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Title: Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey ISBN: 0679777504 Publisher: Vintage Books Pub. Date: December, 1997 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.4
Rating: 5
Summary: Almost as good as 'Bliss'
Comment: Having read Carey's first novel, 'Bliss', I really didn't think he could write something as good. Luckily for him, and me, and anyone else who reads 'Oscar and Lucinda', he's come very close.
Nothing really happens in the book, but it doesn't matter; there's a beauty in the language used that is extremely rare. This book is pure characterization. Carey's characters are dense and human and live before the book begins and after it ends. It's a love story, but not a conventional one. The love between Oscar and Lucinda builds and builds with every written word, up to an ending which even the most astute and well-read reader will never expect. The ending is what makes the book. It is powerful. I haven't cried since I was a boy, but I came damn close reading the last few pages. It's really incredible stuff.
I found I was thinking about the last scene for weeks after I finished the book; I've even gone back and read sections. How often does a book do that to you? Not very often, I bet. 'Oscar and Lucinda' is a bit slow, but always interesting, surprising, and touching, like 'Bliss', but in completely different ways. The imagery is brilliant -- you will not see the scenes, you will stand there, with the characters, feeling the sun on your face, breathing the same air they breath. That's how good this is. Go and read it.
Rating: 5
Summary: Beautifully powerful...
Comment: I am hard-pressed to remember two more strange protagonists in all of literature than Oscar and Lucinda. That they meet, fall in love and make a bet on whether a glass church can be transported and constructed "by Easter Sunday" for the benefit of an out-of-the-way congregation and its minister is even more absurd. Yet, page after page, I read, absorbing the wonderful and vibrant detail of mid-nineteenth century England and Australia. Only in the world of this novel could these two characters be "perfect" for each other. And in being written, this book issues a challenge to this world to accept that which is odd and unconventional, that which is outside societal and religious standards.
Somehow I am reminded of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice; the interplay between Oscar and Lucinda amongst "strict society" strikes the same chord as that struck in the love story of Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy, a man and a woman outside the "norm." This book is wonderful reading to get lost in.
Rating: 4
Summary: People in Glass Houses
Comment: Peter Carey's Oscar and Lucinda is a historical journey into the experience of coming of age within a developing nation. The two main characters find this out within the progression of time. Oscar Hopkins is the son of puritan, harassed and harangued by his father to follow his faith. Oscar becomes more and more anxious about puritanism and his father and hides out in the yard of the Anglican priest. From there his life is changed forever.
Linda Leplastrier is a repressed free spirit, who after her mother dies discovers gambling via friendly card games. It is this pursuit that leads her to a friendship with Oscar.
The book is very good, well written and keeps you interested, my only problem is that it is a little flat in parts; this only happens occasionally however and the result is an excellent story. There is a great metaphor in the book of the crystal church; life is like a glasshouse, you can look out and others can see in. Your house/self can easily be broken, shattered or destroyed. I truly enjoyed this book and would highly recommend it for lovers of colonial history, who enjoy a very well written and researched story.
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Title: True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey ISBN: 0375724672 Publisher: Vintage Books Pub. Date: 02 November, 2001 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Bliss by Peter Carey ISBN: 0679767193 Publisher: Vintage Books Pub. Date: October, 1996 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Illywhacker: A Novel by Peter Carey ISBN: 0679767908 Publisher: Vintage Books Pub. Date: May, 1996 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: Jack Maggs by Peter Carey ISBN: 0679760377 Publisher: Random House Pub. Date: March, 1999 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title:Oscar & Lucinda ASIN: B000006GJI Publisher: Twentieth Century Fox Pub. Date: 02 June, 1998 List Price(USD): $29.98 Comparison N/A, buy it from Amazon for $29.98 |
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