You couldn't argue that it's a catchy title, that's for darn sure. I know you didn't get much out of Oscar & Lucinda, Nik, and this wasn't my favourite Carey (I think that gong goes to My Life as a Fake), but it was a pretty amazing novel for a couple of reasons:
1. It's set in a car yard
2. One main character is a pregnant tax inspector, the other is a frustrated wannabe teenage car salesman
3. It made me homesick with a reference to Dandenong (however, I was listening to Paul Kelly at the time and I do not have a heart of steel)
The characters are so unnerving, and the setting so vile, that it's hard to know how to feel about them from page to page. This novel is about defining your relationship with change and decay - do you cede to it, embrace it, reverse it, create it, wallow in it, become one with it, or rise above it? It's about the country being swallowed by the city, it's about the past being lost to the present. It's about honour.
It's a quick read, which will, somehow, make you long for the smell of rain on cement, the sight of a pile of tyres, the sound of a big chicken wire gate scraping across a driveway, and taste of a burnout in your mouth.
Posts
Impressive use of a hyperlink. I like what you did there.
ReplyDeleteThis review makes me want to read it. Job well done. I never thought I'd say that about another Peter Carey novel.
I'm all about referring to books past, baby - that's the point of this jazz! Also, I think you should try My Life as a Fake, if you're in the market for another Carey, though this one's not bad...
ReplyDelete