Wake in fright - Kenneth Cook

Wake In Fright was first published in 1961 and the film version, Outback, starring Donald Pleasance was released in 1971. Both the book and the film have achieved a cult status as the Australian answer to US and UK novels and films of 1960s youthful alienation. Wake In Fright is the gruelling story of a young Australian schoolteacher on his way back from the outback to Sydney and civilisation...when things start to go wrong. He finds himself stuck overnight in Bundanyabba ('the Yabba')- a rough outback mining town. The heat and the misery are described in painful detail as this one evening changes the course of John Grant's life for ever...all on the flip of a coin. An ill-advised and drink-fuelled visit to a gambling den leaves Grant broke and he realizes he has no way of escaping the Yubba. He descends into a cycle of hangovers, fumbling sexual encounters and increasing self-loathing as he becomes more and more immersed in the grotesque and surreal nightmare that his life has become...revealing the baser side of his own nature as well as the harshness of life in the Australian outback. Grotesque but absolutely compelling, this has become a cult read.