Red in the Centre: The Australian Bush Through Urban Eyes

by Monte Dwyer

A series of sketches created on a long drive around Australia, meeting the locals and gathering their stories and yarns.

Genres: Australia, Nonfiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Max Coggan]

A trip around the Australian bush in a van with Monte Dwyer. A series of two or three page short stories which can be read in any spare 10 minutes.

[Grant Cousineau]

As an American who's been to Australia only three times--always in and around Adelaide, but nowhere near the "Centre"--I came to this book with the freshest and most untrained of eyes. This signed copy was a gift from my Down Unda' family, and having not even been familiar with Dwyer prior to this, as someone who had absolutely no preconceptions or biases, I can say that I felt like I got to know Dwyer so well that it felt like I was riding shotgun in his RV, The Parrot--in a place where, to me, the passenger seat can trick me into thinking I'm the one behind the wheel.

There really is no shape or flow that these dozens of essays are built around. I can only presume they are presented in the linear, chronological order in which he himself experienced them. At times, there was a sort of disorienting, whiplash feel, as at one moment, he would tell of a teenage girl who was accidentally crushed to death on the job by the machine operator--her unknowing boyfriend, and this would be immediately followed by a new section on how Australia rerouted rivers over the years to help desperate farmlands. You'd hear about the young women who spend a few years working at brothels to make enough money to get their life started, and then learn about government subsidies or cattle farming or a phone-in to Dwyer's radio program to report on his progress.

When I could only read one section at a time, I did feel a lack of urgency to come back to the book, as the lack of any throughline made reading it feel optional, almost like a coffee table book. But as I pressed through the last half of the book on one, long flight between Houston and Sydney, the panorama of his experience started to come through like a gorgeous, red kaleidoscope. That four-out-of-five star rating is only because the inherent structure of the book makes it less attractive for readers who can only absorb it in sporadic bursts, and I'm not sure that it would have been improved if, say, Dwyer had set out on his road trip with a specific plan or mission to give each story a connecting point to one another. Perhaps, but that would have also made the overall picture less representative of the varied lives in rural Australia.

In the end, after pushing through the book in one long stretch, I found something I could connect to. And throughout it all, Dwyer is a funny, earnest storyteller, approaching each new person and community with sincere curiosity, even bringing his young daughter along for a one-month leg of the trip, approved by her schoolteachers so long as she reported back on her learnings. I feel like I got to know him as much as I got to know Australia, and as someone who'd started from zero on both counts, it was kind of a beautiful thing to witness.

[Sharlene Evans]

I liked the yarning, easy going narrative style of this book. Short interesting stories from people around the country. Gave the feeling of being there on the journey in The Parrot with the author as he explored and sought out the stories of interest and intrigue.

[Izzi Hancock]

A collection of entertaining yarns, laugh out loud stories and a few tales that pull at the heart strings.
Dwyer is a natural storyteller as those who remember his time as weatherman on Sunrise would already know.
Red in the Centre is an easy read and an absolute pleasure.

[Alayne]

This was a very "bitsy" book whereby the author was all over the place geographically speaking as he told the stories of the people he met. Plenty of examples of the misuse of apostrophes, and as an Aussie author in Australia, he used certain Americanisms which left a jarring note.

[Owen]

Amusing and informative look at the Australian outback and its characters, their whims and fancies, by an acute observer of the Australian scene.