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The great nothingness

by
October 2008, no. 305

The Penguin Book of the Road edited by Delia Falconer

Viking, $35 pb, 385 pp

The great nothingness

by
October 2008, no. 305

Roads are not places, but ways to and away from them, perhaps in fearful flight or in buoyant expectation. Travelling them can engender boredom (‘Are we there yet?’) and horror (‘Will we ever get there, alive?’). Roads are means of reaching those fabled and amorphous Australian locations – the city, the bush, the beach. Each of these has attracted anthologies (some from Penguin). Delia Falconer’s task, as editor of The Penguin Book of the Road, is less straightforward, being concerned with how we travel rather than where we arrive, with highways but also with indirect, crooked ways. In a masterly and challenging introduction, she warns us of what to expect.

The Penguin Book of the Road

The Penguin Book of the Road

edited by Delia Falconer

Viking, $35 pb, 385 pp

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