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Q&A | May 20, 2013

Michael Marder: IMG Powell’s Q&A: Michael Marder

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Describe your latest work. When I started working on Plant-Thinking in 2008, I had no idea that the project would turn out to be as broad as it did.... Continue »
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Illywhacker

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Illywhacker Cover

 

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

In Australian slang, an illywhacker is a country fair con man, an unprincipled seller of fake diamonds and dubious tonics. And Herbert Badgery, the 139-year-old narrator of Peter Carey's uproarious novel, may be the king of them all. Vagabond and charlatan, aviator and car salesman, seducer and patriarch, Badgery is a walking embodiment of the Australian national character — especially of its proclivity for tall stories and barefaced lies. As Carey follows this charming scoundrel across a continent and a century, he creates a crazy quilt of outlandish encounters, with characters that include a genteel dowager who fends off madness with an electric belt and a ravishing young girl with a dangerous fondness for rooftop trysts. Boldly inventive, irresistibly odd, Illywhacker is further proof that Peter Carey is one of the most enchanting writers at work in any hemisphere.

Review:

"Carey can spin a yarn with the best of them....[A] big, garrulous, funny novel....If you haven't been to Australia, read Illywhacker. It will give you the feel of it like nothing else I know." The New York Times Book Review

Review:

"A book of awesome breadth, ambition, and downright narrative joy....Illywhacker is a triumph." Washington Post Book World

Review:

"The writing is continuously various and engaging, and always hovering on mockery." April Bernard, New York Review of Books

Review:

"[B]ulge[s] with action and fantasy, a picaresque narrative as lively as anything by Saul Bellow, though it also demonstrate[s] what is probably Carey's greatest formal weakness, a tendency toward soufflé in his novels so that the middle of the book sags." Peter Porter, Times Literary Supplement (U.K.)

Synopsis:

The history of twentieth-century Australia is seen through the exploits and adventures of conman Herbert Badgery, as the 139-year-old "illywhacker" recalls his diverse careers as an aviator, car salesman, seducer, patriarch, and snake catcher.
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About the Author

Peter Carey received the Booker Prize for Oscar and Lucinda, and again for True History of the Kelly Gang. His other honors include the Commonwealth Prize and the Miles Franklin Award. The author of seven previous novels and a collection of stories, he was born in Australia in 1943 and now lives in New York City.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780679767909
Author:
Carey, Peter
Publisher:
Vintage Books
Author:
Carey, Peter Stafford
Location:
New York :
Subject:
General
Subject:
Literary
Subject:
Fiction
Subject:
Humorous Stories
Subject:
Australia
Subject:
Impostors and imposture
Subject:
Aged men
Subject:
Picaresque literature
Subject:
Rogues and vagabonds
Subject:
Aged men -- Australia -- Fiction.
Subject:
Older men
Subject:
Literature-A to Z
Copyright:
1996
Edition Number:
Reprint ed.
Edition Description:
Trade paper
Series:
Vintage International
Series Volume:
no. L356
Publication Date:
April 1996
Binding:
TRADE PAPER
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Illustrations:
Y
Pages:
608
Dimensions:
8.03x5.26x1.14 in. 1.05 lbs.
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Related Subjects

Fiction and Poetry » Literature » A to Z

Illywhacker Used Trade Paper
0 stars - 0 reviews
$5.95 In Stock
Product details 608 pages Vintage Books USA - English 9780679767909 Reviews:
"Review" by , "Carey can spin a yarn with the best of them....[A] big, garrulous, funny novel....If you haven't been to Australia, read Illywhacker. It will give you the feel of it like nothing else I know."
"Review" by , "A book of awesome breadth, ambition, and downright narrative joy....Illywhacker is a triumph."
"Review" by , "The writing is continuously various and engaging, and always hovering on mockery."
"Review" by , "[B]ulge[s] with action and fantasy, a picaresque narrative as lively as anything by Saul Bellow, though it also demonstrate[s] what is probably Carey's greatest formal weakness, a tendency toward soufflé in his novels so that the middle of the book sags."
"Synopsis" by , The history of twentieth-century Australia is seen through the exploits and adventures of conman Herbert Badgery, as the 139-year-old "illywhacker" recalls his diverse careers as an aviator, car salesman, seducer, patriarch, and snake catcher.
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