Parrot and Olivier in America - Brossura

Carey, Peter

Brossura

ISBN 10: 0307358356 ISBN 13: 9780307358356

Casa editrice: Vintage Canada, 2011

Riassunto

From the two-time Booker Prize-winning author: an irrepressible, audacious, trenchantly funny new novel set in the 19th century and inspired in part by the life of Alexis de Tocqueville.

With dazzling exuberance and all the richness of characterization, story, and language that we have come to expect from this superlative writer, Peter Carey explores the birth of democracy, the limits of friendship and whether people really can remake themselves in a New World.

The two men at the heart of the novel couldn't be any more different: Olivier is the son of French aristocrats who (barely) survived the French Revolution. Parrot is the motherless son of an itinerate English printer. But when young Parrot is separated from his father (after a stupendous conflagration at a house of forgery) he runs into the powerful embrace of a one-armed marquis who will be his conduit - like it or not - into a life as closely (mis)allied with Olivier's as if they were connected by blood. And when Olivier sets sail for America - ostensibly to make a study of the American penal system, but more precisely to save his neck from the latest guillotineurs - Parrot, unable to loosen the Marquis's grip, is there too: as spy, scribe, comptroller, protector, foe and foil.

As the narrative unfurls, shifting between the perspectives of Olivier and Parrot, between their picaresque adventures apart and together, in love and politics, prisons and finance, homelands and brave new lands - a most unlikely friendship begins to take hold.
From the Hardcover edition.

Su questo libro

Recensione:

NATIONAL BESTSELLER
A Globe and Mail Best Book
 
“Carey has a wicked talent for historical voice, particularly the richly humorous circumlocutions of 19th-century diction.”
 — Annabel Lyon, The Globe and Mail (Best Book)
 
“Carey’s brilliant evocation of the life of Alexis de Tocqueville explores themes of democracy, art, taste and class––all in the rich language of one of the world’s finest writers.”
 — Financial Times
 
“Carey braids his story carefully, lovingly. It has all his telltale favorite elements—lawlessness, revolution, hope for the future, men driven by passion. At its heart, Parrot and Olivier in America is a western; the simplest story in history, sculpted down to a twinkle in a philosopher’s eye: Man’s search for freedom.”
 — Los Angeles Times
 
“Carey’s traditional strengths are here in abundance: rich and meticulously researched detail, a soaring imagination, wonderfully inventive imagery and, most welcome of all, a caustic wit.”
 — Daily Telegraph
 
“Carey’s novel cranks its energy, like Don Quixote, out of the friction between two vastly different characters.”
 — New York Magazine (Best Book)

L'autore:

PETER CAREY is the author of twelve novels, including Oscar and Lucinda and The True History of the Kelly Gang, which both received the Booker Prize. His other honours include the Commonwealth Prize and the Miles Franklin Award. Born in Australia, he now lives in New York City.
From the Hardcover edition.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Vintage Canada
• Data di pubblicazione: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0307358356
• ISBN 13: 9780307358356
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Numero di pagine: 400