Round Ireland with a Fridge by Tony Hawks

In Round Ireland with a Fridge, Tony Hawks goes hitchhiking around Ireland with a fridge in tow on a drunken bet. Along the way, he meets some interesting people, including a phony king, a nun and more town drunks that you can count all the while becoming the talk of Ireland.

I really enjoyed this book. I didn't know what to expect from this book when I borrowed it from a fellow book club member.   I don't read a whole lot of nonfiction, but when she said she liked it and that was good enough for me. I got a little worried, though, when I brought it home and saw that the Hawks is a British comedian. I don't always get British humour. I'm so glad that didn't scare me away, because this book is really funny and contains a terrific story.

I don't want to give away the story, but if you think that traveling around with a fridge (albeit a small one) would hamper Tony's travels, you should think again. The people he met on his journey were intrigued by it all and Tony got very lucky early on. I'm not sure he would have the same experiences in another country, like the US or even Canada.

The book contains several pages of photos. These were nice to see, however, the quality isn't great in this paperback edition. Some of them were hard to make out. One thing I would have like to see included was a map of his route. If nothing else, it would have been fun to follow along as his adventure progressed...to see how far he's come and how far he had to go. I guess I could have consulted my own map, but then I would have had to get out of my comfy chair. ;)

Highly recommended. You probably won't learn a lot about Ireland, the country, but you will learn how wonderful the Irish people are while you have a laugh or two or several.

For more information about this book, please visit the Macmillan's website.

Apparently, someone made a movie of Tony's travels. For information about it, click here.

For more information about the author, please visit Tony Hawks's website.

I'd like to thank Ana from my book club for lending this book to me.

Round Ireland with a Fridge by Tony Hawks, Thomas Dunne Books (St. Martin's Press), ©1998. ISBN 0312274920(Trade paperback), 248p.