Dry Crossing (Russell Guy) - PAPERBACK

Staff Review

Dry Crossing tells the story of Dizzy Roundabout, a guitarist in an Aboriginal rock 'n' roll band who finds his life starting to come apart as he is torn between furthering his career in the city and his roots in the Outback. Stranded in the middle of nowhere in a small town, he meets an elderly missionary who steers him onto a journey that enables him to meet the Living God. The book vividly recounts life on the road - which can be pretty raw, rough and ready at times - and the struggles Dizzy faces as he tries to sort out his relationships with the band, with his girlfriends, with his friend the Missionary and with God. The language is raw at times, and Dizzy's ups and downs feel very real and painful. But his encounters with God will mirror the experiences of many people. Russell Guy's descriptions of the Outback are breathtaking - you can feel the heat, and smell the dust. It's a book that doesn't pull any punches as it tells Dizzy's story, but by the end you feel like you've been on a bit of a road trip yourself.

It's very much an adult book - the language is a bit raw in places, and the situations that Dizzy finds himself in are uncomfortable at times - but it's a good read and a very realistic of the sort of trials people can end up going through as God turns their lives around.

Allan Lee - General Manager Media Content - Vision Radio Network

Other Reviews

DISCOVERY Coast author Russell Guy’s book Dry Crossing is a whole new slant on ‘sex drugs and rock’n’roll’. However in a departure from the usual storyline, Dizzy Roundabout, a guitarist in an Aboriginal band, eventually meets a missionary on his slippery slope out bush which finally takes this novel off in a refreshingly positive new direction.
Dizzy spent over ten years chasing gigs out bush driving ancient unreliable vehicles and living hand to mouth. His band members are as colourful as him with the lead singer reportedly being taken by a crocodile after absconding from the band. A national Music Industry Award offers promise of redemption at first but again the cycle of endless gigs with ‘bare hand to mouth’ living picks up once more.
Finally Dizzy can take no more and as he escapes the musical rat-race, holing up in a shack in a small outback settlement, he battles his inner demons to forge a new and true identity with the support of the elderly missionary working there.
This is a fascinating tale of an Indigenous person grappling with the tensions between a birth culture and an acquired Western culture. It is a tale of a person triumphing over their inner self finding their real identity. It paints great pictures of Outback life
and people in Queensland the Northern Territory. This book gives readers glimpses into Indigenous culture and the values that are meaningful in Aboriginal life. This is a good read, don’t miss it.

By Dave McLeod

“Crazy band members, publicans, missionaries, police, master painters of the Dreaming and girlfriends at roadhouses, all inhabit this glorious novel as it grapples with the strange brand of English spoken by Aboriginal people, their lexicon from ancient languages that has crept into Outback English, and the war of ideas that make claims on people’s souls.”
Professor Marcia Langton. Chair of the Australian
Indigenous Studies. Centre for Health & Society. University
of Melbourne

"Russell Guy writes crisply about the outback in a road novel that captures the physical world no less vividly than a compulsive drive towards the spiritual one.”
The Age

“This irresistible tale of and rock ‘n’ roll redemption, salvation, freedom and belonging rises like a phoenix from the ashes of alcohol and Aboriginal life in the outback, spiritual and powerfully grounded in the red earth of the land.”

The West Australian

"This little book - it's less than 200 pages - is set in the outback. It's a story that will resonate with people of all cultures. Written in an easy-to-read, witty style, DRY CROSSING is an Australian gem."
The Seniors.