November 24, 2014
From two-time Booker winner Carey comes this complex new novel, focusing on the author’s native Australia, but exploring themes of journalistic freedom and Internet ethics. At the center of the book is the young Australian Gabrielle Baillieux, who releases a virus called the Angel Worm in the computer system that controls the Australian prison system, releasing thousands of prisoners throughout Australia and, inadvertently, in the U.S. The move could be construed as an act of terrorism, a bold stroke in the fight for human rights, or just a geeky plan gone awry. Journalist Felix Moore is hired to write Gabrielle’s story sympathetically, to avoid her extradition. In the process, he spends time with her mother, the actress Celine Baillieux, whom he had previously known in college. Looking back through the two women’s lives, Felix also explores Australia’s history since WWII, confusing himself but also educating readers about the Land Down Under. Throughout the book, Carey’s cartwheeling prose and dazzling intellect can be challenging to keep up with, but the book is worth the effort.
July 31, 2014
After recent novels set in England and Germany (The Chemistry of Tears) and the US (Parrot and Olivier in America), Peter Carey returns to Australia for the first time since 2008’s His Illegal Self in his new novel Amnesia. He returns with a vengeance to Melbourne in particular, focusing on the inner northern suburbs stretching from Carlton to Coburg. Amnesia is centred on a young female cyber criminal called Gaby Baillieux and narrated by disreputable journalist Felix Moore, who has found himself in strife after being sued for defamation. Woody Townes, a rich property developer from Melbourne, hires Felix to write Gaby’s story, and Felix quickly finds himself in even more trouble. Nevertheless, he delves into Gaby’s family history to uncover her past. For all his years in New York, Carey hasn’t lost touch with the Australian vernacular, and the voice of Felix Moore leaps off the page. In part two of the novel, Carey shifts the point of view to allow the voices of Gaby and her mother to emerge as well, and as always, he handles the dialogue masterfully. At one point Felix claims that he has ‘a lifetime of hard-won technical ability’ as a writer, and the same could be said of Carey. However, this novel doesn’t come together quite as satisfyingly as some of his best novels have.
Blair Mahoney teaches English, literature and philosophy at Melbourne High School