Genre: Memoir
"I hereby bet Tony Hawks the sum of one hundred pounds that he cannot hitchhike round the circumference of Ireland, with a fridge, within one calendar month." Tony wakes up from a night heavy drinking to find the preceding note signed by himself and his friend, Kevin. This temporary lapse in judgement leads to one of the greatest adventures of his life. Hawks, a London resident, starts his journey hitching outside of Dublin, making his way northward, counterclockwise around the country. Along the way, he is interviewed by national radio, television, and several local newspapers. He chronicles the escapades he (and the fridge) have in various rural Irish towns. Hawks goes surfing (with the fridge), enters a bachelor festival, meets the poorest king on Earth, and the fridge is christened and even blessed by the Mother Superior of an Abby.
This book falls under the "it's funny cause it's true" category. As if the concept of this memoir wasn't hilarious on it's own, Tony Hawks is a stand-up comedian by trade. The result is a slightly wacky, laugh-out-loud, great story. I, personally, chose to read it because I needed a break both from young adult novels and books with upsetting endings (I had just finished Veronica Roth's Divergent series, which was preceded by John Green's The Fault in Our Stars). This one fit the bill perfectly. It's light, intelligently-written, and will teach you lots of Irish geography as well as a few Gaelic words.
4/5
No comments:
Post a Comment