The Boy in the Green Suit : An Innocent Abroad in the Middle East

by Robert Hillman

Here is an unusual and beautifully written Australian memoir destined to become a classic that captures the vulnerability and ardour of youth, and the fragility and strength of parental love.

It is 1965. Robert Hillman, a mere 16 years old, is planning an extraordinary adventure. Deserted by his mother, disliked by his stepmother, and puzzled by his father, Bobby needs comforting. His life in rural Victoria has offered no solace; his job at Melbourne’s Myer Emporium, selling ladies’ slippers, offers no prospects. So he does what any confused and lonely teenager would do: he escapes.

Boarding a ship bound for Ceylon, he begins his search for paradise, inspired by his father’s stories of a fabled island in the Indian Ocean. Bobby sets sail in a green suit, carrying a suitcase full of books and a typewriter. He has no money, no return ticket and, seemingly, no worries. He imagines the island he is heading for to be inhabited by beautiful, full-breasted women who will caress him while he writes prize-winning stories in the style of Chekhov.

What follows is an account by turns heart-breakingly tender and side-splittingly funny of an innocent abroad. Put ashore not in Ceylon but in Athens, Bobby barters his way to Istanbul, Tehran, and Kuwait, lurching from slums and brothels to an implausible job at a ritzy hotel in Shiraz. Finally, a long haul through the desert ends in a jail term on the Pakistan border where, ironically, he finds the affection and acceptance that have always been the true objects of his quest.

All the while, Hillman’s odyssey has been part of a larger family drama. Woven through his story is his father’s tale of struggle and sorrow. As the mature writer now realises, ‘I booked a ticket on a ship to install myself in a story my father had begun in his imagination.’

The Boy in the Green Suit is an unforgettable, bitter-sweet tale of the artist as a bewildered young man.

Genres: Nonfiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Robert Hillman is a Melbourne-based writer of fiction and biography. His autobiography THE BOY IN THE GREEN SUIT won the Australian National Biography Award for 2005. His critically acclaimed MY LIFE AS A TRAITOR (written with Zarha Ghahramani) was shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction in 2008 and was published widely overseas.
After many years of teaching in high schools and university, Robert Hillman now works as a full-time writer. He has three children and lives in Warburton, in Victoria's Yarra Valley.

Reviews

[Bronwyn Rykiert · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this story frustrating at times, I did not think much of the boy traveller.

I can't believe that Robert was able to get his passport and get on a ship bound for Ceylon at 16 years of age in the 1960's, especiall with not having a true plan and it turns out any knowledge of the world around him. His father seemed to have not cared about his well being.

Starting straight away to shun the powers that be, like not going to Embassy in Greece as he was supposed to - it seems he was very lucky that a lot of the people he ran into were geneerous. I can't believe he managed to stay away for 12 months without much money. It is hard to beleive the things he go away with.

I story to me sounded unrealistic and he was so naive that drove me crazy but I managed to finish to the story without finding any humour in it.

[Özgür Özer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Son derece masum… Hayalperest ismi Türkçe çeviriye özgü. Ama iyi akıl edilmiş. Herkesin bu tip hayalperest tanıdıkları olmuştur. Böyle bir tip kolayca her şeyin üstesinden geleceğine inanır. Kahramanımız Bobby tam da böyle birisi. Hem de yalnızca 16 yaşında Avustralyalı bir çocuk. Bir diğer ilginç detay kitabın bir bölümünün 60'lı yıllar Türkiyesinde geçmesi. Özellikle sıcak ve içten anlatımı dolayısıyla beş üzerinden dört verdim.

[Pip Snort · Rating 3 out of 5]

An account of 16 year old Robert Hillman, a callow youth from regional Victoria, as he blindly stumbles his way around the Middle East. Captured by a foolish fantasy kindled by his father's delusional stories of the Second World War, Bobby boards a ship for Ceylon, intending to travel from there to the Seychelles and live a fantasy life with a host of native women who will love and care for him. However, Bobby is monumentally unprepared for life and instead is turned away from Ceylon and finds himself in Athens. He staggers across Europe, hitchhiking in a higgledy piggledy way throughout the Balkans, in a vague attempt to reach Germany, before being taken by the local police to Belgrade and returned to Athens for a flight home. However, Hillman refuses the flight and is set up as a dish boy in a local hostel. He is persuaded to accompany a Brit and an American to Kuwait to find work in the rich oil fields. Impoverished, hungry and ignorant Hillman continues to search for Eden, the paradise of feminine love he hopes will be at the end of his rainbow. But his incompetence and helplessness lands him in a gaol on the border of Pakistan, and after his release he stumbles to the Australian embassy in Karachi, sick and poor. Essentially a study of incompetence, selfish ignorance and the folly of insubstantial dreams.

[Michael Buettner · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like to read coming of age boy stories. As a writer I was fascinated how skillfully Hillman wove the story of his father into Robert, the boy's story of a one year travel adventure. By starting the story at nine years of age in the present tense and contrasting this in the past tense with creative non-fiction techniques of his year on the road, Hillman achieves great emotional depth. Certainly he struck a chord with me in the way he approached the world as an innocent yet aware from his adult self how silly it could be sometimes. I am thinking of the time he had a drinking problem on the ship and was only restrained from jumping overboard in his party outfit by some ship officers. We feel with him the emotional pain and boozy fog of a potential suicide. The way he tries to explore the mysteries of the adult world on the ship and in jail reminds me of The Cat's Table by Michael Oodatje. To me the boy character seemed younger perhaps twelve to fourteen. Certainly our sixteen year old boys seem to be more mature than Robert was at that age. Hillman is very skillful in subtle nuanced dialogs with different characters along the way. The way he gets into sexual misadventure reminds me of Michael Keith's book

[Steven Norman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This IS 100% a nonfiction memoir.

I don't usually read reviews of my uncle's books, but after having a glance today at what people have written, I had to set the record straight.

I am the grandson of Frank Hillman and the nephew of Robert Hillman (the author).

Everything, and I mean everything, in this book is TRUE.

I've spent the last 59 years listening to and reading his stories, including his bits and pieces of notes from that time. Hearing my mother tell of the terrible state he was in on his return home and of the tears the family spelt on listening to what had happened on his travels. This was decades before this book would be written.

We know each other very well; we know when we're spinning yarns and when we're dead serious.

And as for my grandfather, he loved his son terribly and did what he could considering such terrible times for my family. He cared. Yes, he cared, but it was a different time, and you cannot make judgements about how he raised my uncle and mother. He loved them more than life.

[Barbara Brydges · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book very readable, but throughout the entire story I had a hard time believing any of it was true. Hill writes continually about how his 16-year-old self lived in a land of fantasy, from the time he got on a ship in Australia in 1965 dreaming of a green island full of beautiful sexual women, throughout the entirety of his trip through Greece and the Middle East. This account of his adventures feels like the continuation of those fantasies, although it often involved danger, hunger and being broke. Perhaps it’s proof that truth is stranger than fiction.

[Lyn Quilty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting adventure story, an innocent abroad. At times seemed far fetched but quite funny. Ended abruptly.

[VinitaF · Rating 4 out of 5]

I throughly enjoyed this book though I wonder if it’s one big Aussie yarn rather than a real life memoir. It’s thrilling and funny. Some parts are a little banal however overall it’s a good read.

[Elossoles · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kitabın karakterinin hayalperest yanını kendime çok benzettim. Ama en azından Bobby harekete geçiyor gidiyor. Bende o da yok.

[Kristygardiner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amazing story. Love the fact that its set in Eildon just on the other side of the lake from our town! There are so many men in this area like his Dad. It was frustrating Bobby wore the green suit the whole time (even when he outgrew it) and only went to middle eastern countries!!! I kept thinking, what about Europe Bobby??? Surely easier to get work... Talk about doing it tough and being totally unprepared. I guess that's what happens when a 16 year old boy decides to have an adventure looking for an elusive green island of topless women.

[Kai · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a delightful book. It's so innocent and naive and hence amusing and a beautiful picture of youth. I particularly liked his expectation that the world was waiting just for him wherever he went and that everyone would think him sophisticated, enviable and desirable. All folly! His adventures are remarkable and his ability as a 16-17 year old to overcome significant tribulations is remarkable. A joy to read.

[Sara Foley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this story - I even loved the main character even though he was an idiot. Don't worry, his older self who was writing about him thought so too. I was thoroughly engaged and amused the whole way through.

[Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

This memoir had ambition but was underwhelming. The stories of his father between chapters prevented logical cohesion. Hillman's memoir is easy to summarise: a foolish and restless teenager abroad making stupid choices.

[Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read...A coming of age memoir set in the 60's and winner of the National Biography Award in 2005 (Australia)