1961 and still has an enormous pull for readers, as well as viewers of the big and small screens. Though classified as horror, I felt it was more along the lines of a dark classic – definitely literary. A novella, it is highly readable and thoroughly enjoyable. This is my second by this author, the first being Fear Is the Rider – now THAT was horror! I have no hesitation in highly recommending Wake in Fright.
With thanks to Text Publishing for my ARC of this new printing; which includes an introduction by Peter Temple.
May 8, 2020
This is an affecting story of a man who loses virtually everything. Gambling, haphazard decisions, alcohol and brutish companions take the narrator on a hazy and derelict journey during which he must face his own predatory and primitive nature. Despair and loss of self-control force the hapless narrator to accept the outcome of his own bad choices. Fast-paced and relentless, this novel is is an unadorned blow to the senses.
March 22, 2013
“In the remote towns of the west there are few of the amenities of civilization; there is no sewerage, there are no hospitals, rarely a doctor; the food is dreary and flavourless from long carrying, the water is bad; electricity is for the few who can afford their own plant, roads are mostly non-existent; there are no theatres, no picture shows and few dance halls; and the people are saved from stark insanity by the one strong principle of progress that is ingrained for a thousand miles east, north, south and west of the Dead Heart - the beer is always cold.”
A young man from Sydney, John Grant, is teaching in a one-room school in a tiny outback town, working off a two-year bond to the Education Department. Heading back to the coast for his six-week summer break, he’s obliged to stay overnight in outback town Bundanyabba. Carried away by the local lifestyle, Grant gets drunk and blows all his money – including his plane fare home, then plunges headlong toward his own destruction in many other ways, alcoholic, sexual and spiritual through a five day nightmare.
You know, from the opening paragraphs, that this book is going to stay with you as only the most powerful books do. Cook captures the essence of the vast emptiness of the desert, the punishing effect of constant heat from sun up to sun down and the isolation of man in a place he doesn't belong, and wraps it up in a tight little novel that suffocates the reader. I felt almost claustrophobic whilst reading, the pressure and closeness of the heat described transferring itself to me on my nice air conditioned bus.
From those opening paragraphs onwards I was hooked, expecting tales of manly men abusing the soft city fella, mindwarping walks through 50c heat, bar fights, rape, the usual outback fare populated by morons, inbreeds and men made of granite. Instead Cook tortures his protagonist with love. Almost everyone John comes in to contact with is exceedingly nice, the proverbial salt of the earth type of bloke, they love their town, they take pride in their friendliness and they won't see a fella go without even if he's flat broke.
I used the word nightmare in the synopsis, I imagine right about now the less cynical of you might be wondering just what about this scenario could be described as a nightmare. But the rest of us know better, we're city folk, we don't know our neighbours and we don't want to either, when a stranger tries to chat to us we keep walking or we nod and turn away and want to be left to our books, wishing the battery life of an iDevice was three times longer. To us the thought of having to drink when your host says drink and go midnight hunting when your host says you're going midnight hunting fills us with dread. And it is that outsiders reaction to outback hospitality which propels John in to and through this nightmare.
That's all surface detail however, what Cook has actually written is an analysis of the downfall of man, our descent in to barbarism from genteel heights, how easily we might find ourselves stripped of our comfort and how ill-prepared we are to react to that situation.
To paraphrase some of the seemingly endless hyperbole that is thrown about on the subject of this book, Cook creates a brutal, stark and hallucinatory purgatory, capturing the outback without the sentimental shit designed to sell plane tickets to Brits and Yanks and Salarymen. Ten years after publication it spawned a movie adaptation that somehow got lost in all form until somebody found a print in a bin in some American town somewhere in 2004. Since restored and re-released Wake in Fright, known as The Outback to most of the world, is considered a true Australian classic.
A young man from Sydney, John Grant, is teaching in a one-room school in a tiny outback town, working off a two-year bond to the Education Department. Heading back to the coast for his six-week summer break, he’s obliged to stay overnight in outback town Bundanyabba. Carried away by the local lifestyle, Grant gets drunk and blows all his money – including his plane fare home, then plunges headlong toward his own destruction in many other ways, alcoholic, sexual and spiritual through a five day nightmare.
You know, from the opening paragraphs, that this book is going to stay with you as only the most powerful books do. Cook captures the essence of the vast emptiness of the desert, the punishing effect of constant heat from sun up to sun down and the isolation of man in a place he doesn't belong, and wraps it up in a tight little novel that suffocates the reader. I felt almost claustrophobic whilst reading, the pressure and closeness of the heat described transferring itself to me on my nice air conditioned bus.
"When you travel by road in the west you travel with a cohort of dust which streams up from your tyres and rolls away in a disintegrating funnel, defining the currents of air your vehicle sets in motion … And the heat is unthinkable, no matter how widely the windows are open, and the sweat streams off your body and into your socks, and if there are a number of people in the car their body stenches mingle disagreeably"
From those opening paragraphs onwards I was hooked, expecting tales of manly men abusing the soft city fella, mindwarping walks through 50c heat, bar fights, rape, the usual outback fare populated by morons, inbreeds and men made of granite. Instead Cook tortures his protagonist with love. Almost everyone John comes in to contact with is exceedingly nice, the proverbial salt of the earth type of bloke, they love their town, they take pride in their friendliness and they won't see a fella go without even if he's flat broke.
I used the word nightmare in the synopsis, I imagine right about now the less cynical of you might be wondering just what about this scenario could be described as a nightmare. But the rest of us know better, we're city folk, we don't know our neighbours and we don't want to either, when a stranger tries to chat to us we keep walking or we nod and turn away and want to be left to our books, wishing the battery life of an iDevice was three times longer. To us the thought of having to drink when your host says drink and go midnight hunting when your host says you're going midnight hunting fills us with dread. And it is that outsiders reaction to outback hospitality which propels John in to and through this nightmare.
That's all surface detail however, what Cook has actually written is an analysis of the downfall of man, our descent in to barbarism from genteel heights, how easily we might find ourselves stripped of our comfort and how ill-prepared we are to react to that situation.
To paraphrase some of the seemingly endless hyperbole that is thrown about on the subject of this book, Cook creates a brutal, stark and hallucinatory purgatory, capturing the outback without the sentimental shit designed to sell plane tickets to Brits and Yanks and Salarymen. Ten years after publication it spawned a movie adaptation that somehow got lost in all form until somebody found a print in a bin in some American town somewhere in 2004. Since restored and re-released Wake in Fright, known as The Outback to most of the world, is considered a true Australian classic.
August 23, 2024
Relato inquietante, con trasfondo de novela negra. Tipos siniestros, perdedores, mucha grisura, tristeza, sensación de pérdida, pueblos sin alma...
"(...) la tristeza de la llanura en medio de la noche era mucho más perceptible desde el interior de un tren en movimiento, pensó Grant. Tal vez se debía a la gente que cantaba en el tren, ese dejo de melancolía que atravesaba hasta la más chillona de sus canciones formaba parte de eso, algo que nacía de la propia tristeza de la llanura. Todos sus recuerdos de B. y de la gente que allí había conocido estaban teñidos de esa quejumbrosa miseria callada. Todas eran personas tristes".
Existe la continua sensación de que algo malo está por ocurrir, y esa tensión narrativa la mantiene el autor hasta la última página. Aunque debo reconocer que el cierre y el final no me parecieron memorables (demasiado giro final).
Lo que es cierto es que este tipo australiano K. Cook sabe como desarrollar una gran novela teniendo al lector atento y sin desconectarse en ningún momento.
Lectura de verano totalmente recomendable.
"(...) la tristeza de la llanura en medio de la noche era mucho más perceptible desde el interior de un tren en movimiento, pensó Grant. Tal vez se debía a la gente que cantaba en el tren, ese dejo de melancolía que atravesaba hasta la más chillona de sus canciones formaba parte de eso, algo que nacía de la propia tristeza de la llanura. Todos sus recuerdos de B. y de la gente que allí había conocido estaban teñidos de esa quejumbrosa miseria callada. Todas eran personas tristes".
Existe la continua sensación de que algo malo está por ocurrir, y esa tensión narrativa la mantiene el autor hasta la última página. Aunque debo reconocer que el cierre y el final no me parecieron memorables (demasiado giro final).
Lo que es cierto es que este tipo australiano K. Cook sabe como desarrollar una gran novela teniendo al lector atento y sin desconectarse en ningún momento.
Lectura de verano totalmente recomendable.
June 28, 2015
Μόλις έμαθα ότι θα κυκλοφορούσε στα ελληνικά το βιβλίο αυτό από τις εκδόσεις Εξάρχεια, έπαθα την πλάκα μου. Μιλάμε για μεγάλη έκπληξη, αν λάβει κανείς υπόψιν ότι πρόκειται για ένα καλτ βιβλίο που γράφτηκε σχεδόν πενήντα πέντε χρόνια πριν και το οποίο ποτέ δεν έγινε best seller (απ'όσο ξέρω). Σ'αυτό το βιβλίο βασίζεται η ταινία Wake In Fright (aka The Outback), σε σκηνοθεσία Ted Kotcheff, ένα άγνωστο διαμάντι της Αυστραλίας. Λοιπόν, το βιβλίο με ξετρέλανε πραγματικά. Περίμενα να μου αρέσει, μιας και συνήθως τέτοιου είδους ιστορίες, που διαδραματίζονται σε τέτοια μέρη, είναι από αυτές που μου τραβάνε την προσοχή, που με φτιάχνουν, δεν περίμενα όμως ότι θα μου αρέσει τόσο πολύ και ότι θα είναι από τα καλύτερα βιβλία που έχω διαβάσει στην ζωή μου.
Πρωταγωνιστής της ιστορίας είναι ο νεαρός δάσκαλος Τζον Γκραντ από το Σίδνεϊ, που σύμφωνα με την σύμβασή του, πρέπει να διδάξει σε ένα σχολείο μιας μικρής, απομακρυσμένης πόλης, για δυο ολόκληρα χρόνια. Στο βιβλίο τον βρίσκουμε να φεύγει από την πόλη για έξι εβδομάδες διακοπές, με την μια μέρα να την περνάει αναγκαστικά στην πόλη Μπουντανιάμπα, ώστε να φτάσει τελικά στο αγαπημένο του Σίδνεϊ. Όμως τα πράγματα θα πάνε τελείως στραβά και ο Γκραντ θα κολλήσει στην μέση του πουθενά, με την κρύα μπύρα και το μεθύσι να είναι ο μόνος τρόπος για να μην τρελαθεί...
Ο συγγραφέας με την περιπέτεια του πρωταγωνιστή και τις απίστευτες περιγραφές του, καταφέρνει να περάσει στον αναγνώστη την μοναξιά, την παραφροσύνη και την απελπισία των ανθρώπων που βρίσκονται σε τοπία όπως αυτά της Αυστραλιανής ερήμου, σε μικρές πόλεις στην μέση του πουθενά, με την ζέστη και την σκόνη να σε τρελαίνουν και το απόλυτο τίποτα να σε περιτριγυρίζει. Προσωπικά δέθηκα με το δράμα του πρωταγωνιστή, γνώρισα ένα άλλο πρόσωπο μιας Αυστραλίας του παρελθόντος, και απόλαυσα μια πραγματικά εξαιρετική γραφή, με χιούμορ και συναίσθημα όπου χρειαζόταν, ανθρώπινη και με βαθύτερα νοήματα. Λίαν συντόμως θα ψάξω να βρω και να δω την ταινία και σίγουρα στο μέλλον θα ξαναδιαβάσω αυτό το αριστούργημα.
Υ.Γ. Η ελληνική έκδοση πολύ ωραία, με προσεγμένη μετάφραση και όμορφο εξώφυλλο.
Πρωταγωνιστής της ιστορίας είναι ο νεαρός δάσκαλος Τζον Γκραντ από το Σίδνεϊ, που σύμφωνα με την σύμβασή του, πρέπει να διδάξει σε ένα σχολείο μιας μικρής, απομακρυσμένης πόλης, για δυο ολόκληρα χρόνια. Στο βιβλίο τον βρίσκουμε να φεύγει από την πόλη για έξι εβδομάδες διακοπές, με την μια μέρα να την περνάει αναγκαστικά στην πόλη Μπουντανιάμπα, ώστε να φτάσει τελικά στο αγαπημένο του Σίδνεϊ. Όμως τα πράγματα θα πάνε τελείως στραβά και ο Γκραντ θα κολλήσει στην μέση του πουθενά, με την κρύα μπύρα και το μεθύσι να είναι ο μόνος τρόπος για να μην τρελαθεί...
Ο συγγραφέας με την περιπέτεια του πρωταγωνιστή και τις απίστευτες περιγραφές του, καταφέρνει να περάσει στον αναγνώστη την μοναξιά, την παραφροσύνη και την απελπισία των ανθρώπων που βρίσκονται σε τοπία όπως αυτά της Αυστραλιανής ερήμου, σε μικρές πόλεις στην μέση του πουθενά, με την ζέστη και την σκόνη να σε τρελαίνουν και το απόλυτο τίποτα να σε περιτριγυρίζει. Προσωπικά δέθηκα με το δράμα του πρωταγωνιστή, γνώρισα ένα άλλο πρόσωπο μιας Αυστραλίας του παρελθόντος, και απόλαυσα μια πραγματικά εξαιρετική γραφή, με χιούμορ και συναίσθημα όπου χρειαζόταν, ανθρώπινη και με βαθύτερα νοήματα. Λίαν συντόμως θα ψάξω να βρω και να δω την ταινία και σίγουρα στο μέλλον θα ξαναδιαβάσω αυτό το αριστούργημα.
Υ.Γ. Η ελληνική έκδοση πολύ ωραία, με προσεγμένη μετάφραση και όμορφο εξώφυλλο.
August 15, 2014
Wake In Fright
I had imagined Kafka wakes up one morning and finds himself transported to the Australian outback in this novel by Kenneth Cook. How would Kafka handle the change from his gloomy overcast world to the heat and blazing sunlight of this outback isolation Hell?
"Sweat, dust and beer... there's nothing else out here mate!"
It is not Hell at all to the characters who inhabit this place, it is heaven. The space, the light, the freedom to be yourself. No one judges anyone.
One of the main key elements of this story is the wonderful contrast of the wild, rough, exuberant, hard drinking characters who live in this environment, and who to a man, not forgetting a young woman, express an unconscious boundless generosity which is natural in the outback. This beautiful contrast is the most powerful element in the book for me. These seemingly contrary traits bewilder the reserved young Englishman who finds himself in desperate straits out there in this strange hell of a landscape. John Grant is bonded for several years to be the school teacher in Tiboonda, which consists of a hotel where he boards, a one room schoolhouse where he is the teacher, and a railway siding with no shade for a station platform. John Grant's nightmare begins when he tries to get back to Sydney for the six weeks Christmas school holidays. No spoilers here.
I hope this has prompted you to want to read this book, a novella, at 143 pages. And to see the film, if for the landscape alone.
The book was pretty faithfully adapted to the film version in the early 'seventies and bombed at the box-office at that time, when Australia was trying to reflect a more sophisticated National image in a time of great social change. I remember seeing it at the cinema and loved it. I didn't read the book until many years later.
There is an interesting story to the film, which is now considered a classic, I think a masterpiece. After its initial release, the film disappeared and was forgotten. For years a hunt was on to track down a print of the film. From memory I think the cans of the film were stored in England for some years, then sent to the U.S. where they languished in storage until a single print of the film was discovered, not in good condition, and was marked to be disposed of. The print was brought back to the Australian National Film and Sound Archive in Canberra. There has been a magnificent restoration job. I couldn't believe the sharpness and clarity of the restored film. It would have been an unthinkable loss to Australian film history and our cultural heritage if this film had been lost.
I had imagined Kafka wakes up one morning and finds himself transported to the Australian outback in this novel by Kenneth Cook. How would Kafka handle the change from his gloomy overcast world to the heat and blazing sunlight of this outback isolation Hell?
"Sweat, dust and beer... there's nothing else out here mate!"
It is not Hell at all to the characters who inhabit this place, it is heaven. The space, the light, the freedom to be yourself. No one judges anyone.
One of the main key elements of this story is the wonderful contrast of the wild, rough, exuberant, hard drinking characters who live in this environment, and who to a man, not forgetting a young woman, express an unconscious boundless generosity which is natural in the outback. This beautiful contrast is the most powerful element in the book for me. These seemingly contrary traits bewilder the reserved young Englishman who finds himself in desperate straits out there in this strange hell of a landscape. John Grant is bonded for several years to be the school teacher in Tiboonda, which consists of a hotel where he boards, a one room schoolhouse where he is the teacher, and a railway siding with no shade for a station platform. John Grant's nightmare begins when he tries to get back to Sydney for the six weeks Christmas school holidays. No spoilers here.
I hope this has prompted you to want to read this book, a novella, at 143 pages. And to see the film, if for the landscape alone.
The book was pretty faithfully adapted to the film version in the early 'seventies and bombed at the box-office at that time, when Australia was trying to reflect a more sophisticated National image in a time of great social change. I remember seeing it at the cinema and loved it. I didn't read the book until many years later.
There is an interesting story to the film, which is now considered a classic, I think a masterpiece. After its initial release, the film disappeared and was forgotten. For years a hunt was on to track down a print of the film. From memory I think the cans of the film were stored in England for some years, then sent to the U.S. where they languished in storage until a single print of the film was discovered, not in good condition, and was marked to be disposed of. The print was brought back to the Australian National Film and Sound Archive in Canberra. There has been a magnificent restoration job. I couldn't believe the sharpness and clarity of the restored film. It would have been an unthinkable loss to Australian film history and our cultural heritage if this film had been lost.
April 20, 2014
Gripping page turner about a rather annoying schoolteacher broke and burning up in an outback town.
The construction of this nightmare is sudden and brutal, as-is the decline of our protagonist.
The storytelling is hypnotic, more frightening for what it holds back than lets on.
Happy to recommend this dark gritty Aussie classic.
The construction of this nightmare is sudden and brutal, as-is the decline of our protagonist.
The storytelling is hypnotic, more frightening for what it holds back than lets on.
Happy to recommend this dark gritty Aussie classic.
February 3, 2025
Joins the coterie of novels—such as The Tenant and Concrete Island—which inhabit my favourite literary and filmic domain - the “trapped in an otherwise innocuous setting” genre. To say nothing of the fact that Wake in Fright is an insanely readable and addictive page-turner, which in almost no respect shows its age of 65 years. Think I’ll pick up The Woman in the Dunes next, to complete this self-styled tetralogy of incarceration classics.
August 28, 2023
This is a classic tale of the civilised man from the coast going mad in the barbarous interior. John Grant is a country-town school teacher on his way back to Sydney for the summer. However, because of problems with his flight, he gets stuck for one night in the Yabba, a town based on Broken Hill in the West of NSW. Author Kenneth Cook spent time in Broken Hill himself and he recreates the atmosphere in brilliantly cynical fashion. Wake in Fright was his first novel and it's certainly the most well known.
As young school teachers everywhere, except perhaps Norway, Grant is pretty broke. He is befriended by the local policeman, Jock Crawford, in a pub and introduced to 'two up' a coin tossing game that men bet on. The copper is only too happy to shout Grant beers as he gets them for free while on duty. The peer pressure to drink beer is immense throughout the book, and the amber liquid, that initially gives relief from mental anguish, inevitably leads to greater horrors.
There is a girl Grant loves in Sydney but he isn’t confident of his chances with her given his financial situation. Two up is an oh so simple game - and the intoxicated Grant after some initial success throws his pay cheque - that needed to last him the entire summer - away gambling on it. He now has no way of leaving the Yabba - no money for food or shelter. However, there will always be somebody happy to buy him a beer and tell him what a great place the Yabba is - it's a sinister form of hospitality and friendliness that he really would be better off without. John Grant can't see the beauty of this place on the edge of the outback, for him it's the South Canaan of the Philistines and Sodom and Gomorrah all rolled into one.
What follows is a bizarre and grueling, but I don't doubt true to life, account of alcoholism, illicit sex, philistinism and animal cruelty. There is a great movie version of this book, but the kangaroo hunt is my least favourite sequence in it. In the book the hunt is very well written and heart rendering - the hacked-up kangaroos give no clear sign of their pain through crying or facial expressions, and that makes the cruelty of the shotgun and knife wielding 'hunters-for-kicks' all the more unbearable. Often I find that human on animal cruelty is more horrifying than human on human cruelty in literature. Don't be put off, there are funny parts in this book too - it's certainly an original work and an interesting comment on Australian society. It’s one of the best Australian novels I’ve read, and I don't know of any work close to this tragic (semi-)satire written by a New Zealand author.
Five stars here and one of those cases where you are happy that a cult movie led you to a really interesting book. In the novel there are possibly even more beers imbibed than in the movie - and that's saying something. Have a look for yourself, someone has made a highly entertaining montage featuring every drink of booze in the movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_6Hq...
F.E. Beyer is the author of Buenos Aires Triad Buenos Aires Triad
As young school teachers everywhere, except perhaps Norway, Grant is pretty broke. He is befriended by the local policeman, Jock Crawford, in a pub and introduced to 'two up' a coin tossing game that men bet on. The copper is only too happy to shout Grant beers as he gets them for free while on duty. The peer pressure to drink beer is immense throughout the book, and the amber liquid, that initially gives relief from mental anguish, inevitably leads to greater horrors.
There is a girl Grant loves in Sydney but he isn’t confident of his chances with her given his financial situation. Two up is an oh so simple game - and the intoxicated Grant after some initial success throws his pay cheque - that needed to last him the entire summer - away gambling on it. He now has no way of leaving the Yabba - no money for food or shelter. However, there will always be somebody happy to buy him a beer and tell him what a great place the Yabba is - it's a sinister form of hospitality and friendliness that he really would be better off without. John Grant can't see the beauty of this place on the edge of the outback, for him it's the South Canaan of the Philistines and Sodom and Gomorrah all rolled into one.
What follows is a bizarre and grueling, but I don't doubt true to life, account of alcoholism, illicit sex, philistinism and animal cruelty. There is a great movie version of this book, but the kangaroo hunt is my least favourite sequence in it. In the book the hunt is very well written and heart rendering - the hacked-up kangaroos give no clear sign of their pain through crying or facial expressions, and that makes the cruelty of the shotgun and knife wielding 'hunters-for-kicks' all the more unbearable. Often I find that human on animal cruelty is more horrifying than human on human cruelty in literature. Don't be put off, there are funny parts in this book too - it's certainly an original work and an interesting comment on Australian society. It’s one of the best Australian novels I’ve read, and I don't know of any work close to this tragic (semi-)satire written by a New Zealand author.
Five stars here and one of those cases where you are happy that a cult movie led you to a really interesting book. In the novel there are possibly even more beers imbibed than in the movie - and that's saying something. Have a look for yourself, someone has made a highly entertaining montage featuring every drink of booze in the movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_6Hq...
F.E. Beyer is the author of Buenos Aires Triad Buenos Aires Triad
August 10, 2020
Σίγουρα δεν είναι το χαμένο Σαββατοκύριακο του Τζάκσον
Είναι όμως γρήγορο, μαύρο, καυστικό, βάζει στο κέντρο την κόλαση των καλών προθέσεων, αποδομώντας, παράλληλα, το όνειρο της 'υπέροχης' Αυστραλίας
Είναι όμως γρήγορο, μαύρο, καυστικό, βάζει στο κέντρο την κόλαση των καλών προθέσεων, αποδομώντας, παράλληλα, το όνειρο της 'υπέροχης' Αυστραλίας
June 6, 2019
Update: Tuna is listed separately now. As people have read this entry and voted for it, I wasn't sure whether I should delete it.
This is a review of Tuna, by Kenneth Cook. Goodreads does not list this strong book by a notable writer.
------------------
Having read Wake in Fright a while back, I noticed a copy of this on the shelves and it's definitely a small-handbag book, so in it went.
I read this immediately after a discussion on FB with my friend Linda which involved questions of what is 'Australian' and what is 'racist'. And here I was on page one of this, plumb in the middle of exactly that. The central character is a fisherman in a coastal town, a little Aussie battler, I think would be a fair characterisation, and dagoes are giving him grief. He and his mates despise the Italians. But that doesn't change how one acts when one has to. When an Italian on another boat goes overboard, he does everything he can to save him. Racism is more complex than a lot of people make out: perhaps they are still waters that run deep. Jack's off-sider in this is an Aborigine who sees himself as less than white people but definitely superior to the Italians, by the way.
The Italian's death opens up an opportunity for Jack to go for broke, buy a boat he can fish for tuna from, instead of the piddling small catches which are his lot to date. I can see why this is compared with The Old Man and the Sea. It feels like a sea adventure book written by somebody who knows his ground (so to speak). I couldn't put it down.
rest here: https://alittleteaalittlechat.wordpre...
This is a review of Tuna, by Kenneth Cook. Goodreads does not list this strong book by a notable writer.
------------------
Having read Wake in Fright a while back, I noticed a copy of this on the shelves and it's definitely a small-handbag book, so in it went.
I read this immediately after a discussion on FB with my friend Linda which involved questions of what is 'Australian' and what is 'racist'. And here I was on page one of this, plumb in the middle of exactly that. The central character is a fisherman in a coastal town, a little Aussie battler, I think would be a fair characterisation, and dagoes are giving him grief. He and his mates despise the Italians. But that doesn't change how one acts when one has to. When an Italian on another boat goes overboard, he does everything he can to save him. Racism is more complex than a lot of people make out: perhaps they are still waters that run deep. Jack's off-sider in this is an Aborigine who sees himself as less than white people but definitely superior to the Italians, by the way.
The Italian's death opens up an opportunity for Jack to go for broke, buy a boat he can fish for tuna from, instead of the piddling small catches which are his lot to date. I can see why this is compared with The Old Man and the Sea. It feels like a sea adventure book written by somebody who knows his ground (so to speak). I couldn't put it down.
rest here: https://alittleteaalittlechat.wordpre...
May 15, 2025
As someone who observed the ravaged life of a journalist friend posted to a local paper on Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis, Wake in Fright slapped my rubicund Scottish cheeks hard. It is hard to beat Stornoway in terms of ethanol-soaked sickosexual shitemare—Bundanyabba manages to trump. Schoolteacher John Grant’s descent into beered-up kangaroo-killing rampages is far more shocking than my friend’s post-10PM drams with the fishermen of Stornoway, parking their creels at the bar and muttering broadsides against the English, and the suddenness of his backslide into depravity is a stark reminder that complete societal collapse and mental oblivion can take place in a heartbeat. Think of when your broadband cuts out. I can taste your fear from here.
February 6, 2016
4.5★s
Young, naive, clueless teacher John Grant travels from his remote school at Tiboonda to Bundanyabba (thinly disguised Broken Hill) for an overnight stay before he catches the plane to Sydney for the Christmas holidays. Arriving late at night, he searches for a meal and a cold drink in the stifling December heat. In the pub he gets dragged into the blokey male culture of the Yabba, which consists of drinking very large quantities of beer. From there, the intoxicated Grant is taken to a two-up school, where he gets hooked on the psychological rush of gambling, and loses his entire savings. He is left with a few shillings in his pocket, nowhere to sleep and no way to pay the airfare to Sydney. He thinks he can get some sort of job in the Yabba to tide him over. Instead he gets drawn further down into the underbelly of outback existence, where men have little or no education, little or no expectation about life, little or no beauty and joy. It is relentlessly hot, dirty and mean. It is also brutal, something he witnesses first hand on a shooting expedition. Alcohol and cigarettes, both in large quantities, are the pain-killers on hand, and he indulges to excess, along with his new-found Yabba mates.
It does not help that Grant is such an innocent abroad. He doesn’t have an ounce of common sense, or backbone, so he just drifts along, drawn into the mire due to embarrassment about his lack of cash. So entrenched in this subculture has he become, Grant takes no initiative, such as going to employers to ask for work, or seeking assistance from the Salvos or church institutions. Some of that is due to the shame he feels about how far he has fallen, and the best way to deal with such feelings is to have another beer, or two, or three...
When he wakes up to himself and tries to leave the Yabba:
The driver stood by while Grant pulled his suitcases out of the back of the truck, then: 'Come and have a drink,' more as a statement than an invitation.
'No thanks,' said Grant, 'I'm off it.'
'Off it? You mean you don't drink?'
'I'm just not drinking for the moment.'
'I can see that; what I said was, let's go and have one.'
'Thanks, mate,' said Grant patiently, 'but I've given up drinking for a while.'
'Well, I'll be b______,' said the driver; 'you mean you won't have a drink with a man after he's given you a ride for fifty bloody miles.'
...
[Grant] shrugged in some embarrassment and murmured: 'Sorry, mate, but I'm just not drinking.'
'Well you can bloody well go and get ______,' in tones of complete contempt, and he turned and was lost behind the batwing doors of a hotel.
Peculiar trait of the [outback NSW] people, thought Grant, that you could sleep with their wives, despoil their daughters, sponge on them, defraud them, do almost anything that would mean at least ostracism in normal society, and they would barely seem to notice it. But refuse to drink with them and you immediately became a mortal enemy.' pp. 165-166
Originally published in 1961, this novel is a searing expose’ of blokey, working class male culture in the NSW outback of the 1950s. Drinking alcohol is not only expected, but is elevated to a form of ritual, almost a religion. The few women portrayed in the novel are typical of what one might expect in this male-dominated society, i.e. undervalued, undereducated, unheard. This book is an Australian classic, one that should be read wider. It may seem out of date, but I suspect the themes explored by Kenneth Cook over 50 years ago are still relevant today.
The other thing I really liked about this book is its focus. It is a short book, a novella by today’s standards. It has an intensity which evokes a strong emotional response in the reader. I think this is due to its concentration on a single plot line, narrated with exquisite skill by a master of the craft. There are only a few major episodes in this short book, such as the two-up school and the bloody, spotlighting trip, and these are narrated with great power and spirit. This story is all about John Grant, an innocent abroad, struggling to survive in a grim, gritty world where he does not belong.
Young, naive, clueless teacher John Grant travels from his remote school at Tiboonda to Bundanyabba (thinly disguised Broken Hill) for an overnight stay before he catches the plane to Sydney for the Christmas holidays. Arriving late at night, he searches for a meal and a cold drink in the stifling December heat. In the pub he gets dragged into the blokey male culture of the Yabba, which consists of drinking very large quantities of beer. From there, the intoxicated Grant is taken to a two-up school, where he gets hooked on the psychological rush of gambling, and loses his entire savings. He is left with a few shillings in his pocket, nowhere to sleep and no way to pay the airfare to Sydney. He thinks he can get some sort of job in the Yabba to tide him over. Instead he gets drawn further down into the underbelly of outback existence, where men have little or no education, little or no expectation about life, little or no beauty and joy. It is relentlessly hot, dirty and mean. It is also brutal, something he witnesses first hand on a shooting expedition. Alcohol and cigarettes, both in large quantities, are the pain-killers on hand, and he indulges to excess, along with his new-found Yabba mates.
It does not help that Grant is such an innocent abroad. He doesn’t have an ounce of common sense, or backbone, so he just drifts along, drawn into the mire due to embarrassment about his lack of cash. So entrenched in this subculture has he become, Grant takes no initiative, such as going to employers to ask for work, or seeking assistance from the Salvos or church institutions. Some of that is due to the shame he feels about how far he has fallen, and the best way to deal with such feelings is to have another beer, or two, or three...
When he wakes up to himself and tries to leave the Yabba:
The driver stood by while Grant pulled his suitcases out of the back of the truck, then: 'Come and have a drink,' more as a statement than an invitation.
'No thanks,' said Grant, 'I'm off it.'
'Off it? You mean you don't drink?'
'I'm just not drinking for the moment.'
'I can see that; what I said was, let's go and have one.'
'Thanks, mate,' said Grant patiently, 'but I've given up drinking for a while.'
'Well, I'll be b______,' said the driver; 'you mean you won't have a drink with a man after he's given you a ride for fifty bloody miles.'
...
[Grant] shrugged in some embarrassment and murmured: 'Sorry, mate, but I'm just not drinking.'
'Well you can bloody well go and get ______,' in tones of complete contempt, and he turned and was lost behind the batwing doors of a hotel.
Peculiar trait of the [outback NSW] people, thought Grant, that you could sleep with their wives, despoil their daughters, sponge on them, defraud them, do almost anything that would mean at least ostracism in normal society, and they would barely seem to notice it. But refuse to drink with them and you immediately became a mortal enemy.' pp. 165-166
Originally published in 1961, this novel is a searing expose’ of blokey, working class male culture in the NSW outback of the 1950s. Drinking alcohol is not only expected, but is elevated to a form of ritual, almost a religion. The few women portrayed in the novel are typical of what one might expect in this male-dominated society, i.e. undervalued, undereducated, unheard. This book is an Australian classic, one that should be read wider. It may seem out of date, but I suspect the themes explored by Kenneth Cook over 50 years ago are still relevant today.
The other thing I really liked about this book is its focus. It is a short book, a novella by today’s standards. It has an intensity which evokes a strong emotional response in the reader. I think this is due to its concentration on a single plot line, narrated with exquisite skill by a master of the craft. There are only a few major episodes in this short book, such as the two-up school and the bloody, spotlighting trip, and these are narrated with great power and spirit. This story is all about John Grant, an innocent abroad, struggling to survive in a grim, gritty world where he does not belong.
October 10, 2018
Doug H's review alerted me to this book. It's taken me a while to get to it however it was well worth the wait.
A mere 174 pages it packs a mighty punch. Written in 1961, it powerfully relates John Grant's descent into hell, here also known as outback town Bundanyabba ("the Yabba"). The people of the Yabba feel compelled to subsume any outsiders into their world. The ghastly hospitality of the local yokels provide the guileless fish-out-of-water John Grant with the worst days of his short life and from which he is powerless to escape.
'Wake In Fright' delivers a vivid sense of place - the heat, the light, the dust, the savagery, and the scale - are all powerfully rendered.
In the same way that once seen David Lynch's 'Blue Velvet' is never forgotten, so it with 'Wake In Fright'. There are some extraordinary scenes - truly horrific and nightmarish despite the banal and all too plausible set up. The outback is shown in all its weirdness - stark, hallucinogenic and brutal.
I have yet to see the 1971 cinematic adaptation however if it's even half as good as the book it'll be excellent. I have a copy of the DVD and will update this review once I've watched it.
5/5
FILM ADAPTATION (10 Sept 2018) - a very powerful and faithful rendition of the book. Some parts of the plot are condensed but the essence remains. The kangaroo hunt is especially powerful and even more disturbing when depicted on the screen. The darkness of the trip is given even more violence in the film version with the hard drinking macho camaraderie and the disturbing homoerotic undertow writ large.
Apparently, upon release, the Australian critics were appalled as it paints such a horrifying portrait of life in the isolation of the Outback. Once seen never forgotten. The Australian outback seems to me to be unwelcoming at best, but it has surely never been depicted as grimmer, darker and more violent than in this depiction. A classic film - every bit as good as the source material.
5/5
A mere 174 pages it packs a mighty punch. Written in 1961, it powerfully relates John Grant's descent into hell, here also known as outback town Bundanyabba ("the Yabba"). The people of the Yabba feel compelled to subsume any outsiders into their world. The ghastly hospitality of the local yokels provide the guileless fish-out-of-water John Grant with the worst days of his short life and from which he is powerless to escape.
'Wake In Fright' delivers a vivid sense of place - the heat, the light, the dust, the savagery, and the scale - are all powerfully rendered.
In the same way that once seen David Lynch's 'Blue Velvet' is never forgotten, so it with 'Wake In Fright'. There are some extraordinary scenes - truly horrific and nightmarish despite the banal and all too plausible set up. The outback is shown in all its weirdness - stark, hallucinogenic and brutal.
I have yet to see the 1971 cinematic adaptation however if it's even half as good as the book it'll be excellent. I have a copy of the DVD and will update this review once I've watched it.
5/5
FILM ADAPTATION (10 Sept 2018) - a very powerful and faithful rendition of the book. Some parts of the plot are condensed but the essence remains. The kangaroo hunt is especially powerful and even more disturbing when depicted on the screen. The darkness of the trip is given even more violence in the film version with the hard drinking macho camaraderie and the disturbing homoerotic undertow writ large.
Apparently, upon release, the Australian critics were appalled as it paints such a horrifying portrait of life in the isolation of the Outback. Once seen never forgotten. The Australian outback seems to me to be unwelcoming at best, but it has surely never been depicted as grimmer, darker and more violent than in this depiction. A classic film - every bit as good as the source material.
5/5
Read
October 24, 2023PÁNICO AL AMANECER es una novela sobre la caída a los infiernos y sobre cómo el azar y los impulsos nos pueden llevar a una espiral de autodestrucción insalvable.
Un profesor destinado a un villorrio en el interior del continente decide volver a Sidney para pasar el verano. Y en ese trayecto infame lo pierde todo y descubre cosas del país, de la gente y de sí mismo que nunca se había planteado.
He disfrutado mucho este clásico contemporáneo australiano de 1961 por su violencia, por lo inesperado de cada situación, por la degradación moral y física del protagonista y, sobre todo, por la ambientación de la acción en lo más profundo, aislado y remoto de Australia.
Un profesor destinado a un villorrio en el interior del continente decide volver a Sidney para pasar el verano. Y en ese trayecto infame lo pierde todo y descubre cosas del país, de la gente y de sí mismo que nunca se había planteado.
He disfrutado mucho este clásico contemporáneo australiano de 1961 por su violencia, por lo inesperado de cada situación, por la degradación moral y física del protagonista y, sobre todo, por la ambientación de la acción en lo más profundo, aislado y remoto de Australia.
March 25, 2019
3.5, rounded down.
A decidedly odd little book, it reads quickly and is involving ... but it didn't totally add up for me. That, combined with some gruesome scenes of animal slaughter; essential, but NOT pleasant reading, leads me to give it a middling rating. Am eager to now see the cult film made from it, which was my impetus for my reading it in the first place, however.
A decidedly odd little book, it reads quickly and is involving ... but it didn't totally add up for me. That, combined with some gruesome scenes of animal slaughter; essential, but NOT pleasant reading, leads me to give it a middling rating. Am eager to now see the cult film made from it, which was my impetus for my reading it in the first place, however.
August 12, 2015
Ξυπνάς ξημερώματα από εφιάλτη. Κάπου μεταξύ κουζίνας και μπαλκονιού, όσο για να πιεις τρεις κούπες καφέ, βυθίζεσαι σ' έναν άλλον εφιάλτη, γεμάτο αλκοόλ και λανθασμένες αποφάσεις. Δεν σταματάς να διαβάζεις πριν φτάσεις στο τέλος. Υπέροχο.
October 16, 2021
Harrowing outback noir. Unfortunately I saw the movie first. The movie was great, but I would have liked to picture things for myself.
February 5, 2019
If there was ever a man determined to undermine Australian tourism it was Cook. His novels do for Australian Outback what every other scary book and movie have done for small towns for ages now. Yeah, Cook writes the Outback not merely inhospitable or forbidding, but more like a hostile alien environment where a stranger isn’t meant to survive. This isn’t just going by this book, I’ve also read Fear The Rider, but this one seems to be not only more famous (possibly due to its cinematic adaptation), but also more along the lines of a proper literature or a serious novel. Because it doesn’t just played out the cliché of local yokels, pickled drunk by cheap liquor and relentless sun, it creates a terrifying purgatorial place which is simply unforgettable. It also gets profound by juxtaposing the city and countryside as two radically different and radically incompatible ways of life, something the John Grant, a school teacher on a vacation, finds out as the classic unwitting protagonist. One night in Yabba is all it takes for a nice young man to completely unravel as he becomes exposed to more and more drunkenness and violence. Yabba is a welcoming place, you can drink all you want, you can gamble, you can enjoy some casual brutality…it’s leaving it that’s difficult and leaving it the same person you entered it…impossible. Small twons small minds thing doesn’t even begin to cover it. Cook’s Outback is entirely more disturbing than that. And thoroughly frightening. This novel is quite short, but it packs a punch, John Grant’s journey is hypnotically nightmarish, in fact that’s the entirely tone and mood of this story. Very dark psychological fiction at its best. And also one that’s aged notably well since its publication in 1961. Recommended.
June 29, 2013
totally hypnotic. I was equally fascinated and repulsed but this book demanded to be read to the very end.
August 29, 2019
B is for Beer! :p
https://pepperlines.blogspot.com/2019...
https://pepperlines.blogspot.com/2019...
March 9, 2009
got sent this one cos the publishers want me to do some puff about it that may end up on the re-release cover which i was hell stoked about as people will think im totes literary for being quoted on a book. so i gotta think of something pithy to say. feel free to throw me some suggestions. i need big, unfamiliar words. right now i got this:
a real menacing bastard of a book. lean and terrifying. im never going for a holiday to broken hill or wherever it was meant to be. kenneth cole has constructed something truly disturbing here, i will never look at our national emblem the same way, and when im next in a country town, i will think twice about saying yes or no when a stranger asks to buy me a beer. this is tough stuff, and reading it made me realise that we really dont make much tough stuff in our country anymore. films, tv, literature. we've lost our balls. wake in fright has massive hairy nuts swinging between its legs and i like it. read the friggin thing it will take you on domestic plane trip to finish it. yours. bbc.
discuss
a real menacing bastard of a book. lean and terrifying. im never going for a holiday to broken hill or wherever it was meant to be. kenneth cole has constructed something truly disturbing here, i will never look at our national emblem the same way, and when im next in a country town, i will think twice about saying yes or no when a stranger asks to buy me a beer. this is tough stuff, and reading it made me realise that we really dont make much tough stuff in our country anymore. films, tv, literature. we've lost our balls. wake in fright has massive hairy nuts swinging between its legs and i like it. read the friggin thing it will take you on domestic plane trip to finish it. yours. bbc.
discuss
December 7, 2020
Interesante y breve novela, en la que un joven profesor de escuela en un remoto pueblo pasa de una vida aburrida y anodina, a entrar en una espiral autodestructiva. Una mala decisión trae sus consecuencias, y así, una tras otra se van encadenando una serie de infortunios que van transformando y destruyendo su vida, llevándolo a un callejón del que cada vez parece más complicado salir. Y todo ello regado con mucha, mucha cerveza. ¿Qué puede salir mal?
January 21, 2020
Todo empieza para John Grant en su primer día de vacaciones. Habiendo cobrado su sueldo, ya lo tenía todo preparado en sus maletas para pasar varias semanas en Sydney. De camino, pasa por la pequeña localidad de Bundanyabba, donde todo parece poco estimulante. Hasta que le invitan a tomar unas cervezas en un bar, es ahí cuando todo se descontrola...
Grant deberá hacer frente a una serie de infortunios concatenados que le llevan a situaciones límite, sintiéndose él un mero espectador que es arrastrado por todos los escenarios turbios e incluso ilegales. En todo momento asistimos a una galería de extraños personajes que prueban sus ideas llevando al protagonista de la mano, casi como si estuviera preso.
Si bien el libro se sirve de la expectativa que se crea en torno a lo que sucede después, tengo que decir que a mí no me ha parecido para tanto la sorpresa. Es cierto que los escenarios son un tanto inverosímiles y algunas situaciones parecen no tener una salida fácil, pero es bastante fácil relativizar y prever casi todo lo que puede ocurrir en la trama. Quitando este factor, nos encontramos ante una lectura de una acción rápida, lo cual compensa una narración bastante débil e irregular. Me lo esperaba diferente.
Grant deberá hacer frente a una serie de infortunios concatenados que le llevan a situaciones límite, sintiéndose él un mero espectador que es arrastrado por todos los escenarios turbios e incluso ilegales. En todo momento asistimos a una galería de extraños personajes que prueban sus ideas llevando al protagonista de la mano, casi como si estuviera preso.
Si bien el libro se sirve de la expectativa que se crea en torno a lo que sucede después, tengo que decir que a mí no me ha parecido para tanto la sorpresa. Es cierto que los escenarios son un tanto inverosímiles y algunas situaciones parecen no tener una salida fácil, pero es bastante fácil relativizar y prever casi todo lo que puede ocurrir en la trama. Quitando este factor, nos encontramos ante una lectura de una acción rápida, lo cual compensa una narración bastante débil e irregular. Me lo esperaba diferente.
January 9, 2025
Second time through and boy howdy does my old review stink. I hope somehow my writing has improved in the *sigh* six years since I last read this but let's find out together.
It doesn't quite hit you until the halfway point that this is a "dandy goes out to rough it in the west" farce turned on its head into a harrowing horror. Normally the out of place city person would be leered at with mistrustful gazes, here, he is embraced as if he was a long-lost cousin, which John Grant, our protagonist initially bristles at but before long he's accepted one too many pints on the house and he punches his ticket for a bender he's never going to forget.
By the end of the book, he's It's all handled with brilliant narration that perfectly mimics the addled mind reeling from participating in one gruesome farce after another. And the kicker is, it was all his fault to begin with.
Fun for the whole family.
*old review*
This is a tale of a man being dragged through hell, first willingly then resignedly through increasing levels of drunkenness and violence. A man led by his own poor instincts to acts of utter desperation with his would be saviors turning out to be grinning madmen. The intersection of fate and choice where they become a single being indistinguishable from one another is made manifest by the flat desolation of the Australian outback where a decision to walk in any one direction is fated to be like any other; a dreary march towards a receding horizon line. Here, John Grant finds himself constantly yearning for one thing and yet inevitably pursuing its grotesque opposite. In seeking the civilized comforts of major metropolis Sydney, he invariably makes prisoner of himself in the backwaters of Bundanyaba.
Economy of words is emphasized here much like the demanding environment of the story itself. There is not much flowery prose to be observed at all but a very terse approach to all things as is appropriate in the telling as the narrator is so wearied and wracked with drink to be much of a poet. Funny too the only real colors evoked to me as I read were staggering whites and impenetrable darkness, with an occasional splash of light blue perceived dimly here and there as Grant recalls Sydney or the woman he adores residing in the paradise of his mind.
All said, it's a tale simply told and yet contains a richness of truth; a harsh but honest truth. Plus, it's super short and a great way to kill the afternoon.
It doesn't quite hit you until the halfway point that this is a "dandy goes out to rough it in the west" farce turned on its head into a harrowing horror. Normally the out of place city person would be leered at with mistrustful gazes, here, he is embraced as if he was a long-lost cousin, which John Grant, our protagonist initially bristles at but before long he's accepted one too many pints on the house and he punches his ticket for a bender he's never going to forget.
By the end of the book, he's It's all handled with brilliant narration that perfectly mimics the addled mind reeling from participating in one gruesome farce after another. And the kicker is, it was all his fault to begin with.
Fun for the whole family.
*old review*
This is a tale of a man being dragged through hell, first willingly then resignedly through increasing levels of drunkenness and violence. A man led by his own poor instincts to acts of utter desperation with his would be saviors turning out to be grinning madmen. The intersection of fate and choice where they become a single being indistinguishable from one another is made manifest by the flat desolation of the Australian outback where a decision to walk in any one direction is fated to be like any other; a dreary march towards a receding horizon line. Here, John Grant finds himself constantly yearning for one thing and yet inevitably pursuing its grotesque opposite. In seeking the civilized comforts of major metropolis Sydney, he invariably makes prisoner of himself in the backwaters of Bundanyaba.
Economy of words is emphasized here much like the demanding environment of the story itself. There is not much flowery prose to be observed at all but a very terse approach to all things as is appropriate in the telling as the narrator is so wearied and wracked with drink to be much of a poet. Funny too the only real colors evoked to me as I read were staggering whites and impenetrable darkness, with an occasional splash of light blue perceived dimly here and there as Grant recalls Sydney or the woman he adores residing in the paradise of his mind.
All said, it's a tale simply told and yet contains a richness of truth; a harsh but honest truth. Plus, it's super short and a great way to kill the afternoon.
February 14, 2021
Pánico al amanecer conquista desde sus primeras páginas, desde que es poco menos que un embrión o un nascitirus. Antes incluso de que se desarrolle el texto, el lector se encuentra con la cita -una antigua maldición- que vendría a justificar el título de la novela. "Que sueñes con el diablo y sientas pánico al amanecer". Tras la cita lo que el lector encontrará es una obra muy sencilla que ilustra la decadencia de la que es capaz el ser humano, en este caso por agentes tan decimonónicos como podrían ser el alcohol y el juego.
Sin embargo, aun cuando la lucha de esta obra se plantee ante las adversidades externas, no contra el propio ser humano, que sería la lógica narrativa dominante en el siglo XX, Pánico al amanecer no es una obra que podamos considerar arcaica. Esto posiblemente explique que, a pesar de que hayan transcurrido 60 años desde su publicación en Australia, donde está considerada todo un clásico de culto, su lectura no invita a embarcarnos en un recorrido turístico literario del pasado.
Más bien, el recorrido turístico lo recorre el lector de manera geográfica. El personaje principal es un maestro de escuela en un pueblo adusto, árido y seco del interior de Australia. Su sueño es escapar del lugar. Regresar a Sidney con un clima completamente distinto y que representa el destino idealizado. Las clases terminan y el maestro tiene un periodo de vacaciones en el que así decide hacerlo. Con vistas a ello, se detiene en Bundanyabba, otro pueblo de interior donde le acontecerán una serie de infortunios que le impedirán cumplir con su propósito.
Más allá del lenguaje empleado, adusto como la tierra del interior de Australia, lo realmente interesante es cómo los infortunios que afectan al pobre maestro de escuela ni mucho menos le son sobrevenidos. Hay en su aparición un componente importante de voluntariedad. El maestro es como esos pilotos kamikazes japoneses, capaces de cualquier acción con tal de conseguir su objetivo. Aun en su peor momento, siempre es capaz de tomar la decisión menos apropiada.
Por último, he de reconocer que ha sido una de las lecturas que en los últimos años más me ha costado en algunos pasajes proseguir. Me decían que podía compararse con algunos momentos de El diablo a todas horas de Donald Ray Pollock, pero me parece que Pánico al amanecer va un poco más allá en la violencia. Violencia que es ejercida una y otra contra vez los canguros. Absténganse por tanto ofendiditos de leerlo, que hoy por hoy es lo que mejor que puede decirse de cualquier manifestación artística.
Sin embargo, aun cuando la lucha de esta obra se plantee ante las adversidades externas, no contra el propio ser humano, que sería la lógica narrativa dominante en el siglo XX, Pánico al amanecer no es una obra que podamos considerar arcaica. Esto posiblemente explique que, a pesar de que hayan transcurrido 60 años desde su publicación en Australia, donde está considerada todo un clásico de culto, su lectura no invita a embarcarnos en un recorrido turístico literario del pasado.
Más bien, el recorrido turístico lo recorre el lector de manera geográfica. El personaje principal es un maestro de escuela en un pueblo adusto, árido y seco del interior de Australia. Su sueño es escapar del lugar. Regresar a Sidney con un clima completamente distinto y que representa el destino idealizado. Las clases terminan y el maestro tiene un periodo de vacaciones en el que así decide hacerlo. Con vistas a ello, se detiene en Bundanyabba, otro pueblo de interior donde le acontecerán una serie de infortunios que le impedirán cumplir con su propósito.
Más allá del lenguaje empleado, adusto como la tierra del interior de Australia, lo realmente interesante es cómo los infortunios que afectan al pobre maestro de escuela ni mucho menos le son sobrevenidos. Hay en su aparición un componente importante de voluntariedad. El maestro es como esos pilotos kamikazes japoneses, capaces de cualquier acción con tal de conseguir su objetivo. Aun en su peor momento, siempre es capaz de tomar la decisión menos apropiada.
Por último, he de reconocer que ha sido una de las lecturas que en los últimos años más me ha costado en algunos pasajes proseguir. Me decían que podía compararse con algunos momentos de El diablo a todas horas de Donald Ray Pollock, pero me parece que Pánico al amanecer va un poco más allá en la violencia. Violencia que es ejercida una y otra contra vez los canguros. Absténganse por tanto ofendiditos de leerlo, que hoy por hoy es lo que mejor que puede decirse de cualquier manifestación artística.
July 4, 2017
‘It might be fifty years since the novel appeared yet it retains its freshness, its narrative still compels, and its bleak vision still disquiets.…Cook can make us feel the heat, see the endless horizon, hear the sad singing on a little train as it traverses the monotonous plain.’
Peter Temple, from the Introduction
‘Wake in Fright deserves its status as a modern classic. Cook’s prose is masterful and the story is gripping from the first page to the last.’
M. J. Hyland
‘A classic novel which became a classic film. The Outback without the sentimental bulldust. Australia without the sugar coating.’
Robert Drewe
‘Wake in Fright is a classic of the ugly side of Menzies’ Australia, its brutality, its drunkenness, its anxiety to crush all sensibility. All of this is harrowingly reacorded —the destruction of a young soul fresh to Australia—in Kenneth Cook’s remarkable novel.’
Thomas Keneally
‘A true dark classic of Australian literature.’
J. M. Coetzee
‘…a kind of outback Lord of the Flies …Written entirely from Grant’s point of view, the prose is at first straightforward, the landscape and its people evoked simply and vividly. But later, as Grant descends into his own personal hell and finally to the depths of despair, the writing takes on the quality of a delirious dream. The concluding narrative twists will rock both Grant (and the reader) back on their heels.’
Crime Time UK
Peter Temple, from the Introduction
‘Wake in Fright deserves its status as a modern classic. Cook’s prose is masterful and the story is gripping from the first page to the last.’
M. J. Hyland
‘A classic novel which became a classic film. The Outback without the sentimental bulldust. Australia without the sugar coating.’
Robert Drewe
‘Wake in Fright is a classic of the ugly side of Menzies’ Australia, its brutality, its drunkenness, its anxiety to crush all sensibility. All of this is harrowingly reacorded —the destruction of a young soul fresh to Australia—in Kenneth Cook’s remarkable novel.’
Thomas Keneally
‘A true dark classic of Australian literature.’
J. M. Coetzee
‘…a kind of outback Lord of the Flies …Written entirely from Grant’s point of view, the prose is at first straightforward, the landscape and its people evoked simply and vividly. But later, as Grant descends into his own personal hell and finally to the depths of despair, the writing takes on the quality of a delirious dream. The concluding narrative twists will rock both Grant (and the reader) back on their heels.’
Crime Time UK
December 12, 2018
Heat, dust, thirst, hunger, desperation, descent, and despair. Wake in Fright evokes all these phenomena in uncomfortable detail, down to the eviscerated kangaroo.
Kenneth Cook here subjects Tiboonda schoolteacher John Grant to a personal hell (and Tiboonda in the Outback is already "a variation of hell") where—in largely straightforward prose reminiscent of Hemingway—Grant must contend with the harsh, unforgiving Australian landscape as he makes his increasingly miserable way towards Sydney, so distant as to seem almost mythical. Yet the hopelessness of Grant's situation feels near-deserved, as he now engineers his own bankruptcy, now drinks towards alcohol poisoning, enabling his own unmaking.
Knowing this doesn't make it any easier to read, however, as Cook somehow manages to sustain our sympathy for him, our investment in his odyssey. One of the novel's through-lines is the social aspect of drinking, which might not be unique to Australian culture yet is certainly characteristic of it, and which I appreciate Cook for articulating so clearly as when Grant notices the peculiarity of our turning a blind eye to some who "do almost anything that would mean at least ostracism in normal society... [b]ut refuse to drink with them and you immediately became a mortal enemy." Cook's writing also may read simply (maybe too much so), which if patience nevertheless allows is so much more rewarding when it becomes pure poetry.
Kenneth Cook here subjects Tiboonda schoolteacher John Grant to a personal hell (and Tiboonda in the Outback is already "a variation of hell") where—in largely straightforward prose reminiscent of Hemingway—Grant must contend with the harsh, unforgiving Australian landscape as he makes his increasingly miserable way towards Sydney, so distant as to seem almost mythical. Yet the hopelessness of Grant's situation feels near-deserved, as he now engineers his own bankruptcy, now drinks towards alcohol poisoning, enabling his own unmaking.
Knowing this doesn't make it any easier to read, however, as Cook somehow manages to sustain our sympathy for him, our investment in his odyssey. One of the novel's through-lines is the social aspect of drinking, which might not be unique to Australian culture yet is certainly characteristic of it, and which I appreciate Cook for articulating so clearly as when Grant notices the peculiarity of our turning a blind eye to some who "do almost anything that would mean at least ostracism in normal society... [b]ut refuse to drink with them and you immediately became a mortal enemy." Cook's writing also may read simply (maybe too much so), which if patience nevertheless allows is so much more rewarding when it becomes pure poetry.
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