The Thousands

You would be forgiven for thinking that Dr Ianto Ware is the whitest person in Adelaide. After all, the man has a Doctorate in European Cultural Studies, is a member of No Through Rd (the whitest band in Adelaide), and is a zealous advocate of – wait for it honkies – competitive cycling. Ware’s debut book is a kind of poignant hymn to his whiteness, viewed through his endearingly white obsessions with the Tour de France, lycra, identity politics, Roland Barthes and the various evils of post-industrial capitalism.

To his credit, Dr Ware merely alludes to his scary ability to bore us to death. His writing is refreshingly whimsical; almost apologetic in tone, as if it has occurred to him that all the cultural theory and gender analysis in the western world will never be enough to drown out the singular joy that comes from the triumph of a simple derailleur over gravity, lactic acid and automotive hegemony.

21 Nights will do little to overcome the automobile’s chokehold on our society, but it will almost certainly inspire you to wheel poor old treadley out of the shed and downhill to the Exeter, where it belongs.