The Banksia House Breakout
James Roxburgh
Narrated by Kerry Armstrong
9 hrs 51 mins
Released September 5, 2023
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This is an attempt at a feel-good dramedy which follows the recent trend in fiction of casting seniors as the heroes. It was available as a free book of the month from the Audible Australia catalogue, and I picked it to listen to while gardening as I fancied something light. The story was okay, but the audiobook was let down by absolutely horrible narration – note to self to avoid anything read by Ms Armstrong in future.
After the death of her husband, 80-something Ruth Morris has had her house sold and been moved into a Sydney Rest Home by her impatient workaholic son Michael. Unsettled and lonely, she is dismayed to hear that her best friend Gladys is dying of cancer in Brisbane. Desperate to visit her one last time, and with access to her money controlled by Michael, she is talked into a madcap unsanctioned Road Trip in a stolen car by her new friend Beryl. Joined by serial escaper Keith, the threesome endure a series of mishaps and meet a range of unlikely new friends while cannily evading the police and the increasingly irate Michael – but will they make it to Gladys in time to say Goodbye?
For non-Australians, the drive between Sydney and Brisbane is about twelve hours of monotonous inland motorway through ugly barren bush, with a few nice but boring if it’s not sunny coastal towns in between. You expect a route called the Pacific Highway to feature stunning scenery like America’s West Coast, but don’t be fooled. This has no relevance to the plot of here but is just a warning to anyone inspired to emulate Ruth by this book, unless you love surfing of course.
I think I would’ve enjoyed this more as an ebook, although I was mildly infuriated by the main female characters – both Ruth and Becky are pathetic and have to be forced out of their submissive dependence on the men in their lives. The male characters are a fairly accurate representation of Aussie men – selfish, boorish, domineering, and manipulative – even Keith the (mild spoiler alert) love interest is awful – but the message is that if that’s what’s on offer, you take it. (There’s a reason I married a Kiwi.) The plot raises some thought-provoking issues – elder abuse in care homes, financial exploitation by descendants, misdiagnosis of dementia, the trauma associated with the loss of Independence, and the way seniors are ignored in commercial settings. There were some mildly humorous moments – if you find people dropping their false teeth in the toilet then reinserting them funny that is.
The narrator has a breathless delivery that in no way reflects how anyone speaks in real life, with unnatural pauses in the middle of sentences. The baddies have harsh growly voices like cartoon villains and the women all sound like invalids. There’s also an insistence on using the word “telephone” instead the of “phone” to show how old-fashioned Ruth is – but all the other characters use it too, and she’s 81, not 101!! A tiny thing but irritating when you notice it. The book has mostly 4 and 5-star reviews so clearly most people enjoyed it more than I did. For me it was 3 stars for the story and 2 for the narration, rounding up because I’m feeling generous, but I won’t be in a rush to read any more from this author.
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