 – Customer review on 29/12/2007
Trace is sick of small-town jobs and self-seeking people. After walking off his job as the plumber’s bum-boy he sticks his thumb to the road and winds up sharing a room in an Auckland boarding house, run by the doting Mrs. Jacques. His dynamic new roommate introduces himself as Devon, self-titled Boy Friday and a strong contender at the Saturday night street races on Whaitiri Street, ‘we call it Thunder Road’. Devon knows how to talk the talk. Flashy grins and bro handshakes acknowledge the connections he seems to have everywhere. From the street racers to the street-racer-turned cops, the drug dealers to the car theifs, Devon appears to have all the hook-ups.
It’s not long before Trace and Devon are best friends. Trace still has some ties to the ‘real’ world like a dull job and a desire for a steady girlfriend. But Devon is quick to try and rid Trace of these tiresome old habits. Society, according to Devon, is full of suck-ups. The real life defining moments are when you choose to break the rules, ‘the world makes it clear early on that we’re crap. Most of the time you just accept it, you think it’s the way things are. But every now and then you get this little flash, where you see that it’s all a game … none of it matters’. The pair lay the road for some daring missions, hungry for freedom and a taste of the high-life.
Ted Dawe’s debut won the Senior Fiction category and Best First Book at the New Zealand Post Book Awards in 2004. It is easy to see why. The boys will love the descriptions and discussions of every imaginable muscle car (or motorbike) known to man, including how each part shocks and slams your senses. Beyond the big boys toys is a strained but developing bond between two teenagers pushing each other to their limits. Naturally, these types of relationships have their breaking points. Dawe keeps his readers hooked with the promise of a mighty crash up ahead.
The characters are fresh and believable, at least to those of us untrained in the goings-on of the criminal underground, anyway. Trace shares his thoughts freely with his audience and along with the local place names, highways and sights getting frequent mention it’s enough to make you feel as if you’re reading an old friend’s diary (and learning some seriously scary details about his past). The book takes you beyond the glitz and glamour of the nitrous-fuelled car chase scenes seen in certain blockbuster movies. Read on and you will discover a few truths about life in fast lane. It gets lonely, it gets ugly, and it gets old. Quickly.
If you drive a Toyota Corolla and have a legit income chances are your radar will pick up on the deviant yarns speeding through Thunder Road and steer you on a more straight and narrow course. Then again, perhaps you need a little something to rattle your glass dome?
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