Peter Carey - Parrot and Olivier in America

The Boston Globe“Excess and a certain pat melodrama...” There are many permutations, twists, and characters in the novel; so many as to display the occasional weakness of Carey’s strengths: a virtuosity overload and a piling-on of incident...

The New York Times“Enormous literary talent...” Sentence for sentence, Carey’s writing remains matchlessly robust. The local units of invention rarely disappoint, but if Tocqueville were to survey the book’s imaginative structure, he might recommend a stronger sort of federalism...

Economist“The leading characters are beautifully drawn...” Carey’s parallel storytelling provides him with more than just a way of exploring two idiosyncratic heroes. It allows him to offer shifting perspectives on the third character in this book - America itself...

The Independent“A dashing novel...” Peter Carey is a lyrebird of stunning prowess, a mimic par excellence... It is in the testing of assumptions, in Garmont and Parrot's challenging of each other, that its beauty and intelligence lies.

Financial Times“An energetic and expansive novel...” Written with warmth and intelligence, this entertaining novel succeeds in transplanting to America a question that resonates in Carey’s fiction, as plaintively phrased by Parrot in his orphaned boyhood: “And who, I thought, will love me?”...

Publishers Weekly“Carey has the gift of engaging ventriloquism...” Richly atmospheric, this wonderful novel is picaresque and Dickensian, with humor and insight injected into an accurately rendered period of French and American history...

Guardian“A dazzling, entertaining novel...” The narrative proceeds in leaps and bounds, sometimes with a hop backwards, omitting connections, giving an impression above all, perhaps, of confusion - confusion of event and motive, incomprehension, a vast drama without structure...

The Telegraph“Sparring away with one another, Parrot and Olivier work wonderfully well...” The respective love stories never entirely convince. In the end, the novel’s richness can’t disguise the fact that the plot rather lags behind the ideas driving it. That said, it’s still one hell of a ride.

The New Yorker“Not yet reviewed”

The Times“A book full of the love for work: book printing and engraving...” For my taste the lofty narrative lacks intimacy at times, as exemplified by de Garmont at his most arch; like a Henry James in reverse...a complex discussion of the philosophy of democracy...