The book Wake in Fright was first published in 1961 when Kenneth Cook was thirty-two. It was his second novel, the first having been withdrawn because of the threat of legal action. It was a publishing success, appearing in England and America, translated into several languages, and a prescribed text in schools.
Not in my German "Volksschule" though, and so it came that I saw the movie - the remastered version, after the original had almost been lost, see here - years before I read the book which I found only today while rummaging through my favourite Vinnies shop. Read the book here.
The book carries as much of a punch as does the movie with its opening sequence of the 360-degree panorama of a flat, empty landscape, the lonely, flyspotted and comfortless pub, the toy train inching across the plain, and the open-faced young man waiting on the crude platform.
It was released outside Australia under the name "Outback" and is said to have set back Australian tourism by at least twenty years.
"May you dream of the Devil and wake in fright."
P.S. For some insightful commentary on the movie, click here and here .
P.P.S. For an interesting remake of the original movie into a TV mini series, click here.
