Taking Off
Matt Howard
Taking Off
Matt Howard
Ash Lynch has worked (if you can call it that) in the magazine industry for what feels like forever. But he’s at a very loose end - his ambition to climb the greasy pole of career success long since expired, his personal life at a bit of a standstill.
At yet another of his work colleagues’ birthday drinks, Ash eyes Zoe and it’s infatuation at first sight. But he’s out of practice with the opposite sex, and if he’s receiving any positive signals from Zoe he’s oblivious to them. So it’s not entirely surprising when his more enterprising work-mate, Evan, lands Zoe before the week’s out.
Luckily, Ash finds some sort of solace hanging out with Miller, an ex-roadie taking a break from his trip around Australia to work at the local (birthday drinks) bar. Ash and Miller become great mates, talking heaps, occasionally getting trashed and generally having a good time together.
A weird turn of events finds Miller and Ash taking off overseas, first stop Amsterdam (a destination not entirely surprising). Their often hilarious journey across Europe has more than a dash of sex, drugs and rock and roll, taking them to new places in every sense of the word .
But will Cali, the girl Ash met in Amsterdam and hasn’t been able to get out of his mind since, be the one for him? And is he brave enough to visit her on her Greek island to find out? Or is his sojourn going to dead-end back in Australia with yet another potential relationship biting the dust?
A cross between Nick Earl’s Zigzag Street and Andrew McGahan’s Praise, this is the hilarious, but also poignant, account of two blokes’ adventures and friendship as they journey into the unknown.
Review
Julia Jackson, Readings Carlton
Meet Ash Lynch, a twenty-something with a dysfunctional family background and a monotonous job as a magazine distribution and sales rep that does little else than pay the bills. A chance meeting with a dream girl, Zoe, brings a new sense of hope and light to Ash’s routine – until he discovers that she is seeing his colleague and friend. A second, more disturbing revelation from within his own family jolts him out of his reverie to re-evaluate his life and direction. Jaded and at a crossroads, he meets Miller, bartender at a local watering hole. The two become firm friends, with Miller slowly but surely coaxing Ash from his shell. Leaving his job and family, Ash takes off (rather spontaneously) on a trip across Europe with Miller. The new surroundings and the distance from his ‘old’ life and ‘old’ self, invigorate Ash.
At the novel’s core is friendship, and while I enjoyed the bond shared by Miller and Ash, Ash’s relationship with Jake, his sister’s partner, is just as important. Taking Off, the second book from this bookseller-writer is a warm, funny and engaging read.
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