The publishing world has always had a place for the quirky book and in non-fiction circles Tony Hawks' travel guide - or his sort of a travel guide - Round Ireland with a Fridge fits the title quirky nicely. Hitchhiking around Ireland with a fridge and writing about it is not something others have done and Mr. Hawks has pulled it off, or rather pulled it around, quite admirably.
I once wrote a newspaper column while playing in a league soccer game but it took two hours and I would have been playing anyway (it was more a trial for my teammates). To accomplish his feat of quirky writing, Hawks, from England, spent a Spring month on the roads, and in the pubs, of Ireland.
For most of us saying no to backpacking around a small country with a fridge would take as much time as it takes to close a fridge door, but given the success of the book and the fact that a film version, written by and starring Hawks, was released in 2010, years after his trip, our hero appears to be smarter than most of us.
Hitchhiking Around Small Country with Fridge
The comedian and author of Playing the Moldovans at Tennis was in Ireland in 1989 and saw a man hitchhiking with a fridge. The image stuck and at a drinking gathering in Brighton years later he mentioned the hitchhiker with the fridge and a friend was inclined not to believe him. Naturally Mr. Hawks insisted on it, he had, after all, seen it with his own eyes.
He went as far as to state that not only had he seen it done but that he himself could do it. In fact, said the inebriated Mr. Hawks: "I could hitchhike around Ireland with a fridge". The result was a 100 pounds bet and all he had to do to win was hitchhike around the circumference of Ireland with a fridge within one calendar month.
Tony Hawks, Gerry Ryan, Ireland and a Fridge
Hawks does not have the intellect of the non-fiction superstar Gay Talese, the reportage skills of a Susan Orlean or Chuck Paleniuk and nor is he the endlessly witty social/cultural observer that Chuck Klosterman is. What he has though is the ability to be funny and consistently rather silly and these attributes make for a successful journey and book. Reviews on the film, mind you, suggest there he may have failed.
Irish DJ Gerry Ryan was helpful by interviewing Hawks throughout the trip, making he and his fridge known entities and creating many a ride from Emerald Islanders who were hoping they'd pass him. The regular call-ins to Ryans' regular radio show also got the man and his kitchen appliance places to stay, free meals, a Fridge Party and surfboard lessons (for both).
He encounters many wonderfully welcoming people all over Ireland, or the outer part of the country, from Cavan to Tory Island to Sligo and Cork and Wexford and back to his start in Dublin. Somewhere along the way the Irish begin the tradition of signing his fridge and by the time he's home it's full of good wishes and drunken scrawls both.
Round Ireland by Fridge: Only the Irish
The bottom line is that it is Hawks' warm heart, the fridge, and the kindness and quirkiness of the Irish - it may be that no other country would have embraced him so - that make it work and the book is a reflection of all that. From he and the fridge being jammed into small cars to he and a female he meets being jammed into a dog house for a little...well, never mind, the trip was one extended social gathering.
One is left envious that Tony Hawks thought of it first and pulled it off with such marvellous aplomb (his ending is a testament to the man's chutzpah). The rest of us writers who may want to find a quirky subject are left, well, left writing a newspaper column while playing in a soccer game.
Some were born to lead, like Tony Hawks and his fridge.
