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How to Be Australian
When Ashley persuades her new husband Steve to leave snowy Canada and join her for a year Down Under, she looks forward to an easy transition. After all,
Australia’s just Canada with more sunshine and strange animals, right?
But they soon discover things aren’t so simple. Steve struggles to settle and Ashley fears he will come to regret both the move and the marriage – especially after she loses her wedding rings on Bondi Beach. Baffled, homesick and increasingly anxious (in a land renowned for ‘no worries’), she is preparing to return to Canada when Steve shockingly announces that he wants to stay in Australia. Forever.
For the sake of her marriage and her happiness, Ashley must find an Australia she can belong to: she decides to travel the country, learn its history, decode its cultural quirks and connect with as many residents as she can meet. How to Be Australian is a remarkable memoir, at once familiar and faraway, that shines a fresh, funny and fascinating light onto the country we think we know.
Australia’s just Canada with more sunshine and strange animals, right?
But they soon discover things aren’t so simple. Steve struggles to settle and Ashley fears he will come to regret both the move and the marriage – especially after she loses her wedding rings on Bondi Beach. Baffled, homesick and increasingly anxious (in a land renowned for ‘no worries’), she is preparing to return to Canada when Steve shockingly announces that he wants to stay in Australia. Forever.
For the sake of her marriage and her happiness, Ashley must find an Australia she can belong to: she decides to travel the country, learn its history, decode its cultural quirks and connect with as many residents as she can meet. How to Be Australian is a remarkable memoir, at once familiar and faraway, that shines a fresh, funny and fascinating light onto the country we think we know.
288 pages, Paperback
First published May 26, 2020
16 people are currently reading
267 people want to read
About the author
Ashley Kalagian Blunt
10 books176 followers
Ashley Kalagian Blunt
is an author, speaker and podcaster. Her number one bestselling psychological thriller, Dark Mode, was published in Australia/NZ, the UK, South Korea and Germany. It was shortlisted for the 2024 ABIA General Fiction Book of the Year, the Ned Kelly Awards and the Danger Awards.
Her latest thrillers are Cold Truth, which was also shortlisted for the Ned Kelly Award for Best Crime Novel, and Like, Follow, Die.
She has two earlier books, How to Be Australian, a memoir, and My Name Is Revenge, a thriller novella and collected essays. Her writing appears widely across Australian and international publications.
Ashley is a frequent speaker and panel moderator, and co-hosts James and Ashley Stay at Home, a podcast about writing, creativity and health. She has taught creative writing across Australia. Originally from Canada, she has lived and worked in South Korea, Peru and Mexico.
Her latest thrillers are Cold Truth, which was also shortlisted for the Ned Kelly Award for Best Crime Novel, and Like, Follow, Die.
She has two earlier books, How to Be Australian, a memoir, and My Name Is Revenge, a thriller novella and collected essays. Her writing appears widely across Australian and international publications.
Ashley is a frequent speaker and panel moderator, and co-hosts James and Ashley Stay at Home, a podcast about writing, creativity and health. She has taught creative writing across Australia. Originally from Canada, she has lived and worked in South Korea, Peru and Mexico.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 53 reviews
June 11, 2020
What an absolute delight to read a book that is funny, self-deprecating, honest, sharply observant, curious, indignant, tender, thoughtful and thought-provoking. How to be Australian: An Outsider’s View on Life and Love Down Under (Affirm Press 2020) is a memoir by Ashley Kalagian Blunt about her relocation to Australia from Canada and her experience of acclimatising (physically, socially and emotionally) to a new country. It is life-affirming and quirky; it is laugh-out-loud hilarious as Ashley and her husband Steve naively and blunderingly adapt to the eccentricities of Australian life.
Ashley was a seasoned traveller and had spent long periods – years – living in Asia, South America and Europe. The decision to spend a year in Australia was mostly based on her being fed up to the back teeth with the relentless cold of her home city, Winnipeg. How hard could living in Australia be? It had endless sunshine, strange animals, and the locals all spoke English; so they relocated to Sydney.
The first half of the book is a wry summary of misunderstandings, mispronunciations and misadventures with wildlife. Barefoot people boarding trams in the middle of the city, indecipherable coffee, ibis (bin chickens) sneaking ‘through the grass with ginger steps like they were leaving the scene of a crime’. Cockroaches the size of small mammals, intimidating spiders, and the filthy share houses that every Aussie uni student has experienced. Biscuits covered in ‘what looked like an elderly person’s pubic hair’, and rather unfortunately called ‘iced vovos’.
The second half of the book, whilst continuing to be highly entertaining through Ashley’s keen eye for the absurd, the ridiculous and the incomprehensible, drills down into a deeper layer. Her husband Steve is unable to find work and they both find the stress of adaptation difficult. Ashley swings between unhappiness, desperation to fit in, mental fragility, torn feelings about whether or not they have made the right decision and a nevertheless unending curiosity about the place and the people they are living amongst, all while trying to study and write a book.
This book traverses some even more serious themes. The author is well aware of her privilege in being able to choose to live in Australia, and to eventually apply to stay here permanently. She is conscious that is a choice not available to many others. She finds it difficult to accept her new country’s treatment of refugees and, equally, of the Indigenous population. All this is happening while she’s writing a book about her Armenian great-grandparents and the struggles they survived as exiled people; the irony is not lost on her, and in fact only opens her eyes even wider to the political and cultural situation in Australia. There is a whole section about cultural cringe and the hypocrisy and confronting facts of Australia Day (or Invasion Day), and the government’s ‘blatant human rights violations’ in their detention of asylum seekers. Ashley acknowledges, respects and honours First Nations peoples in various ways throughout the story.
The couple are undecided: to stay or to go? To apply for permanent residency or to return to family? To relish in a kookaburra’s laugh and the vista of the Sydney Opera House or to suffer through attempting to conquer Cradle Mountain and the taste of Vegemite? At one stage, she says: ‘Maybe if you couldn’t find a home, you could make one.’
And alongside their struggle to understand and fit in to their new country, they are encountering their own personal difficulties as they realise that they want different things, and they respond to stress in very different ways. Ashley worries too much, wants too many hugs (‘not possible’), drinks water too fast and uses terrible sunscreen. Like all recently married couples, the first years are a tricky navigation of compromises and empathy.
Eventually they negotiate their way through the interminable Australian residency and citizenship bureaucracy. They travel across the country in search of what it means to be Australian, from Tasmania to Western Australia to the Northern Territory to North Queensland. In her trademark understated way, she says of the NT: ‘In the Dry [season] … the humidity eases and the temperature lowers, and it’s more suited to popular activities such as breathing’. And her wonder at the marvellous ridiculousness of the front pages of the NT News is breathtakingly refreshing.
Battling homesickness, the urge to keep travelling, anxiety, worries about her marriage, and her own mental state, Ashley sets out to understand this country – Australia – that she thinks they might like to call home. Sometimes memoirs can risk being twee, trite or overly sentimental, but this book is none of those things. Rather it is a frank self-examination of the author’s motivations, failings, failures, desires, hopes, dreams and uncertainties, written with a critical eye (towards both her home countries and herself), and underpinned by a thirst for knowledge that ensures the writing is fresh and new. While I’m sure this book will be familiar to migrants and visitors, it is also a fresh look at our country for those of us who were born here – its highs and lows, its achievements and embarrassments, its bland derogatory manner and its fulsome optimism. I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of this easy-to-read, delightful, funny and heart-warming memoir. (And it reminded me a bit of Margot Margolyes’ recent TV series, Almost Australian).
Ashley was a seasoned traveller and had spent long periods – years – living in Asia, South America and Europe. The decision to spend a year in Australia was mostly based on her being fed up to the back teeth with the relentless cold of her home city, Winnipeg. How hard could living in Australia be? It had endless sunshine, strange animals, and the locals all spoke English; so they relocated to Sydney.
The first half of the book is a wry summary of misunderstandings, mispronunciations and misadventures with wildlife. Barefoot people boarding trams in the middle of the city, indecipherable coffee, ibis (bin chickens) sneaking ‘through the grass with ginger steps like they were leaving the scene of a crime’. Cockroaches the size of small mammals, intimidating spiders, and the filthy share houses that every Aussie uni student has experienced. Biscuits covered in ‘what looked like an elderly person’s pubic hair’, and rather unfortunately called ‘iced vovos’.
The second half of the book, whilst continuing to be highly entertaining through Ashley’s keen eye for the absurd, the ridiculous and the incomprehensible, drills down into a deeper layer. Her husband Steve is unable to find work and they both find the stress of adaptation difficult. Ashley swings between unhappiness, desperation to fit in, mental fragility, torn feelings about whether or not they have made the right decision and a nevertheless unending curiosity about the place and the people they are living amongst, all while trying to study and write a book.
This book traverses some even more serious themes. The author is well aware of her privilege in being able to choose to live in Australia, and to eventually apply to stay here permanently. She is conscious that is a choice not available to many others. She finds it difficult to accept her new country’s treatment of refugees and, equally, of the Indigenous population. All this is happening while she’s writing a book about her Armenian great-grandparents and the struggles they survived as exiled people; the irony is not lost on her, and in fact only opens her eyes even wider to the political and cultural situation in Australia. There is a whole section about cultural cringe and the hypocrisy and confronting facts of Australia Day (or Invasion Day), and the government’s ‘blatant human rights violations’ in their detention of asylum seekers. Ashley acknowledges, respects and honours First Nations peoples in various ways throughout the story.
The couple are undecided: to stay or to go? To apply for permanent residency or to return to family? To relish in a kookaburra’s laugh and the vista of the Sydney Opera House or to suffer through attempting to conquer Cradle Mountain and the taste of Vegemite? At one stage, she says: ‘Maybe if you couldn’t find a home, you could make one.’
And alongside their struggle to understand and fit in to their new country, they are encountering their own personal difficulties as they realise that they want different things, and they respond to stress in very different ways. Ashley worries too much, wants too many hugs (‘not possible’), drinks water too fast and uses terrible sunscreen. Like all recently married couples, the first years are a tricky navigation of compromises and empathy.
Eventually they negotiate their way through the interminable Australian residency and citizenship bureaucracy. They travel across the country in search of what it means to be Australian, from Tasmania to Western Australia to the Northern Territory to North Queensland. In her trademark understated way, she says of the NT: ‘In the Dry [season] … the humidity eases and the temperature lowers, and it’s more suited to popular activities such as breathing’. And her wonder at the marvellous ridiculousness of the front pages of the NT News is breathtakingly refreshing.
Battling homesickness, the urge to keep travelling, anxiety, worries about her marriage, and her own mental state, Ashley sets out to understand this country – Australia – that she thinks they might like to call home. Sometimes memoirs can risk being twee, trite or overly sentimental, but this book is none of those things. Rather it is a frank self-examination of the author’s motivations, failings, failures, desires, hopes, dreams and uncertainties, written with a critical eye (towards both her home countries and herself), and underpinned by a thirst for knowledge that ensures the writing is fresh and new. While I’m sure this book will be familiar to migrants and visitors, it is also a fresh look at our country for those of us who were born here – its highs and lows, its achievements and embarrassments, its bland derogatory manner and its fulsome optimism. I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of this easy-to-read, delightful, funny and heart-warming memoir. (And it reminded me a bit of Margot Margolyes’ recent TV series, Almost Australian).
June 14, 2021
Wow, I must have read a different book to those with 5 starts!! I was born in Canada, lived in USA and am now proudly Australian. This book was more about Ashley's mental, marriage and social problems than a book about our lovely, big, diverse and multi cultural country. The cover says Ashley "travelled the country" yet only covered a fraction of the area...and didn't like any of it!! Her constant complaints about the Australian way of life, our politics, food, weather, beaches etc., etc., etc became so annoying. Ashley also had heaps of complaints about Canada too...so not a happy camper!!
August 8, 2020
As an American in Australia, this book was hilarious...why people walk around barefoot, why you should never order decaf in Melbourne and the surreal experience the first time you see a huntsman and a lot of kangaroos in the wild in real life. Ashley brings in a very human story of trying to find where you belong, how to navigate friendships and relationships as they change and the constants and constraints of anxiety wrapped in a hilariously package memoir.
July 30, 2020
A fabulous memoir of migration, marriage, anxiety and the search for identity. Did I mention the humour? I laughed out loud, many times. I also felt the cringe of a nation that has yet to properly deal with the shameful episodes of our past and present. Highly recommend.
August 28, 2020
This is a wonderful memoir. it feels deeply honest, the prose is energetic and singular, and it has a strong narrative that makes you want to keep turning the pages.
February 25, 2021
This book contains one of the best explanations for what "cultural cringe" means in Australia.
January 7, 2024
Ashley Kalagian Blunt tells us of the excitement, disappointment and murkiness of moving to Australia. Initially for 12 months, then 4 years, Ash goes through a grieving process of sorts. This very truthful account of Australia's successes and downfalls, as well as the impact on herself and her marriage, is both funny, sad and beautiful. As an Australian born person, I still learnt something and enjoyed this easy to read book.
Moving forward, I will not be rating non-fiction books on IG. I feel that some are written better than others but I really just end up rating how shocking an experience was, which makes very little sense to me.
Moving forward, I will not be rating non-fiction books on IG. I feel that some are written better than others but I really just end up rating how shocking an experience was, which makes very little sense to me.
August 6, 2020
'The instant the kookaburra call reached me, my eyes met Steve's. We straightened up and stopped chewing. If there was a better mindfuln'ess practice than this, I couldn't imagine it.'
This is a fun read giving insight into the contradiction of Australian society and culture from a global perspective.
This is a fun read giving insight into the contradiction of Australian society and culture from a global perspective.
June 7, 2020
Hilarious, compelling, and full of strange facts I never knew about this country. Even my Mum read this book, and she never reads anything.
June 7, 2025
This is not the book I expected from the cover and the blurb. It is so much more. Yes, it is full of quirky observations about Australia and insightful comment about our national identity. It is also a deeply personal book about a woman struggling to understand herself and who she is in the world. It is a vulnerable and nuanced wrestle with home and belonging. I laughed, I cried. I loved reading this book.
November 21, 2024
Lekka i przyjemna, z celnymi obserwacjami, które zgadzają się z tym, co sama zobaczyłam i czego doświadczyłam w Australii. Jedynie postać autorki i jej narracja momentami była zbyt infantylna i denerwująca.
July 23, 2020
A very engaging read with thoughtful observations and a few revelations. So good to get an outsider's view and some reflections on Australian culture. The reader is taken along with Ashley and I loved some of her turns of phrase - laugh out loud witty.
June 27, 2020
This memoir is a highly entertaining read filled with an abundant amount of information about Australia that’d challenge most Aussie’s.
Ashley grapples with the notion of home and what it takes to fit in and be a part of a community. Having led a nomadic life, finally settling down in Australia proved to be one of Ashley’s biggest challenges.
You can clearly see how Ashley’s journey aligns with Lysgaard’s U-Curve on the key stages of culture adaptation. The book starts in Canada providing context about why Ashley wants to travel and why she’s so comfortable about regularly moving locations.
When she arrives to Sydney, Australia with Steve her husband, she’s excited about the potential adventures and enters Lysgaard’s first stage called the Honeymoon Stage. It takes several months before she realised how different Australia and Australians are to Canada and Canadians. This impacted her sense of belonging and inevitably her identity which takes Ashley into the culture shock stage.
As you read on, Ashley shares the emotional and practical challenges she overcame during the adjustment stage to embrace a new cultural identity, keep her marriage and forge her writing career. The memoir ends at the mastery stage where Ashley reflects on her journey, the progress she’s made and develops an understanding of who she currently is. Ashley’s leaves her readers in a reassuring and happy point in her life.
We can all relate to Ashley’s experiences which she conveys through a combination of sobering realities and light humour. I appreciated the insights Ashley shared at every stage and how relatable her insecurities and fears are.
Ashley grapples with the notion of home and what it takes to fit in and be a part of a community. Having led a nomadic life, finally settling down in Australia proved to be one of Ashley’s biggest challenges.
You can clearly see how Ashley’s journey aligns with Lysgaard’s U-Curve on the key stages of culture adaptation. The book starts in Canada providing context about why Ashley wants to travel and why she’s so comfortable about regularly moving locations.
When she arrives to Sydney, Australia with Steve her husband, she’s excited about the potential adventures and enters Lysgaard’s first stage called the Honeymoon Stage. It takes several months before she realised how different Australia and Australians are to Canada and Canadians. This impacted her sense of belonging and inevitably her identity which takes Ashley into the culture shock stage.
As you read on, Ashley shares the emotional and practical challenges she overcame during the adjustment stage to embrace a new cultural identity, keep her marriage and forge her writing career. The memoir ends at the mastery stage where Ashley reflects on her journey, the progress she’s made and develops an understanding of who she currently is. Ashley’s leaves her readers in a reassuring and happy point in her life.
We can all relate to Ashley’s experiences which she conveys through a combination of sobering realities and light humour. I appreciated the insights Ashley shared at every stage and how relatable her insecurities and fears are.
August 11, 2020
HOW TO BE AUSTRALIAN is funny and also fearless in its honesty. As an expat I totally related to that deep seated search for “home”, to fit-in and find that elusive key to “belonging”. And that part when you stop running/moving and have to face yourself in the stationary silence.
Well written, it starts when Ashley Kalagian Blunt moves to Sydney with her husband Steve from their native -40 degrees Winnipeg, Canada. Unafraid to ask difficult questions about her adopted home, her relationship, and of herself Ashley Kalagian Blunt tries to decipher the cultural code of her newly adopted homeland.
HOW TO BE AUSTRALIAN doesn’t shy away from questioning race relations, Ashley Kalagian Blunt is aware and grateful to the First Nations Peoples and their different lands she travels on in the continent, and questions government policies around detention and immigration.
Along with her fearlessness and honesty, I loved her joy of discovery, especially the wildlife (I had to Google the kangaroo in the Federal parliament coat of arms) And her wonder when trying to work out what Australian things might be, instead of jumping straight on to Google, then her reactions and process of how that jigsaw piece fits into Australian culture and id.
HOW TO BE AUSTRALIAN is packed with so many of these great discovery moments - including Melbourne baristas shifting attitudes towards her, toxic seaweed, and my absolute favourite - The NT News “Why I stuck a cracker up my clacker”.
Well written, it starts when Ashley Kalagian Blunt moves to Sydney with her husband Steve from their native -40 degrees Winnipeg, Canada. Unafraid to ask difficult questions about her adopted home, her relationship, and of herself Ashley Kalagian Blunt tries to decipher the cultural code of her newly adopted homeland.
HOW TO BE AUSTRALIAN doesn’t shy away from questioning race relations, Ashley Kalagian Blunt is aware and grateful to the First Nations Peoples and their different lands she travels on in the continent, and questions government policies around detention and immigration.
Along with her fearlessness and honesty, I loved her joy of discovery, especially the wildlife (I had to Google the kangaroo in the Federal parliament coat of arms) And her wonder when trying to work out what Australian things might be, instead of jumping straight on to Google, then her reactions and process of how that jigsaw piece fits into Australian culture and id.
HOW TO BE AUSTRALIAN is packed with so many of these great discovery moments - including Melbourne baristas shifting attitudes towards her, toxic seaweed, and my absolute favourite - The NT News “Why I stuck a cracker up my clacker”.
June 29, 2020
When Ashley persuades her new husband Steve to leave snowy Canada and join her for a year Down Under, she looks forward to an easy transition. They are coming from Winnipeg where winter isn’t merely the absence of summer, so are eager to experience Australia’s sunshine because that’s the only real difference between the two countries isn’t it (along with strange animals). With this as its enticement, it is easy to predict how “How to Be Australian” will play out and in many ways this is an anticipation readily realised. While there are road trips (and resulting attempted explanation of the NT news), early parts in particular are about Sydney more than Australia and there is not much in way of conflict beyond a ‘should I stay or should I go’ dilemma with the usual reasoning of distance from family forming the forefront of the decision-making. With democracy sausages, flat whites and caramel slice there is much for the couple to love about their new home but it’s not all praise as Ashley discovers more differences than anticipated, highlighting tall poppy syndrome, the police state perception of some and social welfare fails… so there is some depth, though it is essentially a quick, easy and entertaining-enough read.
February 27, 2021
I love every bit. As an immigrant in Australia, I Could relate to so many of the facts and experiences mentioned on this book.
August 22, 2020
Firstly, I have never moved countries - I have lived in 5 different states in Australia so have a smidgen of an understanding of finding new friends, gyms, schools, shops and bars, etc. But I have no understanding of trying to navigate a whole new culture.
I picked up this book thinking it was going to be a laugh every page - and there were humorous elements. The “waffle” outing was great (being an avid AFL fan, I have been “Goldfields”!). It was great to read of many places I have been and see them through another person’s eyes.
However I didn’t realise there would be a mental health journey as well and an examination of her and her husband’s marriage. I got bogged down in the PR and citizenship journey - while this was an important and arduous part, I wanted to get back to the humour.
I hope both Ashley and Steve are happy wherever they choose to live.
I picked up this book thinking it was going to be a laugh every page - and there were humorous elements. The “waffle” outing was great (being an avid AFL fan, I have been “Goldfields”!). It was great to read of many places I have been and see them through another person’s eyes.
However I didn’t realise there would be a mental health journey as well and an examination of her and her husband’s marriage. I got bogged down in the PR and citizenship journey - while this was an important and arduous part, I wanted to get back to the humour.
I hope both Ashley and Steve are happy wherever they choose to live.
Read
January 6, 2023This memoir had funny, relatable and heartfelt moments intertwined with candid discussions about mental health and marital problems. I enjoyed reading about all the familiar Australian quirks and stereotypes, and found it interesting to see these through the eyes of an outsider. I found it difficult to be interested in the story when it took a turn towards the issues with citizenship and Ashley's marriage, however I think this is simply because I am not the target audience for such a memoir.
Despite this, I think Ashley's mental health journey was nuanced and well-written, coming across as genuine in its portrayal. There was a good balance between heavy, real life issues and humor, which overall kept the memoir light and quick to read.
No rating as this is an autobiographical memoir.
Read for university.
Despite this, I think Ashley's mental health journey was nuanced and well-written, coming across as genuine in its portrayal. There was a good balance between heavy, real life issues and humor, which overall kept the memoir light and quick to read.
No rating as this is an autobiographical memoir.
Read for university.
June 25, 2022
The sub-zero temperatures of her native Canada prompted Ashley Kalagian Blunt and her husband to seek out the warmer climes of Sydney, Australia. After living in several countries that were culturally very different from her own, Ashley thought that fitting into the Australian way of life would be a breeze, but she was to find some very unexpected and perplexing differences.
The outwardly carefree attitude of Australians, who walked barefoot down the street and sped downhill on wheeled eskies, belied some darker truths. Our tall poppy syndrome, cultural cringe, and caustic humour often left Ashley feeling hurt and confused.
Like her homeland, Australia was founded on colonialism, and Ashley’s growing awareness of our history of genocide and our treatment of refuges contributes to her unease. Coming from a family of Armenian immigrants, Ashley was distressed to see people fleeing persecution locked up and treated like criminals, instead of being supported to develop a life here in Australia.
Ashley has a finely tuned appreciation of Australian flora and fauna and makes it her business to learn the names of the plants and animals she encounters in her daily life. She gets to know the calls of the many birds around her and will stop whatever she is doing to listen to the laugh of a kookaburra, if there is one nearby. She has probably seen more of the country than most people who were born here, travelling from one end of the east coast to the other, and even across to Western Australia.
While she finds much to love in her new home, the decision to make the move permanent is an anguished one. Ashley worries about her aging parents, and the nieces and nephews who she won’t see growing up, as she waxes and wanes between staying in Australia or returning to Canada.
I loved seeing my country through the eyes of a newcomer, especially the descriptions of my hometown of Melbourne. Although the book is delightfully funny and I often found myself laughing out loud, Ashley highlights the serious injustices at the heart of our nation that need to be addressed.
Ashley’s descriptions of the city she left behind piqued my curiosity, and I found myself looking it up online. With its stately city and natural beauty as well as stable employment and affordable housing, Winnipeg looks quite appealing. So, who knows, maybe one day I’ll check it out and find out how to be Canadian.
The outwardly carefree attitude of Australians, who walked barefoot down the street and sped downhill on wheeled eskies, belied some darker truths. Our tall poppy syndrome, cultural cringe, and caustic humour often left Ashley feeling hurt and confused.
Like her homeland, Australia was founded on colonialism, and Ashley’s growing awareness of our history of genocide and our treatment of refuges contributes to her unease. Coming from a family of Armenian immigrants, Ashley was distressed to see people fleeing persecution locked up and treated like criminals, instead of being supported to develop a life here in Australia.
Ashley has a finely tuned appreciation of Australian flora and fauna and makes it her business to learn the names of the plants and animals she encounters in her daily life. She gets to know the calls of the many birds around her and will stop whatever she is doing to listen to the laugh of a kookaburra, if there is one nearby. She has probably seen more of the country than most people who were born here, travelling from one end of the east coast to the other, and even across to Western Australia.
While she finds much to love in her new home, the decision to make the move permanent is an anguished one. Ashley worries about her aging parents, and the nieces and nephews who she won’t see growing up, as she waxes and wanes between staying in Australia or returning to Canada.
I loved seeing my country through the eyes of a newcomer, especially the descriptions of my hometown of Melbourne. Although the book is delightfully funny and I often found myself laughing out loud, Ashley highlights the serious injustices at the heart of our nation that need to be addressed.
Ashley’s descriptions of the city she left behind piqued my curiosity, and I found myself looking it up online. With its stately city and natural beauty as well as stable employment and affordable housing, Winnipeg looks quite appealing. So, who knows, maybe one day I’ll check it out and find out how to be Canadian.
June 12, 2020
The latest book by Ashley Kalagian Blunt is a burst of sunshine on a grey-sky day, a fresh take on life, love and this vast country we call Australia.
Strictly speaking, How to Be Australian is memoir, relating Kalagian Blunt's experience of moving from her birthplace, Canada, to Australia, while at the same time adjusting to marriage with her husband Steve. The book details Ashley's impressions and discoveries, and how she and Steve cope with this geographical and emotional transition.
But How to Be Australian is more than straightforward memoir.
It describes intriguing facts and unusual incidents with bemusement, admiration or even horror; it analyses some of Australia's foibles, brilliance and oddities. I was about to close the book when I flipped a page and saw the headline 'Why I put a cracker up my clacker'.
It's funny, but also sweetly tender. It wasn't brazen or overt. His love was a quiet pat on the hand. It was the loyalty to come and sit beside me while I dripped my messy emotions everywhere...
It expresses Kalagian Blunt's big, blossoming love for Australia. Taking in the busy splendour of Circular Quay, I felt like someone had handed me the crown jewels.
Yet it's more than these things, too. The book asks questions about the concept of home. I lay awake, feeling homesick for a home I hadn't yet found. It addresses the issue of fitting in, or not fitting in. It relates to pushing yourself beyond your comfort zone, or feeling unable to cope when anxiety rises. It's about intimate relationships, how they fray, and how they strengthen. It seeks to understand friendship — sometimes a delicate dance, but even more so when there are cultural differences. I was earnestly — still too earnestly, after all these years — trying to understand this country...
How to Be Australian brims with acute observation, hilarious anecdotes and honest emotion. It's a dazzling combination.
Strictly speaking, How to Be Australian is memoir, relating Kalagian Blunt's experience of moving from her birthplace, Canada, to Australia, while at the same time adjusting to marriage with her husband Steve. The book details Ashley's impressions and discoveries, and how she and Steve cope with this geographical and emotional transition.
But How to Be Australian is more than straightforward memoir.
It describes intriguing facts and unusual incidents with bemusement, admiration or even horror; it analyses some of Australia's foibles, brilliance and oddities. I was about to close the book when I flipped a page and saw the headline 'Why I put a cracker up my clacker'.
It's funny, but also sweetly tender. It wasn't brazen or overt. His love was a quiet pat on the hand. It was the loyalty to come and sit beside me while I dripped my messy emotions everywhere...
It expresses Kalagian Blunt's big, blossoming love for Australia. Taking in the busy splendour of Circular Quay, I felt like someone had handed me the crown jewels.
Yet it's more than these things, too. The book asks questions about the concept of home. I lay awake, feeling homesick for a home I hadn't yet found. It addresses the issue of fitting in, or not fitting in. It relates to pushing yourself beyond your comfort zone, or feeling unable to cope when anxiety rises. It's about intimate relationships, how they fray, and how they strengthen. It seeks to understand friendship — sometimes a delicate dance, but even more so when there are cultural differences. I was earnestly — still too earnestly, after all these years — trying to understand this country...
How to Be Australian brims with acute observation, hilarious anecdotes and honest emotion. It's a dazzling combination.
May 25, 2020
When Ashley and Steve arrive in Australia, not long into their marriage, Ashley expects to fit right in. She's well travelled and thanks to her military Dad, she's also used to moving to new locations. Steve, on the other hand, has never lived more than 5km from his birthplace and only agreed to this move as part of a pre-nup deal. After initially being unable to get his coffee order, or work, Steve settles in to this new life. His personality, it turns out, is better suited to Australia than Ashley's. Her determined attempts to understand her new home and its people and culture are interspersed with dealing with her anxiety and her concern that her marriage is about to end.
"How to be Australian" should be essential reading for anyone thinking about moving to Australia for an extended period, and think they're in for glorious beaches, perfect weather and laid back Aussies. While this delightful book is chock-a-block with her usual humour and insightful observations (you'll never eat an Iced VoVo in the same way again, or, you know, maybe you will), Kalagian Blunt doesn't side-step Australia's inhumane treatment of asylum seekers and First Nations people, or its racism. Born and bred Aussies will feel discomforted, and new Australians will nod in recognition. This fast paced story includes many birds, which I heartily approve of, especially Kalagian Blunt's absolute love for the Laughing Kookaburra, which I share.
Grab yourself a caramel slice and enjoy.
Disclosure: I received an advance copy of this novel from the author in exchange for an honest review.
"How to be Australian" should be essential reading for anyone thinking about moving to Australia for an extended period, and think they're in for glorious beaches, perfect weather and laid back Aussies. While this delightful book is chock-a-block with her usual humour and insightful observations (you'll never eat an Iced VoVo in the same way again, or, you know, maybe you will), Kalagian Blunt doesn't side-step Australia's inhumane treatment of asylum seekers and First Nations people, or its racism. Born and bred Aussies will feel discomforted, and new Australians will nod in recognition. This fast paced story includes many birds, which I heartily approve of, especially Kalagian Blunt's absolute love for the Laughing Kookaburra, which I share.
Grab yourself a caramel slice and enjoy.
Disclosure: I received an advance copy of this novel from the author in exchange for an honest review.
September 23, 2020
4 stars
“Have you had an iced vovo?” “I’ve seen them.” I declined to try them, not because the pink-stripped biscuits were covered in desiccated coconut, which looked like an elderly person’s pubic hair, but because the biscuits themselves looked unsettlingly like women’s private parts, and the term ‘vovo’ didn’t help. (Pg 81)
When Ashley Kalagian Blunt dreamed of moving to Australia from snowy Canada; she expected to find sunny beaches, that coffee came from a pot and a population that said G’day but otherwise that spoke the same English language as she did. How wrong she was!
In How To Be An Australian, Kalagian Blunt details her desire to move to Sydney when her husband Steve doesn’t want to and then wanting to return to Canada after a year because Sydney was nothing like she expected. The only problem is, now he’s here, Steve wants to stay. Will they stay or will they go? I highly recommend you read this book to find out.
I loved this book. As an Aussie, it was exceptionally interesting to see how our country is viewed by an outsider as they attempt to integrate into life as a resident. There were many hilarious laugh out loud moments, some sad moments, lots of interesting observations about our culture, animals and food (I’ll never look at an iced vovo the same way again) and insights into the way we ‘speak English’ (Have a good one! A good what? What do you even mean?!)
I also appreciated how honest Kalagian Blunt was. She didn’t add a filter to anything and was frank about Indigenous Australia, the citizenship test and our politics. Best of all, we get an amazing insight into her relationship and the toll the decision to move took on it; how lonely she was; her studies; and how hard it is to uproot yourself and move half way around the world. Her honesty adds to the richness of the book. To gloss over these things or omit them completely would have not told a true story of Kalagian Blunt and Steve. And trust me, it’s a true story well worth reading.
Thank you to fabulous author @rwrmcdonald for reviewing How To Be Australian so I could learn of this fantastic memoir. It’s a great read and one that you’ll be hard pressed not to enjoy.
To play along with my book bingo and to see what else I’m reading, go to #ktbookbingo and @kt_elder on Instagram.
“Have you had an iced vovo?” “I’ve seen them.” I declined to try them, not because the pink-stripped biscuits were covered in desiccated coconut, which looked like an elderly person’s pubic hair, but because the biscuits themselves looked unsettlingly like women’s private parts, and the term ‘vovo’ didn’t help. (Pg 81)
When Ashley Kalagian Blunt dreamed of moving to Australia from snowy Canada; she expected to find sunny beaches, that coffee came from a pot and a population that said G’day but otherwise that spoke the same English language as she did. How wrong she was!
In How To Be An Australian, Kalagian Blunt details her desire to move to Sydney when her husband Steve doesn’t want to and then wanting to return to Canada after a year because Sydney was nothing like she expected. The only problem is, now he’s here, Steve wants to stay. Will they stay or will they go? I highly recommend you read this book to find out.
I loved this book. As an Aussie, it was exceptionally interesting to see how our country is viewed by an outsider as they attempt to integrate into life as a resident. There were many hilarious laugh out loud moments, some sad moments, lots of interesting observations about our culture, animals and food (I’ll never look at an iced vovo the same way again) and insights into the way we ‘speak English’ (Have a good one! A good what? What do you even mean?!)
I also appreciated how honest Kalagian Blunt was. She didn’t add a filter to anything and was frank about Indigenous Australia, the citizenship test and our politics. Best of all, we get an amazing insight into her relationship and the toll the decision to move took on it; how lonely she was; her studies; and how hard it is to uproot yourself and move half way around the world. Her honesty adds to the richness of the book. To gloss over these things or omit them completely would have not told a true story of Kalagian Blunt and Steve. And trust me, it’s a true story well worth reading.
Thank you to fabulous author @rwrmcdonald for reviewing How To Be Australian so I could learn of this fantastic memoir. It’s a great read and one that you’ll be hard pressed not to enjoy.
To play along with my book bingo and to see what else I’m reading, go to #ktbookbingo and @kt_elder on Instagram.
April 8, 2021
To be honest, I wasn't sure about this book at first, the title made me feel it simply wasn't for me. Ashley, being from a completely different place than I am, was able to encapsulate and break down so many aspects of the immigrant experience to this wild island. While reading this book I felt seen, understood and even less alone. Migrating can bring a lot of feelings of isolation and loneliness, which in many ways have made me stronger, been able to connect with her stories, I laughed and worried alongside her finding the parallels to my own.
Now I hope many people in my life can read this and understand what I and many people went through. So happy to find a book that voices similar things I would have never been able to summarise myself.
Lastly, I was quite happy with the inclusion of many issues I hold close to my heart. It's helping me shape a lot of the questions I have about my new identity as an Australian when I finally complete my ongoing official citizenship process in a couple of years. It's a struggle to appreciate the good and be critical about the bad that has been done to many communities such as Aboriginal peoples, refugees, and migrants from low-income countries. Now, I can continue to expand these voices and request a fairer system for all to enjoy this land.
Now I hope many people in my life can read this and understand what I and many people went through. So happy to find a book that voices similar things I would have never been able to summarise myself.
Lastly, I was quite happy with the inclusion of many issues I hold close to my heart. It's helping me shape a lot of the questions I have about my new identity as an Australian when I finally complete my ongoing official citizenship process in a couple of years. It's a struggle to appreciate the good and be critical about the bad that has been done to many communities such as Aboriginal peoples, refugees, and migrants from low-income countries. Now, I can continue to expand these voices and request a fairer system for all to enjoy this land.
October 16, 2020
Absolutely loved this. I read it in a day and a night, not wanting it to end. I've recently returned to live in Australia after over a decade in the UK, and while I haven't regretted that decision for a second, it has been quite the transition. I find this wonderful country very strange at times - and struggle to explain these strange things to my equally befuddled British husband - so to read a memoir about life in Australia from a new Australian's point of view (Ashley is Canadian) was a very affirming experience. Ashley captures perfectly the adrift feeling of life in a place that you want to belong to but can't quite find your place in. And so many of her adventures are absolutely hilarious! Highly recommended.
October 31, 2020
I really enjoyed this book and read it in a few days. I found Blunt's writing style somewhat similar to Bill Bryson's In a Sunburned Country, meaning the story was amusing and quirky, packaging snippets of information in this manner, and it moved at a lively pace. Reading this book was really interesting for me as I come from a perspective of an Australian who moved to Canada (and still live here) and have had a similar journey to Blunt's, but in an opposite sort of way, adjusting to Canadian life. I enjoyed having her insight into Australia and seeing how some ingrained cultural ways of Australia are perceived, not always in the best light, while also highlighting the fun aspects. Her personal and relationship challenges also made the book relatable.
May 31, 2021
Written by a Canadian who clearly doesn't like the way the Australian government treats Indigenous people or refugees. I agree with her on that, but she skirts around how badly the Canadian government has treated its own indigenous population. Very disturbing evidence has recently come to light on this very issue, although the author didnt have the benefit of this knowledge at the time the book was written.
Other than making Australians squirm, the book is very enlightening on the process of becoming an Australian citizen. I have often heard that my grandparents did not have an easy time of it (being European and not speaking English was no help) but I am so glad that they were so adventurous. Despite everything, I am proud to be Australian.
Other than making Australians squirm, the book is very enlightening on the process of becoming an Australian citizen. I have often heard that my grandparents did not have an easy time of it (being European and not speaking English was no help) but I am so glad that they were so adventurous. Despite everything, I am proud to be Australian.
January 14, 2025
How to Be Australian by Ashley Kalagian Blunt.
Ashley's new book, Cold Truth, is coming out soon, and in preparation (and by 'in preparation', I mean ‘impatiently waiting’), I decided to read one of her earlier books. The first book I read was Dark Mode, which was terrifying, so I was pleasantly surprised to find How to Be Australian so delightfully funny that I read sections aloud to my husband.
This is a memoir detailing Ashley and her husband Steve’s move from Canada to Australia, their adjustments to life in a new country, and navigation of the unique aspects of Australian culture. How to Be Australian is not only funny but also thoughtful and reflective about Australian culture.
Thumbs up. It's the perfect holiday read.
Ashley's new book, Cold Truth, is coming out soon, and in preparation (and by 'in preparation', I mean ‘impatiently waiting’), I decided to read one of her earlier books. The first book I read was Dark Mode, which was terrifying, so I was pleasantly surprised to find How to Be Australian so delightfully funny that I read sections aloud to my husband.
This is a memoir detailing Ashley and her husband Steve’s move from Canada to Australia, their adjustments to life in a new country, and navigation of the unique aspects of Australian culture. How to Be Australian is not only funny but also thoughtful and reflective about Australian culture.
Thumbs up. It's the perfect holiday read.
June 5, 2022
I really enjoyed this book! I'm a British immigrant to Australia, and Blunt is a Canadian immigrant, so it was really nice seeing her notice some of the same things I did about our new country (I've never seen anyone else articulate how weird it is that people who live in Sydney or Melbourne don't have Sydney or Melbourne in their addresses - "I've told all my friends I'm in Melbourne but they have to write to me at North Fitzroy so it looks like I'm not in Melbourne!") It's a nicely-written book which weaves all her observations and feelings about moving countries into a very readable narrative.
September 6, 2023
I absolutely loved this book. It’s very well written, searingly honest and often hilariously funny.
Ashley can clearly write very well, but what I loved most about this book was the way she captures the challenges of trying to find your feet in a culture you thought would be quite similar to your own (she’s from Canada, I’m from the UK) and yet is in many ways very different.
She details so many aspects of settling into Aussie life that I too found hard, strange or bizarre. And yet she also expresses a passionate connection to her new country. That paradox is the key to the whole experience I think!
Highly recommended read
Ashley can clearly write very well, but what I loved most about this book was the way she captures the challenges of trying to find your feet in a culture you thought would be quite similar to your own (she’s from Canada, I’m from the UK) and yet is in many ways very different.
She details so many aspects of settling into Aussie life that I too found hard, strange or bizarre. And yet she also expresses a passionate connection to her new country. That paradox is the key to the whole experience I think!
Highly recommended read
January 17, 2024
It was very interesting. I'd never spoken to myself so much whilst reading a book before. The main character/author was really annoying. She kept going on about how racist Australia was and randomly referencing Australia's treatment of refugees. It felt really out of place - those are political issues, not cultural?! I'm saying this as someone who is anti-racist and disagrees with Australia's refugee policy. Al she was so sensitive and literally cried whenever someone joked about her accent. Every time she had an inner monologue I could not stop rolling my eyes.
I'm glad I read it but at times it was insufferable.
I'm glad I read it but at times it was insufferable.
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