After a speeding ticket causes his license to be temporarily revoked, author Glen Reddick resolves to spend the next three months commuting by e-bike. What follows is a series of transformative misadventures through the urban Australian countryside. His resulting memoir, THREE MONTHS ON AN E-BIKE (What Could Possibly Go Wrong), is filled with stories, revelations, and observations from his three month e-bike experience.
First and foremost, THREE MONTHS ON AN E-BIKE is a very witty book. Reddick recognizes that he’s “a miserable git” who is “afflicted with legendary impatience”. He describes himself as “a drunken contortionist” during his struggles to put on his bike riding outfit for the first time. He knows his bike riding abilities make him “akin to a London double-decker bus”. Reddick has the humorous, self-effacing personality of the best office storytellers, which lends his story a relatable yet laugh-worthy writing style. But Reddick’s book has more than just humor; his descriptions of the pastures, wetlands, and small town neighborhoods that he passes through are filled with wonder. He marvels at flocks of yellow-tailed black cockatoos and gets into races with bush wallabies, while avoiding the gargantuan snakes that sun themselves on the path he travels. He lingers in botanic gardens, learns snippets of town history, and scratches his head at the local obsession with mowing lawns while giving the reader an intriguing look at a slice of southern Australian life.
Throughout all of his e-bike exploits, Reddick remains a “blue sky thinker sort of chap”. He tackles the challenge of riding his e-bike with single-minded determination and through the experience finds his sense of adventure again. He learns to keep his bike well-maintained and to prepare meticulously for the day ahead. His belief in karma becomes absolute. The experiences that Reddick catalogs are transformational, and through his memoir he shares with his audience a glimmer of what it’s like to “turn adversity into something positive”. Between Reddick’s sense of humor, his rich descriptions of “the solitude of the Australian bush”, and his optimistic message, THREE MONTHS ON AN E-BIKE is an absolute pleasure to read and will appeal to any reader who enjoys memoirs, adventure stories, or travel writing.
Glenn Reddick’s memoir THREE MONTHS ON AN E-BIKE (What Could Possibly Go Wrong) is filled with humor, and his descriptions of the Australian countryside provide the perfect backdrop for what turns out to be an optimistic story of embracing change and learning from adversity–the perfect balance of entertainment and reflection.
~Stephani Hren for IndieReader