Book review

My Life in the Sea of Cars
by James Murray

James Murray recounts nine days walking in the remote and beautiful landscapes of the Northern Territory, yet his Letter from Arnhem Land is much more than a book about bushwalking. A delicate hymn to the wilderness of Northern Australia, My Life in the Sea of Cars is a heartbreaking journey of personal exploration and self discovery, and a passionate argument for a new way of living. The ways in which rampant consumerism, and an obsession with the motor car have become so entrenched in people’s lives is explored through relationships, memory, culture, identity and the meditative act of bushwalking. When Murray candidly reveals his own family secrets and likely ancestry his book takes on yet another dimension. Totally original, and heartbreakingly honest, Murray asks us the difficult, awkward questions that will not go away. Where has our culture gone so wrong?

I've read this book during my hike over Christmas, we did the Cape to Cape track down south. I liked the book as I recognized his ranting about people in cars reacting on cyclers as I use the bicycle as well to go from A to B and that seems odd to most drivers here... The Australian mentality to people outside of cars is weird, they don't understand why, I often am approached as being too poor to drive a car when cycling or do my shoppings on foot. Why? I just see it as an easy way to go around and have my excersize on the side!