non-fiction book of the month
SERVO
David Goodwin
$ 34.99 $ 29.99
Servo is the first Non-fiction Book of the Month ! David Goodwin instantly drew us into the crazy , often dangerous , and always entertaining world of Melbourne ’ s service stations . His hilarious voice , stranger-than-fiction characters , and unbelievable stories from his time working nights depict this slice of Australian life in vivid colour . We hope you enjoy this rollicking read as much as we did .
Servo will change the way you think about the humble servo , and even more so about the person behind the plexiglass . David Goodwin answers some questions for Collins readers below .
Congratulations on being the first Collins Non-fiction Book of the Month ! Can you tell us a little bit about your book and what made you want to write it ?
Thank you ! It ’ s truly an honour and even more amazing to be the first ! Servo is my memoir of surviving six long years of graveyard shifts at service stations all across Melbourne ’ s west . It ’ s a darkly humorous coming of age story about a shy and unassuming arts student getting dumped into a mad dark circus of halogen , drive offs , failed wizards and pretty much every ridiculously surreal snatch of madness you could possibly fathom , slowly crafting me into the person I am today .
I almost felt like the book wrote me , in the sense that I was a continual captive audience for such an impressive array of weirdos that just cried out to be transported onto the page .
The stories in the book are told with incredible colour and detail . Did you write from memory , or did you keep a journal ?
Thank you . The majority of the book was scrawled rapidly ( and often nervously ) on long strips of register receipt paper in-between the constant trickle of customers . At 3am , most people take a surprisingly long time to choose their chocolate bar , drink or bag of chips so I ’ d be there behind the console , scribbling away . I ’ d drive home most mornings with my pockets crinkling with thermal paper , which , after attempting the cruel folly of daytime sleep , I ’ d sit at my PC and attempt to shape into some kind of intelligible narrative .
You had the pleasure of meeting some very , shall we say , interesting characters during your time at the servo . Did you ever feel like you were in real danger ?
There were definitely some nights , especially in the early years , where I wasn ’ t sure if I ’ d make it home in one piece . Something about servos have always encouraged anger – maybe it ’ s the combination of high fuel prices and lingering road rage – but when you combine that with the dark magic of the night , customers on large amounts of narcotics and Olympian levels of sleep deprivation , you have the recipe for some interesting and intense interactions .
Anyone who has ever worked in retail or hospitality will relate to your story on many different levels . What advice would you give to young people entering those industries ?
I ’ d like to think so . Retail is such an important rite of passage for a huge chunk of our population ( and for those intrepid souls who linger on ). For kids today in high school or uni , it ’ s often the first time you ’ re really tasked with a sizeable amount of both responsibility and , often , the desire to inflict bodily harm on a large amount of people , although that generally comes later , when you ’ re jaded and overworked .
For me , those first weeks were full of constant anxiety about learning the ropes and trying to appear confident when I was anything but , so I ’ d say , 1 . If you ’ re not sure about something , ask , 2 . The customer is not even a loose approximation of God , and , 3 . Check your payslip and don ’ t let the bastards jib you .
Did writing this memoir change your perception of your time at the servo ? If so , how ?
For sure . Those six years still billow in my head now and then like a blurry and unnerving dream , but they also kind of shine , and not just because of the unrelenting bath of halogen , but because you never knew what was going to happen from one minute to the next , and even through slitted eyes , that was exciting . A single night would often contain an hour-long philosophical conversation with a random customer on existentialism , a pilfered king-sized Cherry Ripe , three death threats , nine drug deals and being propositioned by some random clubber at 3am .
I was a young , confused and sleep-deprived fool making a raft of impressively bad decisions , but that place and all those customers still taught me so much . I feel like I came out of it blessed with honorary degrees in psychology , risk management , crowd control and public relations , but I still most certainly do not miss being pinned down by the eyes of a speed freak at 4am as the pump authorisation sound grinds into the soft white meat of my brain .
What do you hope readers will get out of your book ?
Servos have a universality about them . There ’ s one on every second corner , so everyone passes through that parting glass eventually . Whether it ’ s a grumpy petrol pit stop on the race home from work while being pestered to buy two Mars Bars for five bucks , or grabbing a few bags of ice for the esky on the way to a music festival , or even when you ’ re off your face , post-clubbing , scoffing down sausage rolls as dawn hovers at the cusp of the world and making a general nuisance of yourself , Aussies seem to feel at home inside these bright parlours of convenience .
So , I hope that by taking people deeper , behind the anti-jump protection wire , and showing them another side , a more visceral and surreal perspective on something that is a part of all of our lives , I can broaden their perspective on what goes on after they drive away . I also hope it makes them laugh and that they find it as fun as it was to write .
Have you read any books recently that inspired you ?
There are so many . Up until recently , I must have been one of the very few people in Australia who hadn ’ t read Trent Dalton ’ s Boy Swallows Universe but after remedying that I felt like I had been repeatedly rabbitpunched in the soul . Such an incredible book . Lola in the Mirror was fantastic as well .
For readers who love your book , do you have others that you would recommend ?
The seminal book for Servo is probably He Died With a Felafel in His Hand by John Birmingham . It ’ s getting on in years now – I actually read it while working at the servo – but it ’ s a crazy , quintessentially Aussie book about a constant parade of impressively unhinged weirdos that not only showed me that I could get away with writing the way I wanted , but that , if done right , it could be funny as hell too . Don ’ t Tell Mum I Work on the Rigs by Paul Carter has some definite similarities too , as does Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata , for obvious reasons , though it ’ s fiction and a vastly different cultural take on the servo .
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