August '12 / Man Booker Prize Winners Reading: Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey

[Scheherazade]

In August, we will be reading Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey.

Please post your comments and questions in this thread.

[Charles Darnay]

I just started the book: I am setting aside the long weekend for this one. Aside from his sometimes overuse of similes, I am really enjoying Carey's writing. I have little exposure to Australian fiction, and I instinctively link everything to that excellent film "Mary and Max". I really like how he circles in on the character of Oscar from the present before beginning the story proper. Will add more soon.

[Scheherazade]

Still waiting to get my copy from the library.

[bouquin]

There's this:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/feb/06/peter-carey-oscar-and-lucinda




_______________
Currently reading: Their Eyes Were Watching God (Zora Neale Hurston)

[Sancho]

Don’t’cha just dig those lazy days of summer, and that summer-time reading list? So the other day I sank into my Pawley’s Island Hammock, which swings in the shade beneath a huge pin oak in my yard, and started this book. I soon fell asleep and didn’t get too much reading done, but what the hey; that’s what summer’s all about, eh?

Anyhoo, I liked the short, titled chapters. The style rolls right along for me. And did anybody else find it odd that it started out with the grandson’s POV, but then quickly shifted to an omniscient 3rd person narrative?

[Charles Darnay]

It jumps back and forth a bit, which I like. Even if the narration becomes 3rd person, you never lose the sense that this is the grandson telling the story.

[Sancho]

Yes, I like it too. I just read another novel where the author did just that, and she did so seamlessly that I didn’t even notice the transitions. I’d be three or four pages past a change from 1st person to free indirect style before I realized the voice had changed. (That book was Stone Arabia, by Dana Spiotta – it was a good one)

At any rate, I’ve enjoyed Oscar & Lucinda so far and I should be able get back to it this weekend. Nice selection, Charles.

[Charles Darnay]

Lucinda's character started off a bit shaky, particularly when compared to Oscar's, but I am starting to really like her.

I also think Oscar's university career was well done - very reminiscent of Antony Powell