Peter Carey: Theft: A Love Story

[Mirabell]

It?s quite frightening to hear that Peter Carey?s 2006 novel Theft: A Love Story is not his best work. It is frightening because it is such an extraordinary success on almost every level. Theft manages to do so much in so few pages and yet it succeeds in never sounding convoluted or dense. It?s is a funny, suspenseful read, a book sure to appeal to almost every reader. In it, Carey manages to craft a story steeped in Australian history and culture, in art and art history, a book that tells a fast, noir-ish tale, and is linguistically sophisticated and inventive, reaching as far into theory as Deleuze. Sure, there are slow moments in the book now and then, but they are an exception. Sure, too, it lacks plausibility in many places, but despite the realistic varnish and the noir genre borrowings, Theft isn?t supposed to be plausible anyway. There are other minor flaws, but the good aspects dominate the reader?s impressions of Theft.
Among these, two achievements in particular stand out. The first is Carey?s treatment of othered speech, by which I mean the speech of a character marked as ?slow?. The speech and the character attached to it are finely tailored to convey to the readers the complexities of having a mind that is regarded as deviant by your compatriots, without lapsing into exploitative and exotic exaggeration. The second success in Theft is Carey?s thorough and inspired discussion of art, originality and forgery. One of his protagonists speaks of art at great length, delivering several long rants. Peter Carey is not afraid to be precise and explicit about the techniques of creating and selling art, yet we never feel lectured to. Theft is evidence of impressive insights into art, artistic inspiration and the accompanying frustrations. The result of all this is a book that I?d easily recommend to anyone interested in the topic, or, well, anyone, really. Theft: A Love Story is a very, very good novel.

full review here Koalas: Peter Carey’s “Theft: A Love Story” shigekuni.



I'm diving into the rest of Carey's work now. What a writer.

[hdw]

See my recent post on this thread re Peter Carey: Bliss.

Harry

[Mirabell]

See my recent post on this thread re Peter Carey: Bliss.

Harry

This one http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/...html#post57594 ?

[hdw]

Yes. In the English-speaking world, Australians tend to be a byword for crass vulgarity, and some of them play up to that image. Who can forget the time that the Australian PM touched our beloved queen on the bum? And a recent government-approved advertisement for tourism bragged about the beauties of Australia and concluded, 'so where the bloody hell are you?'

Harry

[Mirabell]

Huh. Well, this book isn't crass or vulgar. Carey has a very fine tuned literary sensibillity, and this book in all its complexities just stunned me, despite the fact that its apparently 'minor' Carey.