Good Oil in Aussie Readers

Jul 18, 2010 Romy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2010, romance, realistic-contemporary-fiction, australian, books-i-read-in-2011

The Quickie Review

Laura Buzo has woven a beautiful story of first love and growing up all set around the aptly named Land of Dreams (Chris’ name for Woolworths or Woolies as it’s so fondly named by the Aussie public, which is a large supermarket chain in Australia for all you non Aussies reading this). It’s a story of one who is just entering young adulthood and another who is leaving it but both are trying to understand and find their place in the world.

Good Oil engross you from page one with The Quickie Review

Laura Buzo has woven a beautiful story of first love and growing up all set around the aptly named Land of Dreams (Chris’ name for Woolworths or Woolies as it’s so fondly named by the Aussie public, which is a large supermarket chain in Australia for all you non Aussies reading this). It’s a story of one who is just entering young adulthood and another who is leaving it but both are trying to understand and find their place in the world.

Good Oil engross you from page one with two utterly complex yet relatable characters, the shy, smart Amelia and the boisterous, fun loving Chris, both of who I adored. It’s cute, it’s bittersweet and it’s a 'little bit heartbreaking' but it’s also beautifully honest and well worth reading. Laura Buzo has made a definite impact on me and, fingers crossed, the Aussie YA literary world as well, I hope she has many more books to come.

The Full Blown Review

15 year old Amelia works at Woolworths or as her favourite fellow worker Chris calls it ‘The Land of Dreams’ and it is indeed ‘The Land of Dreams’ for Amelia who soon develops an first all consuming crush on her 21 year old co-worker which quickly and unexpectedly turns into her first love (her realization or ‘ah-ha’ moment that she’s in love with Chris happens sitting on the couch watching TV with her little sister). Unfortunately for Amelia Chris, at first, doesn’t even remotely think of Amelia that way. Both Amelia and Chris see something in each other and their friendship develops over the course of the novel, however will Chris ever be able to overcome the 6 year age gap between them to see Amelia as she wants to be seen in his eyes?

Good Oil is told in dual narratives between 15 year old Amelia and 21 year old Chris through his diary entries, I loved how we got both of their perspectives about their relationship and also what each one was feeling and how they interpreted each other at the time. I guess what amazed me with this book was that the Amelia and Chris were so well developed and real that I could relate to both of them, which often isn’t the case in many novels, I mean one sure but both, not usually.

I loved Amelia she had this childish innocence to her that we all used to have, some more than others. Reading through Amelia’s narrative gave me flash backs to my teen years, trying to navigate through the murky waters of high school whilst also trying to understand where you fit into the overall picture world. Heck I was Amelia, I was frustrated with my parents on many an occasion, just like Amelia I hated my mothers smoking with a passion always making a point that it annoyed the crap out of me and yet she still continued with it, I was dealing with pushy and loud school boys going to and from school (only I got this privilege not only on a bus but a tram and train as well), I went to a girls school that had defined social hierarchies and it’s safe to say I was not in the ‘popular’ group, the only teenage boy contact I had was with my brother who it must be said barely tolerated me, one of my best friends abruptly (like literally overnight) went gaga for boys and suddenly I was in this place feeling alone and left out of it all, ah yes the teen years, lot of angst, I remember it well.

I also understood where Chris was coming from, he’s in his last year of an arts degree and what the heck is he going to do? I could totally understood his reasons for doing an honours year because that was me 2 years ago, I mean for me finishing uni and finding a job was just too unthinkable, especially because I did a degree with not too many great job prospects so what did I go and do? A masters degree, problem solved, but this didn’t really solve anything as I finish this year and once again I’m at the crossroads Chris was at, what am I going to do when I finish? Which BTW, just like Chris, annoys the crap out of me when people ask me that question, I don’t know what I’m going to do but it will come to me eventually people! Sorry about that little rant anyway where was I oh yes Chris. What I also really love was how whilst he at first appears to the reader as this really chipper, happy go lucky guy from Amelia’s observations we learn from Chris perspective that he feels like he’s alone, just like Amelia, and his life is a mess. It appears to Chris that everyone seems to be moving on with their lives post uni whilst he’s stuck in the same place doing the same things watching everyone passing him bye. He’s also trying to deal with his growing feelings for ‘the youngster’ which he sees as inappropriate because of their age gap even though Chris can really talk to Amelia and she makes him really think and question his previous notions of whatever subject they’re talking about. Chris also made some mistakes that annoyed me no end, there was one particular incident, why Chris, why I was asking myself but that’s what people do, they make mistakes and that’s what makes a character real. So I guess what I loved about Chris was how Laura so clearly conveyed his feelings of despair and hopelessness he had for his life, it was so clearly conveyed and well written that I really understood where he was coming from because I’ve been there and what do you know I seem to be back there again, eek!

It is also evident Laura knows her literature with sprinklings of references from The Great Gatsby to Great Expectations and The Catcher in the Rye. Pop cultural references also abound, my personal favourite was when Chris was describing having his heart ripped out à la Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. I love that these literary and pop cultural references are written so effortlessly throughout the book it makes for some really funny and engaging conversations between Amelia and Chris.

I knew throughout the book that logically there was only one possible ending and whilst both Amelia and Chris did connect intellectually the age gap between the two was simply too big, Amelia still has a lot of growing up to do and more to experience of the world, Chris on the other hand also has a lot of growing up to do but his is different from Amelia’s because they are in completely different stages in their lives. I’ve read the word bittersweet to describe the ending and I’m of the same opinion, it is bittersweet but there is the eternal flame of hope left for the two which for me is hopefully *crosses fingers and toes* a follow up to this book, I would sell my soul for a sequel, dramatic much, me?

To be quite frank I have fallen head over heels for this book, just like Amelia did for Chris!
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Nov 15, 2012 Bree T rated it it was amazing

Shelves: australian, young-adult, aww2012, realistic-fiction

Miss Amelia Hayes, welcome to the Land of Dreams. I am the staff trainer. I will call you grasshopper and you will call me sensei and I will give you the good oil. Right?

Amelia Hayes is a couple of months off 15 and has just started her first casual job as a “check out chick” at her local Woolworths, one of the two major Australian supermarket chains. She is trained on the job by Chris Harvey, a 21 year old Woolies veteran who works part time whilst completing his degree of a Bachelor of Arts an Miss Amelia Hayes, welcome to the Land of Dreams. I am the staff trainer. I will call you grasshopper and you will call me sensei and I will give you the good oil. Right?

Amelia Hayes is a couple of months off 15 and has just started her first casual job as a “check out chick” at her local Woolworths, one of the two major Australian supermarket chains. She is trained on the job by Chris Harvey, a 21 year old Woolies veteran who works part time whilst completing his degree of a Bachelor of Arts and Social Science. Amelia develops a crush on Chris almost immediately – she’s an awkward kind of girl who doesn’t make friends easily. Chris is the only person she really connects with at work and he stops her from being a total outcast on the job. They discover that they have things in common, despite their 6 year gap.

Before long, Chris and Amelia are talking about everything. Chris is extraordinarily well read and he often spots Amelia reading school texts before work and during her breaks and engages her in conversation about them and recommends other books for her to read. They talk books, they talk deep issues with Second Wave feminism and they talk about what they hate, what happens in their lives that affects them, what makes them tick. Chris is half-hearted in his pursuit of Kathy from Woolworths and Amelia is a tortured bystander every time he suffers a relapse of the Kathy disease. All she wants is for Chris to notice her, but she’s barely fifteen and he’s heading for 22 and finishing his masters at uni. Their lives are a world apart.

Chris is noticing Amelia more with every conversation they have. He is suffering from true heartbreak and Amelia, one of his “New Littles” is a bright spot in his day as he finds her far more intelligent and interesting to talk to than any of the others he’s been required to train recently. But no matter how smart she is, no matter how funny, no matter how much she rants over the ending of Great Expectations, nothing changes the fact that Amelia is still only fifteen.

Good Oil is the first novel by Australian author Laura Buzo. I have Laura’s second novel, Holier Than Thou on my shelf but I’d heard such fabulous things about this one that when I spotted it on the display shelf of my local library recently I picked it up on a whim. I’ve been gutted by hay fever recently and I’ve spent a lot of time just sacked out on the couch reading because that’s all I can really find the energy to do. Even review writing was beyond my capabilities until my medications finally managed to kick in and I’ve begun to get better. So I picked this up last Saturday night, intending to read a few pages before bed. I finished it at 12.30am, a couple of hours later.

In New South Wales, Australia you need to be 14 and 9 months to get a job and Amelia begins looking immediately, excited about the prospect of having her own money. She is hired by her local Woolworths and becomes a check out operator, working a couple of nights a week and usually one weekend shift. She’s not ‘in’ with the crowd at her work, she doesn’t really know how to talk to most people, she doesn’t flirt and she doesn’t dress up or wear make up or do her hair. So she doesn’t really fit in and the only person she really talks to is Chris, the guy who trained her. They establish a friendship based around literature and studies that gradually grows to encompass their past heartbreaks (Chris) and a less-than-appealing homelife (Amelia). They even begin writing each other letters, sharing thoughts and feelings. Amelia’s crush is swift and deep but she knows the odds are not in her favour.

This book is so beautiful. It’s funny and sweet and clever. Buzo paints an interesting environment, easily subdividing the workers into groups and giving us Amelia on the outside looking in, an observer to the life and times of the casual Woolworths staff. Amelia works on a simple school-worth-study routine, escaping the oppressive atmosphere that has settled in her house courtesy of a father that is often away working but doesn’t lift a finger when he’s home, and a mother who works full time and still handles 100% of the household duties as well. Amelia’s sister has moved away to uni and as with work, she feels alone at home. Everything she does seems to be wrong and she’s so angry about things. In Chris, Amelia finds someone that she can rant to who will appreciate it, will cheer her on as she attacks the latest classic she’s read or analyses the fact that women who can now ‘have it all’ thanks to feminism are being royally screwed over by a classic domestic cycle that hasn’t adjusted to reflect the changing ways of the world.

Some mild **SPOILERS** ahead:

You know that this book isn’t going to end in a certain way. Chris is nearly 22, finishing his masters and Amelia is 15 and still in year 10 at school. As Chris says, they are in completely different points in their lives. He needs an equal, someone who can socialise with him, someone who he can be with fully (without breaking a law). In a few years time, that 6 years will be nothing. But right now, the age gap might as well be the size of the Grand Canyon. Despite their feelings. This is so brilliantly handled! You know Amelia’s feelings from the get-go but Chris’s are different, slower and less obvious. As a 16yo who dated a 21yo, I’m glad that Buzo chose to give this book the ending she did. Chris is portrayed throughout the whole book in a certain way – a good person, someone who is considerate, capable of deep love and also deep pain. For it to end any other way I think wouldn’t be true to his character, no matter how willing Amelia may have been. He is right – they are at such different points in their lives, he is ready to step out into the world, get a job, travel. He spends a lot of time in pubs and bars, but it isn’t just the legal drinking age that creates a distance. It’s the social circle constructed around it as well. Amelia wouldn’t be able to feel at ease with his friends and chances are, they would have been uncomfortable with her being around too. And likewise, Chris would be unable to relate to all of Amelia’s friends.

Endeth the **spoilers**.

In Chris and Amelia (we get both sides of the story through a dual narration) we have two infinitely likable characters who are both struggling with where they are in life and how they fit in with what they want from it. Chris wants to delay the inevitable of assuming responsibility and getting a job and being an adult but he also wants to escape the fact that he’s a 21yo man who still lives at home with his parents and works at Woolworths. He laments the life of one of his close friends who, in the course of his narration, pulls his entire life together effortlessly in a short amount of time. Amelia wants to be just that little bit older, maybe eighteen, someone who can drive, go to the pub, isn’t tied down by parents and school, who can interact and be with Chris as an emotional and social equal.

I would adore a sequel to this book. Buzo wrote Holier Than Thou which I now cannot wait to read but I’d really love to see these two characters connect again later on. I think their story has a lot that remained untold in this book.
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Dec 01, 2010 Nicola Marsh rated it really liked it

Really enjoyed this YA Aussie debut.

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Nov 24, 2010 Janelle rated it really liked it

Shelves: young-adult-fiction, aussie-author

What a great read. I had a friend who used to work for 'Woolies' (Woolworths) and the goings on at her store were very similar to the ones in this book!
I also loved the book discussions between Amelia and Chris too. ...more

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Oct 03, 2011 Carly Bowden rated it it was amazing

Shelves: good-aussie-ya

4.5 stars.
This is the kind of book I wish I had read at 15! Then I would have known that everyone feels like that at that age.
Really well written. Got hooked on the characters. Very realistic portrayal of what it's like to be both an Aussie high schooler /uni bum living with your parents for too long because you can't support yourself and study at the same time. ...more

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