Publisher's Weekly Review
When British writer, performer and musician Hawks makes a drunken bet for 100 that he can "hitchhike round the circumference of Ireland, with a fridge, in one calendar month," he starts, in 1997, an unexpectedly wonderful adventure into the good-natured soul of the Irish people. Though the book begins inauspiciously as a bad parody of Dave Barry's travel books, with Hawks assuming a smug distance from the people and events he encounters, happily fate intervenes in the form of a jovial radio-show host who convinces Hawks to phone in daily to share updates about his travels with the fridge. Almost overnight, Hawks becomes a regional legendÄ"The Fridge Man"Äwith all sorts of people willing to help him achieve his goal, however silly it may be. What could have been a convenient contrivance actually allows a kinder and far funnier Hawks to appear, as his daily talks with his radio "fans" bring him unexpected delights, including encounters with an overenthusiastic innkeeper and his family, the amazing champion surfer Bingo, various musicians and lots of pub visits. In the end, Hawks's book becomes a lively celebration of contemporary Irish society and the goodwill of its people that neither revels in irony nor descends into mawkishness. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
A distinguished Oxford scholar and a British comedian each show us a contemporary Ireland blessedly leprechaun-free but, nonetheless, uniquely magical. Eagleton is one of the most renowned literary critics, but that doesn't keep him from writing with unusual clarity and wit. He proffers an A-to-Z of today's Ireland that is breezy but densely well informed and even, occasionally, footnoted, as if he can't help himself (those scholarly addenda prove pricelessly whimsical). Some entries betray his literary training: how many other references on Ireland cover Dracula ("the Irish have produced a number of monsters and bloodsuckers in their time, but this one is the best known") as well as "one of the country's major exports," Seamus Heaney? But from alcohol to craic to Liffey water to potatoes and all the way down to the Zoological Gardens of Dublin, Eagleton fills the book with odd tidbits of fact, ne'er so well and seldom so uproariously expressed. Whereas Eagleton's organizing principle is the alphabet, Tony Hawks' is the outline of Ireland. A drunken bet resulted in his standing by the Irish roadside with his trusty companion, a refrigerator (miniature, but still . . .). The wager had been that he and his fridge could make it, hitchhiking, around the island's perimeter in a month. He made it. But, in true Irish fashion, the fun isn't so much in the story itself as in the telling of it. The fridge goes surfing with its mate, goes to a bachelor contest, and spends a good deal of time in pubs, more in various vehicles. The Fridge Man learns some life lessons about trust and spontaneity but mostly goes along for the craic (see Eagleton for definition). Great craic it is: when Hawks plonks the fridge on a bar stool in Ennistymon, another patron laconically observes, "Ah, sure, it's nice enough to see it out of context." In this book, everything Irish gets decontextualized, nicely enough. --Patricia Monaghan
Library Journal Review
Yes, a fridge. People sometimes do the craziest things when they've had too many beers. Hawks, known throughout Great Britain for his humor and appearances on various radio and television shows, made a drunken bet with a friend that he could successfully hitchhike around Ireland with a refrigerator as his traveling companion. Once sober, he realized the magnitude of the task he'd set himself but agreed to honor the bet anyway. The result is a hysterically funny travelog, in which Hawks shares his warm regard for the Irish, his amusing contacts with the natives, anecdotes from places he stayed, and brief tales about those who gave him rides. Anyone who enjoys Bill Bryson or Dave Barry will greatly appreciate Hawks for a writing style that seems to be a stew made of one part Monty Python, one part Benny Hill, and two parts Barry. Highly recommended for public libraries and academic libraries with browsing collections.--Sandra Knowles, Henderson Cty. P.L., Hendersonville, NC (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
