Indo Dreaming (Neil Grant, Allen & Unwin, $17.95 pb, ISBN 1741141796, January 2005)

In this follow-up to 2002’s Rhino Chasers, Neil Grant takes his protagonist on a spiritual expedition to find his dead friend and ultimately himself. Goog’s journey mirrors that of the reader. Where Rhino Chasers took the characters to dangerous places against a familiar backdrop, Indo Dreaming takes both protagonist and reader to uncharted territory and off the map of what is safe and known. Grant has recast his narrative style with his new young-adult novel, shifting from past tense to present, third-person narrative point of view to first. The effect is dramatic, as the reader travels alongside Goog on his quest to make meaning out of what happened to his friend Castro, and whether he can survive this alien landscape. Grant’s ability to take the reader deep into the wild and foreign Indonesia is a delight. The assault on Goog’s senses as he grapples with the poverty, the language and the tastes and smells is authentic. His attempts to trust others and grow as a person make him a compelling character. There is much poetry here; we drift with Goog as he gives himself over to the swell and the tide that ultimately delivers him home. As surfing novels go, this one is more about the journey than it is about the waves.

Ben Beaton is a Perth-based teacher and writer

This review from Australian Bookseller & Publisher magazine is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2004, Thorpe-Bowker