Peri Hoskins

EAST first piqued my interest because it was written by a New Zealander, Peri Hoskins, and I don't think I've ever read anything from NZ. Hoskins is a lawyer by training, but has also studied literature and philosophy. EAST appears to be highly autobiographical in nature, as it follows the wanderings of thirty-ish Vince, a disillusioned lawyer who feels there must be more to life than the 9 to 5 rat race of professional life in an unnamed big city in 1994 western Australia. So he quits his job and embarks on a cross country road trip. We learn early on that Vince is mixed race, half Maori, and grew up in New Zealand. I expected this to be more important to his story, but was disappointed in this. There is not much about his Maori roots, and almost nothing about New Zealand. There is, however a lot of attention paid to the casual racism toward Aborigines practiced by almost everyone he meets on his journey. And Vince does not appear greatly disturbed by any of this. Indeed, these natives are shown to be, almost without exception, drunken layabouts totally ruined by "civilizing" white influences.

Other readers have compared EAST to Kerouac's ON THE ROAD, which I cannot attest to since I've never read that road trip classic. But I do see some Hemingway influence in the short declarative sentences and attention to small details. And, although Vince seems to be a reader - part of his luggage on his odyssey is a box of 21 books he won in a contest - there is not a lot said about any particular writers or books. Even more damaging to Vince's story, I felt, was that almost none of the places he passed through are named. And, though he travels the length and breadth and into the interior and bush of Australia, you never know exactly where he is. Although one place seems to be the famous landmark, Ayer's Rock, about which he says, "I came a long way and climbed a big rock." And also "I sense wisdom within the rock beneath my feet; wisdom the rock will not share with me." Hmm ... In fact, Vince often tries to see within the people and places he encounters, trying to get back a kind of second sight or magic he claims he had a child, but lost with his education.

Probably the best part of Vince's story is the month long interval where he works with a mining crew deep in the desert outback and gets to know several of the rough characters he works with, a hard society of men without women. Their only relief is a bar that is strictly segregated, with the aborigine side separated by bars from the white side.

Through it all, Vince keeps a journal of the people, places and experiences, and says to himself more than once, "I'll turn this stuff into a novel one day; for now I'll just get it down ..." In fact a trip like Vince's might have been grist for a great novel, but,sadly, EAST is not that book. It remains just a little too indistinct, too much still just a journal of a trip that goes east, north, south and, finally, back west and home again. There are plenty of characters, there is casual sex but no connection. There is much movement, but no tension, no real adventure.

Bottom line: while the writing here is workmanlike and even very good at times, what's lacking is a real story. While I enjoyed parts of Vince's journey, it finally became just repetitious and tedious. I wish there had been more definite detail - a MAP maybe - so I could have gotten more of a sense of the vastness and variety that is Australia. So that I could have followed the route. Didn't happen, and that was a disappointment for this reader. Hoskins has the tools to be a good writer. He just needs to sharpen them.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER… (plus d'informations)