Peter Carey Watch #8

Review of His Illegal Self

Gavin McLean in "Otago Daily Times": "Carey jumps around with flashbacks and changes of narrative voice, but although there is some masterful dialogue and a couple of good scenes, he somehow doesn't quite pull it all together."

Other

Carey features in the second Faber podcast. The "News from the Boston Becks" weblog picks Carey's True History of the Kelly Gang as one of its top 25 novels of the 21st century. Seems a little early for such lists.
Wesley Stace picks the same novel for his "top 10 ventriloquism books" in the "Guardian". I don't think he's talking about stuffed puppets here.
And Colum McCann picks My Life as a Fake as one of "Top 10 novels on poets" for the same newspaper. The operatic version of Bliss will premiere in 2010, from Opera Australia.
To mark the 40th anniversary of the Booker Prize, the "Guardian" asked a judge from each year to discuss the inside story of how the winner was decided. Blake Morrison writes about 1988, and Philip Hensher contemplates 2001.

Ten Years Ago

Caryn Jones reviewed Jack Maggs for "The New York Times".
Carey published an essay in the Travel section of "New York Magazine", titled "Sydney Side Up".

Twenty Years Ago

Berryl Bainbridge reviewed Oscar and Lucinda for "The New York Times".
And the author was awarded the Booker Prize for this same novel.