Autumn is just around the corner and what better way to take time out from a busy week than to snuggle up on the sofa and read a good book.
Together with Dymocks the KarryOn Book Club members have reviewed the latest travel book; ‘Holiday’ by William McInnes.
McInnes’ book is about the Australian love affair with holidays. It’s about going away and staying at home. It’s about the relaxing times you had as a kid, escapes you have with your children and the stories you hear from your friends.
It can be about a romantic sunset, the spare seat at breakfast being taken by an attractive stranger, a miraculous airline upgrade – or missing bags, unfortunate rashes and wrong turns that lead to places you definitely did not intend to go.
But most of all it’s about being in your backyard in an above-ground pool, floating in circles, staring at the clouds as you go round and round, and knowing as you float that life is sweet because you’re on holidays.
Book Reviews
William McInnes perfectly captures what must be a familiar picture of the family holiday for many Australians of a certain age. Before it became common to leave the country on your holidays, when holidays simply meant a break from your everyday life, and lazy days where not much happened. For our family the holidays were spent up the coast, in a shack where the old Axminster carpet saw many a game of Test Match cricket, with my Dad playing as the Chinese Cricket team, against my brother and I who were always the champions, Australia. Holidays meant disappearing on our bikes for hours on end and only coming home when we got hungry. This book strongly relies on the nostalgia of childhood holidays to do its best work, alongside memories of other, simpler holidays, perhaps lost to the frequent flyers of today.
The book touches on all variety of holidays, from the family driving holiday with the inevitable smells of being trapped for hours in a car with no air-conditioning, eating warm soggy sandwiches and visiting some man made land or world where the best fun was always to be had by mocking the quality, or lack of, of the exhibits. To the Contiki tour and the uncomfortable ‘forced’ group experience. We’ve all felt the dread of meeting the group before you set off on your tour – thinking, there’s always one person who doesn’t gel with the rest of the members and if you can’t figure out who it is, it’s probably you.
Unfortunately McInnes touches on the idea that the travel agent was someone to be admired, something which sadly is lost in a day and age where everyone is their own travel agent on the internet. But really Mr. Tait was just like any other person, with real preferences and desires, something at odds with my personal experiences, where my friends and colleagues in the industry show a real passion for their work – rather than simply a profession as portrayed in the book.
Overall the book was really an exploration of what different kinds of holidays mean to different people. To some they are an escape from our real lives, to others a journey of self-discovery and of proving just what we can achieve when we put our minds to it. Of seeing a place in another light or through another persons eyes, of how different a place can be when you live in a town where other people come for their holidays. But most of all it’s about creating memories outside of our every day experiences. Days spent in a routine tend to blur into one, but when you’re on holiday everything becomes shiny and new and somehow the memories tend to become more special than ever before. This is particularly true for William McInnes, as he remembers the last holiday with his late wife. Infinitely special, those moments will stay with him forever.
Alison O’Loughlin, TravelManagers
This book is a great laugh, taking the reader down memory lane to a much simpler time. The memories that are created on these holidays are all pulled together to create an amazing journey through time, and into the present with his own daughter.
Remember when the long school break was fun and all we needed was 20c to get a bag of lollies from the corner store? Or that you sometimes wished that they would end so you could go back and have fun with your friends at school? This is what I thought about as I was reading it. And he nailed it!
Celeste Arthur
In this book, William by going back to his childhood tries to explain how holidays mean so many different things to different people. He writes a very personal view about his own experiences and tries to convey other holiday experiences taken by others, wether local or overseas, but all on an Aussie way of looking at this great “Phenomenom”.
As Williams holidays stories continue, I found myself starting to get distracted and wanting the book to finish of the same thing over and over. This book will only suit those who have endured the endless childhood “holidays” in Australia. Pleasant enough, but not enough to “grab” my attention.
Graciela Craig, TravelManagers
This book is a series of anecdotes from William McInnes’ own experiences of travelling while on holidays…the key word being holidays. He seems to be able to nail the sense of excitement and feelings we have when we plan a holiday as opposed to travelling for other reasons. My favourite part of the book occurred quite early. Travelling with his mum and siblings on his very first holiday as a young boy using local trains to get from Brisbane to Camden in Sydney’s west, he discovered to his sheer and unmitigated terror that the train toilets in those days had a hole into the speeding void beneath and he was convinced he’d be sucked out never to be seen again.
Mc Innes has an incredible ability to remember details and idiosyncrasies about characters that he has met during his holidays and to create a delightful sense of humour about these characters without ridiculing them. As Australians we will all be able to identify with these characters. It’s a very Australian book… irreverent without being nasty. A well-deserved holiday read!!
Peter Power, AVIA Reps
This book is a collection of anecdotes, memories and nostalgia reflecting McInnes’ own experience but also evoking a shared national sentiment of what a holiday is.
Don’t expect character development or literature this is very light and enjoyable reading – that pulls on our heartstrings like the latest qantas campaign.
Sarah Low
William McInnes book Holidays encourages readers to reflect on their own holiday experiences, and encouraged me as a reader to think about my first holiday and what it actually meant to me. I enjoyed the use of humour throughout the book as he reflects on his holiday experiences and the good times and also the disasters (which make a better story then when everything went right). I found the book difficult to get into to begin with, but then settled into it after the first chapter. William uses a natural tone with good ol’ aussie slang that brings out true Australian character and makes for very easy and relatable reading. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it as light reading to others.
Shannen Perry, AAT Kings
