Ash Lynch is languishing in an unrewarding job in Perth. Caught in a stagnant routine, he is buoyed by Zoe, with whom he is haplessly in love. After discovering that she prefers a co-worker to him, Ash confides in the local bartender, Miller, a handsome, tattooed drifter. Miller’s laissez-faire attitude to work is seductive, and he convinces Ash to quit his job and travel with him. The two set off for Europe. What ensues is a series of predictable experiences, as Howard pushes his unlikely duo through various Amsterdam coffee houses, red-light districts, clubs, bars and sexual misadventures.

At his best, Howard articulates the backpacker experience with jocularity and insight; at his worst, he relies on misguided racial stereotypes in a strained endeavour to create comic effect. Yet, despite the occasional stale joke and fumbled attempts at poignancy, Taking Off deserves to be read for its shrewd consideration of those recent phenomena: the quarter-life crisis, and the exodus of young Australians to Europe. The novel is couched in Generation Y and pop-culture jargon. Readers who are unfamiliar with reality television or MySpace will miss many of Howard’s witticisms. This would be a shame: the author has a keen sense of irony. Ash’s wry observations on everything from Australian Idol to tourists in McDonald’s are among the novel’s funniest moments.

Taking Off will be popular with those who have tried to ‘wing it’ overseas, and with those who understand what it is to have a friendship that ‘is not very Friends’ or a job where one’s iPod’s shuffle provides the only randomness in the day. It is a light, enjoyable read.