Howard Anderson (1)

First Line: The county that stretches from Melbourne in the south to Sydney seven hundred and fifty miles up the coast is green with trees and paddocks.

If you're the type of reader who pays attention to the dedication page, once you've read the dedication in Albert of Adelaide, you'll know you're in for something a little different:

"It seems fitting to dedicate this book to an Australian soldier I met at a bar many years ago in Sydney. All I can remember about him was that he had a bad show more bayonet scar from service in Malaya and that he got me hopelessly lost on the New South Wales rail system before he passed out."

Albert is a platypus who was orphaned and brought to the Adelaide Zoo at a very young age. He's grown up remembering his childhood and listening to the tales of other zoo inhabitants about the "Old Australia," a place far away in the desert where nothing's changed since the beginning-- a place that's filled with freedom and peace for all animals. Tired of being stared at, laughed at, and called names, Albert begins hoarding grubs and filling a discarded soda bottle with water. One day someone's careless, and Albert makes his break for freedom, riding the rails as far as he can, until he finds himself lost in the desert. Undaunted, Albert trudges on, holding on to his dream of a place where he belongs.

What he finds is a bit more than he expected (and the reader, too, for that matter). Jack the wombat saves Albert, and it's not until they spend the night drinking and gambling in the mining town of Ponsby Station that Albert learns Jack is just a little too fond of matches. Accused of burning down the mercantile, the two run for their lives and split up as they enter dingo territory.

Albert goes on to make the acquaintance of a pair of drunken bandicoots, a militia of kangaroos, packs of dingoes, a former prize-fighting Tasmanian devil, and a raccoon straight off the boat from California. Every step of the way, Albert discovers that his "road less traveled" and the companions he finds are actually putting him on the path to finding out who he truly is.

I was entranced by this book. When I met the author in July, he said that the genesis of Albert of Adelaide began more than twenty years ago when he began telling bedtime stories to his then-girlfriend's five-year-old daughter. He didn't want these bedtime stories to be run-of-the-mill stuff, and I would've loved to have listened in. As it is, I fell in love with Albert, his journey, and the friends that he made. I don't listen to audio books, but I think that it would be the perfect format for this book. You're never too old-- or too young-- to hear Albert's story of adventure, friendship and self-realization. show less

Albert of Adelaide is, perhaps, best described as a fable; in part, because all of the characters happen to be animals who live in a world where marsupials wear clothes and engage in commerce, etc, but also for the way it talks about the act of living.

Our title character, Albert, is a young platypus who manages a rather daring off-the-page escape from the Adelaide zoo in a quest for what he hopes is the Australia of his dreams. What he gets is the outback. The setting and characters very show more much have the feel of a western adventure full of guns, desert, and double-crosses but also deep friendship and pathos. Albert learns a great deal about himself as he waddles through the dusty expanses of an unforgiving country.

Albert of Adelaide is a rather quick read with some surprising subtleties if you can get through its unusual setting. The characters are well presented and eminently likeable, which makes their rather difficult tribulations all the more touching. We are never made privy to the true nature of this Old Australia, though a few suggestions are dropped to keep us thinking while wisely leaving it all up to interpretation. I am very grateful I picked this up at my local library, and look forward to see what other little nuggets Mr. Anderson can produce to help me while away future afternoons. show less

In which a platypus, angry and embittereed but also likable and a bit naive, escapes from his unloved home in the Adelaide Zoo and sets out on a trek to find an edenic Old Australia. He quickly enough finds colorful friends, such as a firebug wombat, antagonists, notably the wallabies and kangaroos who are sworn enemies of all non-marsupials, and more ambiguous local color like the enigmatic dingoes who worry him and a pair of drunken bandicoots who are the ball-and-chain to his every move, show more however simple it might have been without their help. This starts out as a vehicle for the protagonist's wry observations on life on earth, and it would have been a very good novel on that level, but it eventually develops a fascinating plot as interesting as any cliff-hanger out there. show less

I received this as a First Read Giveaway. I enjoyed the story, the writing style and the reflective moral compass of Albert and his new friends.

Perhaps the most salient paragraph is on the next to last page; "He had walked into Old Australia with an empty bottle, and he would walk out having learned about fame and friendship. He hadn't come from Adelaide to look for those things, but he had found them. He hadn't discovered why he had come to the place he was leaving, and probably never show more would. The why of things had ceased to trouble him, and he was content with what he'd been given. " show less