One of the strangest
and most appealing novels you will read this year!
Tom Lee’s first novel is about a young jogger who is in a relationship
with an older woman. She is both his coach and his mentor. Coach Fitz, as he
calls her, seeks to instil a philosophy of running which combines ‘controlled
intensity’ with a curiosity about places and their histories. A country boy, he
is fascinated by the landscapes of the city beaches and parks through which they
travel. And he has his own obsessions – with exercise routines, ancestral
legacies, outdoor gyms, horse-racing, weather conditions and inner-city eating
habits. Then, suddenly, their relationship falls apart, over the issue of sex –
and he becomes a coach and mentor in turn, to a young man this time, as he attempts
to orchestrate an ideal expression of his emotional, athletic and intellectual
urges.
Coach Fitz is an exploration of the outdoor mentality that plays
such a dominant role in the Australian psyche. It is remarkable for its
observations about landscape and physical exercise, embedded in the training
routines and dialogues of the runners. But most of all it is about the emotions
and aspirations of youth, and the complications these engender.
