1sweetiegherkin
Coming up next in November ... Peter Carey! What have you read by Carey in the past? What do you plan to read for this month?
2sweetiegherkin
For what it's worth, two titles by Peter Carey are on the list of 1,001 Books to Read Before You Die: Oscar and Lucinda and Jack Maggs.
Oscar and Lucinda seems very popular here on LibraryThing as well, but I have to admit that with all the things I have going on work wise & etc over the next few weeks and into November, I was turned off by finding out it's 400-plus pages long. Jack Maggs sounds equally interesting to me, so I'm going to try for that one instead.
Oscar and Lucinda seems very popular here on LibraryThing as well, but I have to admit that with all the things I have going on work wise & etc over the next few weeks and into November, I was turned off by finding out it's 400-plus pages long. Jack Maggs sounds equally interesting to me, so I'm going to try for that one instead.
3.Monkey.
The uni library does have Oscar & Lucinda, and I do read off the 1001 list, but this is not one I'm interested in, so I'll be passing here as well.
4Verwijderd
5sweetiegherkin
My library system has a new e-audio service where you can download books right to your phone, which I like so that I have something to listen to while doing housework, taking a walk, etc. I found My Life as a Fake on here, and quite enjoyed it, though it was a bit odd and I'm still thinking it over before I write up a review. If anyone else reads this book for November, I'd be curious to get their opinions on it. This review here on LibraryThing discusses some of the questions posed by the book: https://www.librarything.com/work/38606/reviews/114490310
The same e-audio service also has Theft, so I might give that a go as well.
The same e-audio service also has Theft, so I might give that a go as well.
6Nickelini
I listened to Parrot and Oliver in America a few years ago and enjoyed it (the voices were perfect). I own three of his and want to read all of them, so I will try to fit one in.
7sweetiegherkin
>6 Nickelini: I'm not familiar with Parrot and Oliver in America; what was that one about? Hope you get to one of the three next month! :)
I've collected my thoughts enough on My Life as a Fake to write a cursory review of it, although it doesn't quite give the novel justice:
London literary magazine editor Sarah agrees to accompany an old family friend, author John Slater, on a trip to Malaysia, where she quite accidentally meets Christopher Chubb - an Australian poet living in shamed exile after a scandal in which he created a hoax poet whose works were published in a high-profile publication. While the trick doesn't seem like that much of an issue in and of itself, the poems were later the subject of court case in which the editor was tried for obscenity and ultimately died in questionable circumstances. But stranger yet is the arrival on the trial scene of a man who claims to be the hoax poet - fitting every description of the imaginary personage. Chubb insists that Sarah must hear the full story and so unfolds a tale that spans years and countries, involving all kinds of turmoil, including kidnappings and murder.
This book was inspired in part by the real-life story of Ern Malley, a literary hoax whose creation resulted in a court case. But Carey then diverges from the story by introducing elements of magical realism, most notably the character of Bob McCorkle, the apparently turned-to-real-life fruition of Chubb's creative joke. The storytelling is deceptively simple, appearing to be simply the earnest narration of Sarah but then turning into stories within stories as she hears from Chubb and then learns alternate perspectives from Slater, Chubb's daughter Tina, and Tina's caregiver Mrs. Linn, with the plot unfolding layer after layer. In this way, Carey plays not only with literary conventions but also with themes related to the nature of reality, the reliability of memory, and the elements that go into perception. Some things are deliberately (and I think well so) left vague, so that the reader must decide for him or herself exactly what has transpired and which story to believe - or which parts from each story are to be believed.
The version I had was an audiobook narrated by Susan Lyons, who did an excellent job of conveying a number of emotions and stories passionately while also doing a fantastic job of speaking with the many accents required by the cast of characters presented. I highly recommend this book for a relatively short read that will leave you with plenty of food for thought on a variety of topics.
I've collected my thoughts enough on My Life as a Fake to write a cursory review of it, although it doesn't quite give the novel justice:
London literary magazine editor Sarah agrees to accompany an old family friend, author John Slater, on a trip to Malaysia, where she quite accidentally meets Christopher Chubb - an Australian poet living in shamed exile after a scandal in which he created a hoax poet whose works were published in a high-profile publication. While the trick doesn't seem like that much of an issue in and of itself, the poems were later the subject of court case in which the editor was tried for obscenity and ultimately died in questionable circumstances. But stranger yet is the arrival on the trial scene of a man who claims to be the hoax poet - fitting every description of the imaginary personage. Chubb insists that Sarah must hear the full story and so unfolds a tale that spans years and countries, involving all kinds of turmoil, including kidnappings and murder.
This book was inspired in part by the real-life story of Ern Malley, a literary hoax whose creation resulted in a court case. But Carey then diverges from the story by introducing elements of magical realism, most notably the character of Bob McCorkle, the apparently turned-to-real-life fruition of Chubb's creative joke. The storytelling is deceptively simple, appearing to be simply the earnest narration of Sarah but then turning into stories within stories as she hears from Chubb and then learns alternate perspectives from Slater, Chubb's daughter Tina, and Tina's caregiver Mrs. Linn, with the plot unfolding layer after layer. In this way, Carey plays not only with literary conventions but also with themes related to the nature of reality, the reliability of memory, and the elements that go into perception. Some things are deliberately (and I think well so) left vague, so that the reader must decide for him or herself exactly what has transpired and which story to believe - or which parts from each story are to be believed.
The version I had was an audiobook narrated by Susan Lyons, who did an excellent job of conveying a number of emotions and stories passionately while also doing a fantastic job of speaking with the many accents required by the cast of characters presented. I highly recommend this book for a relatively short read that will leave you with plenty of food for thought on a variety of topics.
8sweetiegherkin
Interesting blog post posting additional interpretations of My Life as a Fake: http://ecaler550.blogspot.com/2005/10/how-does-my-life-as-fake-enrich-notion.htm...
10Nickelini
>7 sweetiegherkin: I'm not familiar with Parrot and Oliver in America; what was that one about? It's been way too long and it's too complex a book for me to say anything meaningful at this point other than "it was good." If you click through to the book's page, there's lots of info. I've copied the book description that best fits what I remember:
"Olivier, the son of penniless aristocrats who barely escaped the violence of the French Revolution, sets sail to America to avoid confrontation with his enemies. Meanwhile, Parrot, a young Englishman, also leaves for America. Over the course of their adventures, their fates are inevitably entwined through their mutual acquaintance with a one-armed marquis."
It made the Booker shortlist and was nominated for a slew of other awards.
"Olivier, the son of penniless aristocrats who barely escaped the violence of the French Revolution, sets sail to America to avoid confrontation with his enemies. Meanwhile, Parrot, a young Englishman, also leaves for America. Over the course of their adventures, their fates are inevitably entwined through their mutual acquaintance with a one-armed marquis."
It made the Booker shortlist and was nominated for a slew of other awards.
11sweetiegherkin
>10 Nickelini: Hmm, sounds interesting. Carey seems to go for books that have intrigue and span continents.
12sweetiegherkin
>9 Tara1Reads: I hadn't read any Carey before and wasn't familiar with his works, but I'm glad I picked up My Life as a Fake and I'm looking forward to his other books now. They all sound so good!
13Tara1Reads
>12 sweetiegherkin: Hence the enthusiasm in the voting!
14Limelite
I've only read Carey's Parrot and Olivier in America and count it among my favorites. I think of it as a humorous wink to the French essayist, de Tocqueville. It reminded me of two other quixotic tales that were also funny and possibly intended as satires of roadie books: Chabon's Gentlemen of the Road and Jean-Christophe Rufin's The Abyssinian.
Highly recommend Carey to the Group for that novel alone.
Highly recommend Carey to the Group for that novel alone.
15sweetiegherkin
>13 Tara1Reads: :D
>14 Limelite: Oh, neat. I love discovering the different layers to literary books. Sounds like I have even more reasons to get to Parrot and Olivier in America!
>14 Limelite: Oh, neat. I love discovering the different layers to literary books. Sounds like I have even more reasons to get to Parrot and Olivier in America!
16Verwijderd
Moving right into Theft. I guess I've hit on how I know if a book is is really working for me: I devour the story like a glutton, resenting the intrusion of things like work, sleep, or having to answer the phone. Then walk around in a daze for 24 hours. Then I re-read almost immediately to figure it out how it all worked. The Panopticon worked for me like that. So did The Moonstone, Jane Eyre, Equilateral, and Sense and Sensibility.
17sweetiegherkin
I just finished Theft, and I wasn't too crazy about it. Not a bad book per se, but I had high expectations after My Life as a Fake. I didn't find the characters as interesting, the story as compelling, or the themes as thought-provoking as in My Life as a Fake. However, because I felt like maybe I was missing something, I looked online and read this review in The Guardian that talks about how Theft is referencing a famous Australian novel, which of course I knew nothing about: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/may/27/hayfestival2006.hayfestival
18sweetiegherkin
>16 nohrt4me2: I do have one spoiler-related question at the end of the novel and am interested in your perspective when you get there.
19Verwijderd
>18 sweetiegherkin: Almost there. I'm finding it's getting a little tiresome now, though I think the writing is very nice.
20sweetiegherkin
>19 nohrt4me2: Yeah, agreed. Good writing but not enough of a story really to warrant how long it went on.
21sweetiegherkin
How's everyone doing with their Carey reading? I have one more title I want to get to this month - Jack Maggs - but I have to get through another library book first.
22Tara1Reads
I have another library book to read before I check out a Peter Carey book from the library too. I have a long list of books I need to get to this month but I will definitely get to Carey at one point!
24Verwijderd
... and done with Theft. Others have pointed out Carey's interest in hoaxes, and this story revolves around art fakes. I don't think that's a spoiler.
What's interesting about the book are the layers of deception--artistic and emotional--gradually uncovered by the protagonist/artist Butcher Bones (aka Michael Boone).
The novel reminded me of a short story in The Fat Man in History in which a man fantasizes about his upstairs neighbor who makes art by shaving the heads of dolls and spray painting them white. She wears layers of clothes that, when removed, reveal more mystery.
What's interesting about the book are the layers of deception--artistic and emotional--gradually uncovered by the protagonist/artist Butcher Bones (aka Michael Boone).
The novel reminded me of a short story in The Fat Man in History in which a man fantasizes about his upstairs neighbor who makes art by shaving the heads of dolls and spray painting them white. She wears layers of clothes that, when removed, reveal more mystery.
25sweetiegherkin
>24 nohrt4me2: Yeah, I'm definitely noticing hoaxes as a trending theme. I enjoyed the literary hoax story/theme in My Life as a Fake a lot more -- it seemed more thought-provoking to me than the one in Theft.
Okay, now for my spoiler-related question about Theft:I was not 100% certain about the death of Olivier. Obviously Marlene was involved, but was Hugh as well? At the very end, Hugh (mentally) says something to the effect of how little Butcher knows and refers to Marlene as his partner in crime, so that seemed to indicate he was involved. But Butcher seemed to think that Marlene was just setting his brother up and Hugh was asleep in bed the whole time. Then of course there's the whole bit about Hugh finding the body ... but even then Hugh says something to himself about looking and seeing what damage he had done. What are your thoughts?
Okay, now for my spoiler-related question about Theft:
26Verwijderd
>25 sweetiegherkin: Not sure how to do the spoiler response, so trying not to spoil in my answer:
I thought the whodunnit in Theft was meant to be ambiguous. I think Marlene is enough of a player to be able to fake certain details. I also think Hugh is foxier than he's given credit for. The mystery was beside the point for me; the effect of the circumstances, faked or real, on the Bones brothers seems to be what Carey is interested in. An interesting idea that fakery drives as much of your life as reality does.
What really struck me about the brothers was their resemblance to Lenny and George in "Of Mice and Men." There's even a puppy. Can't help feeling this might have been deliberate, though still thinking about whether this informs the reading.
I thought the whodunnit in Theft was meant to be ambiguous. I think Marlene is enough of a player to be able to fake certain details. I also think Hugh is foxier than he's given credit for. The mystery was beside the point for me; the effect of the circumstances, faked or real, on the Bones brothers seems to be what Carey is interested in. An interesting idea that fakery drives as much of your life as reality does.
What really struck me about the brothers was their resemblance to Lenny and George in "Of Mice and Men." There's even a puppy. Can't help feeling this might have been deliberate, though still thinking about whether this informs the reading.
27sweetiegherkin
>26 nohrt4me2: To do a spoiler, you just use a basic html tag: ( spoiler ) at the start and ( / spoiler ) at the end. Except use the angle brackets instead of parenthesis. You learn something new every day. :)
Ok, that makes me feel better that I didn't just miss something ... I was listening to an audiobook version and I was very sleepy by the end and trying to finish it before the book was due back to the library, so I thought maybe I had zoned out on some key part. I agree that Marlene was obviously duplicitous; I'm not so sure about Hugh being crafty so much as being easily manipulated by someone like Marlene. And, yes, clearly Carey's bigger point was about the value of things (there's that repeated line of Butcher's about this) and whether that value is - or should - be based on how "true" it is. And that can be extended to people as well as art and objects.
Hmm, I guess since I've never read Of Mice and Men, it didn't occur to me to make the leap from Butcher and Hugh to Lenny and George, but from what I know about Steinbeck's characters, that makes sense. The Guardian article I linked to above notes a resemblance with characters from the Australian novel The Solid Mandala, which I had never even heard of before. The article says: "The Solid Mandala is the story of Arthur and Waldo, twin brothers, one of whom is a would-be artist (in this case a writer) and the other mentally damaged. They live out their lives bound together by Arthur's social retardation in what White calls "more of a harness than a relationship". Like Hugh in Theft, however, Arthur sees much more than Waldo ever expects and regards himself as the protector of his "smarter" brother." It goes on to make symbolic connections between the "smarter" brother and Australia itself.
edited for formatting
Ok, that makes me feel better that I didn't just miss something ... I was listening to an audiobook version and I was very sleepy by the end and trying to finish it before the book was due back to the library, so I thought maybe I had zoned out on some key part. I agree that Marlene was obviously duplicitous; I'm not so sure about Hugh being crafty so much as being easily manipulated by someone like Marlene. And, yes, clearly Carey's bigger point was about the value of things (there's that repeated line of Butcher's about this) and whether that value is - or should - be based on how "true" it is. And that can be extended to people as well as art and objects.
Hmm, I guess since I've never read Of Mice and Men, it didn't occur to me to make the leap from Butcher and Hugh to Lenny and George, but from what I know about Steinbeck's characters, that makes sense. The Guardian article I linked to above notes a resemblance with characters from the Australian novel The Solid Mandala, which I had never even heard of before. The article says: "The Solid Mandala is the story of Arthur and Waldo, twin brothers, one of whom is a would-be artist (in this case a writer) and the other mentally damaged. They live out their lives bound together by Arthur's social retardation in what White calls "more of a harness than a relationship". Like Hugh in Theft, however, Arthur sees much more than Waldo ever expects and regards himself as the protector of his "smarter" brother." It goes on to make symbolic connections between the "smarter" brother and Australia itself.
edited for formatting
28Verwijderd
>27 sweetiegherkin: Ah! I bet Carey was thinking more of "The Solid Mandala," but it might be interesting to look at stories in which there's a "smart" and "dumb" brother/friend and whether those stories have similar themes.
29sweetiegherkin
I've been reading Jack Maggs by Carey, which I'm enjoying although it's not quite what I expected.
On a side note, I noticed on the book jacket that Carey is originally from Bacchus Marsh, the oft-mentioned town in Theft where Butcher and Hugh originated from as well.
On a side note, I noticed on the book jacket that Carey is originally from Bacchus Marsh, the oft-mentioned town in Theft where Butcher and Hugh originated from as well.
30sweetiegherkin
It took me a while, but I finally finished Jack Maggs. The book wasn't at all what I expected, and it seemed to meander quite a bit, so that it took me some time to realize what the book was even about (and I'm still not sure I get that entirely!). I was surprised to see this book is one of the 1,001 Books to Read Before You Die titles, as I wasn't super impressed with it. Yes, there were times when Carey wrote some beautiful, evocative, and highly symbolic passages, but the book overall seemed to have an unclear trajectory and the great reveals are missing big chunks of clarity. The whole "parallel novel" to Great Expectations thing threw me off quite a bit, too. It's obvious that a couple characters are re-workings of Dickens's characters, but the plot itself is so entirely different...
31BookConcierge
>25 sweetiegherkin:
Really enjoyed reading your discussion of Theft: A Love Story ... I finished it recently (also on audio).
Totally missed the dilemma posed in the spoiler section of your remarks. I blamed it all on Marlene.
>26 nohrt4me2:
I hadn't considered the parallels to Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, but I think you are onto something. Interesting that I saw OMaM just a few days before finishing Theft
Really enjoyed reading your discussion of Theft: A Love Story ... I finished it recently (also on audio).
Totally missed the dilemma posed in the spoiler section of your remarks. I blamed it all on Marlene.
>26 nohrt4me2:
I hadn't considered the parallels to Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, but I think you are onto something. Interesting that I saw OMaM just a few days before finishing Theft
32sweetiegherkin
>31 BookConcierge: Yeah, I may have been reading too much in to it, but I thought there was a smidge of ambiguity about it all. What did you think of the book?
33BookConcierge
>32 sweetiegherkin:
3*** from me ... a solidly good book. In fairness, I'm so consumed with all the kerfuffle over Shelfari closing it's hard to concentrate much on anything, and I think this book suffered as a result.
3*** from me ... a solidly good book. In fairness, I'm so consumed with all the kerfuffle over Shelfari closing it's hard to concentrate much on anything, and I think this book suffered as a result.
34BookConcierge
Jack Maggs – Peter Carey
3***
From the book jacket: A novel of Dickensian London .. the 1830s. Jack Maggs, a foundling trained in the fine arts of thievery, cruelly betrayed and deported to Australia, has now reversed his fortune – and seeks to fulfill his well-concealed, innermost desire. Returning “home” under threat of execution, he inveigles his way into a household in Great Queen Street, where he’s quickly embroiled in various emotional entanglements – and where he falls under the hypnotic scrutiny of Tobias Oates, a celebrated young writer fascinated by the process of mesmerism and obsessed with the criminal mind.
My reactions
I had heard that this was inspired by and perhaps even a retelling of Dickens’ Great Expectations. I can see similarities, though there is no Miss Havisham, and the focus is not on Pip but on Magwitch.
I did get quite caught up in Jack Maggs’s story and wondered a few times how Carey was going to wrap this up. The plot is definitely convoluted in places, with many twists and turns, though Maggs’s goal remains the same. I enjoyed the relationship between Maggs and Mercy, and the complication of Mercy’s relationship with her employer, Mr Buckle. But I felt Carey took a wrong turn by relying on Tobias Oates and his efforts at hypnotism / magnetism. And the subplot of Toby’s romantic entanglements did little to advance the story (other than providing some motivation for his final journey with Maggs).
Carey’s writing is very atmospheric, and the city of London is explored in some detail, especially the impoverished slums and criminal underbelly.
