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May. 30th, 2013 12:53 pm
Beside every great man
I didn't realise when I picked up Parrot and Olivier that it was based on the life of de Tocqueville. That is to say, he was the model for the character of Olivier. It makes me more inclined to want to read De la démocratie en Amérique than I've been hitherto, but still not exactly rushing out to buy a copy.
I'm most of the way through the novel and very much enjoying it. Apparently slipping in some experience of Australia is one of Carey's trademarks, since it comes out of nowhere in a story otherwise set in the West Country, post-Revolutionary France, and the American Northeast to play a prominent role in the background of one of the main characters.
About those characters: sadly, it occurred to me that, despite his considerable skill at delineating personalities from a variety of backgrounds and eras, I've yet to see him create a compelling female protagonist. Parrot's love interest Mathilde has all the makings of one but, well, that capsule introduction says it all, doesn't it? Halfway through the novel, she simply drops out of view, with no sign yet of when she'll pop back up again.
My life as a fake did have a female narrator, but the meat of the story is related to her by a man and concerns his struggles with another man. The other man's wife and mother-in-law figure in her story as well, but her conversations with them are limited to her attempts to gain access to his poetic works. In other words, the novel fails the Bechdel test (as do the other three of his I've read). On top of that it feels like a lesser work.
Maybe Oscar and Lucinda is different? Maybe she gets to narrate a substantial portion of the events which drive the plot? Maybe I just need to take a break from reading Yet Another Older White Male (no matter how great a stylist) and find something in another voice for a change. We'll see. It's not like I'm bereft of choices.
I'm most of the way through the novel and very much enjoying it. Apparently slipping in some experience of Australia is one of Carey's trademarks, since it comes out of nowhere in a story otherwise set in the West Country, post-Revolutionary France, and the American Northeast to play a prominent role in the background of one of the main characters.
About those characters: sadly, it occurred to me that, despite his considerable skill at delineating personalities from a variety of backgrounds and eras, I've yet to see him create a compelling female protagonist. Parrot's love interest Mathilde has all the makings of one but, well, that capsule introduction says it all, doesn't it? Halfway through the novel, she simply drops out of view, with no sign yet of when she'll pop back up again.
My life as a fake did have a female narrator, but the meat of the story is related to her by a man and concerns his struggles with another man. The other man's wife and mother-in-law figure in her story as well, but her conversations with them are limited to her attempts to gain access to his poetic works. In other words, the novel fails the Bechdel test (as do the other three of his I've read). On top of that it feels like a lesser work.
Maybe Oscar and Lucinda is different? Maybe she gets to narrate a substantial portion of the events which drive the plot? Maybe I just need to take a break from reading Yet Another Older White Male (no matter how great a stylist) and find something in another voice for a change. We'll see. It's not like I'm bereft of choices.
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