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His Illegal Self

3.19 of 5 stars 3.19 · rating details · 1,357 ratings · 267 reviews

When the boy was almost eight, a woman stepped out of the elevator into the apartment on East Sixty-second Street and he recognized her straightaway. No one had told him to expect it. That was pretty typical of growing up with Grandma Selkirk . . . No one would dream of saying, Here is your mother returned to you.

His Illegal Self is the story of Che—raised in isolated priv...more

Hardcover, 272 pages

Published February 5th 2008 by Knopf

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Jan 16, 2008 Magdalena rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: just about anyone - it's an easy, fast read, but very well written

Recommended to Magdalena by: I read everything Carey writes!

Che Selkirk is a boy whose parents, members of the increasingly violent Students for a Democratic Society, have both disappeared, leaving him with his very rich grandmother. At the age of eight, a woman that Che recognises as his mother suddenly arrives and kidnaps him, taking him from New York to Australia. This is how the book begins, and Che’s adventure through hunger, love and loss becomes almost a coming of age tale as he starts to understand who he is and where his future lies.

On the simp...more Che Selkirk is a boy whose parents, members of the increasingly violent Students for a Democratic Society, have both disappeared, leaving him with his very rich grandmother. At the age of eight, a woman that Che recognises as his mother suddenly arrives and kidnaps him, taking him from New York to Australia. This is how the book begins, and Che’s adventure through hunger, love and loss becomes almost a coming of age tale as he starts to understand who he is and where his future lies.

On the simplest of levels, the book is a super fast-paced race across the globe as Che and Dial attempt to hide from the police and carve an existence for themselves. The plot is propelled by both the readers own dislocation as they come to grips with the distortions between the two narrative voices. Both Che and Dial are presented as equals – joint narrators in this story, but their stories aren’t identical. The reader is put in the uncomfortable position of being between them, unable to discount either the intensity of Che’s needs, or the combination of confusion and desire which motivates Dial. Both need one another, and continue to work together at avoiding the truth and avoiding the law, at the same time they find themselves removed from their usual lives, and co-opted for causes they don’t believe in.

As in so many of Carey’s novels, real love and visual artifice become the two forces that move the narrative along. It’s a search for a truth that isn’t nearly as obvious as one might think. It’s about the way love crisscrosses us – marks us, makes us whole, and hurts us at the same time.

Carey handles it all very subtly, weaving privilege, pain and damage together into a beautiful tapestry. Nothing seems stable, and yet there’s something solid growing – that “sharp searing pain that didn’t hurt” – something real, absolutely true, and physical that stays with us through life’s changes.

There are no fireworks in this book – the prose is light and smooth, but looking closely, each sentence is wrought with meaning and intensity. Che is “gooseflesh, head to toes” as he realizes how helpless he is. When dial hears a girl calling for the lost Che, she recognizes this “dreadful sympathy.” The hippy landscape of Nambour, from the home grown vegetables to the scruffy undergrowth is almost lovingly depicted.

Like even the blackest of Carey’s novels (and for me, it’s tempting to almost see this novel as the antidote to The Tax Inspector), there’s a strong undercurrent of humour. Dial is subsumed in the small-mindedness of Australia, and yet she holds onto desperately to her status: “Her mother would have died to see her genius in a dump like this.” (36) She was an “SDS goddess”, the Alice May Twitchell Fellow – an assistant professor at Vassar College, stuck in the backwoods of Australia where, as with any commune, the pettiness is all pervasive. She puts up shelving for lentils, lines the house with crooked boards, and tries to procure the services of a Zoot-suited lawyer to argue her case back in America so Che can go home, but her ignorance is obvious enough to the hippies whose commune she joins.

Trevor tells her at one point “You’re American. You wouldn’t know if you were up yourself” (70). She begins to know whether she’s “up herself” as the book progresses however. Dial’s painful learning curve is part of what makes this novel work.

In an act of remarkable self-control, Carey leaves the story open, suggesting a long and complex history which the reader isn’t privy to. This last sentence so changes the story that this reader at least went back and re-read it in its entirety, taking in the rich linguistic power which Carey has become famous for. Che is believable, both as the 8 year old boy struggling to find himself, and as the older, wiser narrator he becomes by the end of the book. One can imagine many other landscapes, or books growing out of this boy. But for now, there’s only the reader’s imagination, which Carey has kickstarted with this moving novel. (less)

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Jul 22, 2011 Nick rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: australia, contemporary

Peter Carey's usual mix of something a little bit mysterious and criminal, and something ironically funny, His Illegal Self is a great little comical romp involving an inadvertent kidnapping. Che (He insists on being called "Chay" whereas his grandparents call him "Jay") is snatched from his wealthy grapndparents' custody by a friend of his outlaw mother ostensibly for a short visit. When the mother unexpectantly dies, the friend, an Ivy League student from Australia named "Dial", panics and tak...more

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Apr 15, 2012 Kim rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012

loving this book
written with such emotion i want to reach and hug or smack the characters far too frequently

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i really enjoyed this book. it was so easy to connect with the characters in this book - like or hate them

the story is about a woman who steals a child in America, kind of by accident and then lands up on the run with him, in Australia.
the book very beautifully shows the relationship between this woman and the boy, as well as the relationships they both have with the odd hippies th...more

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Jun 08, 2009 Lacey rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Those not obsessed with punctuation marks

Shelves: own

I had the exact opposite problem with this book that I did with the last book I read. The problem with this book is that the story is good. It's interesting, if a bit cliche, but it takes some turns that intrigued. The problem is the writer is not a terribly good writer.

I know it's in vogue not to use quotation marks, but if you're virtually incapable of distinguishing between your characters' voices, it's probably necessary. It's not that the character's were unbelievable, but they seemed to al...more

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Mar 01, 2008 Molly Jones rated it 2 of 5 stars

Worthy of another Booker prize?
No.
Fascinating with some literary merit?
Yes.

Carey tells this tale mainly from two characters' perspectives: a boy/son/grandson, Che or Jay, and a mother/kidnapper/revolutionary, Dial or Anna. Confused? Try reading the novel. The prose isn't necessarily dense, but it often demands rereading phrases or sentences in order to interpret what, exactly, is happening in the novel. Carey never uses quotation marks, which, surprisingly, isn't the cause of the confusion. He,...more Worthy of another Booker prize?
No.
Fascinating with some literary merit?
Yes.

Carey tells this tale mainly from two characters' perspectives: a boy/son/grandson, Che or Jay, and a mother/kidnapper/revolutionary, Dial or Anna. Confused? Try reading the novel. The prose isn't necessarily dense, but it often demands rereading phrases or sentences in order to interpret what, exactly, is happening in the novel. Carey never uses quotation marks, which, surprisingly, isn't the cause of the confusion. He, instead, layers metaphors or deliberately "gums up" a sentence in order to obtain what I imagine he feels is a sense of art or what he believes embellishes his plot. What is the plot? In the Vietnam Era, an eight-year-old boy being raised by his very rich grandmother (lives on Park Avenue) is delivered to and/or kidnapped by a friend of the boy's mother/a former employee of the grandmother's so that the boy may visit with his felonious, underground, biological mother. The boy never actually reaches his intended destination, however, and spends most of the book in a socialist commune in Australia. What happens beyond those facts is rather trivial and incidental.

Throughout my reading of the book, I kept waiting for the ah-ha moment when I would realize why this author was twice awarded the Booker prize; it never came. I appreciated some of his sentences and the way that he handled a few pacing details (ie. "years from now he would remember . . ." or "when he was a baby he used to . . ." you get the point). Initially, I enjoyed being confused and felt that the sentence structure added to the suspense of the novel; however, two-hundred pages into the book, it felt like Carey was only filling-in empty spaces between the action sequences of the plot and trying to meet some page quota, which was very annoying. [I suspect his editor no longer line-edits his too-famous manuscripts.] I don't mean to be disrespectful, but Peter Carey, you should have a discussion with Joan Didion about her most recent work; you both have a lot in common. Next time, please have a little more consideration for the integrity of your work and don't fall back on your previous success. Your readers will be oh-so-grateful.(less)

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Sep 12, 2008 Lisa Osur rated it 1 of 5 stars

I don't often get to the point when I decide I can't read anymore but I did with His Illegal Self. I had been looking at this book for a long time and finally picked it up to read. What I found was extremely confusing. Who is the boy? Who is his mother? Is his father really the Che? How is the grandmother involved? Is his mother really his mother or someone else and what or who is she hiding from? Then the mother sacrifices herself but did she really? The story jumps around locations and time pe...more

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Jul 21, 2009 Jeff rated it 4 of 5 stars

Peter Carey's latest novel tells the story of eight-year-old Che, the son of SDS radicals long since gone underground for crimes against the state, who is cared for by his wealthy grandmother. When the grandmother regretably gives Che over to a young woman the boy believes to be his mother, events spiral out of control and before you can say "g'day" the boy finds himself living on a hippie compound in a fecund corner of Australia. Carey handles the child's perspective quite well and the characte...more

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Mar 30, 2009 Karen added it

Interesting book--While I thought some of the plot aspects were far-fetched, I was compelled to keep reading to the end. Rich language, interesting settings, emotional impact (at least for me). Peter Carey's books tend to stay with me even when I find some aspects of them difficult or jarring.

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Jan 03, 2009 Pris robichaud rated it 5 of 5 stars

A love Letter To Nature, March 1, 2008
"With our protagonists no longer on the run, it finally becomes apparent what this novel is really about. It is a love letter to nature, and to the Australian wilderness in particular. Through the characters of this boy and woman, both cosseted urbanites who find themselves forced to live against their will in a tough, back-to-the-soil community, both of whom slowly and reluctantly come to terms with their changed circumstances, Carey pays moving homage to...more A love Letter To Nature, March 1, 2008
"With our protagonists no longer on the run, it finally becomes apparent what this novel is really about. It is a love letter to nature, and to the Australian wilderness in particular. Through the characters of this boy and woman, both cosseted urbanites who find themselves forced to live against their will in a tough, back-to-the-soil community, both of whom slowly and reluctantly come to terms with their changed circumstances, Carey pays moving homage to the kind of "hippy" lifestyle that is more commonly given comic or dismissive treatment." William Sutcliffe

Peter Carey has written a novel that is difficult to interpret. While engrossed in the reading, I kept thinking "Is this all there is"? Something is missing here. And, I never found that something. The writing is pure prose, brilliant, sweet and uplifting and coarse and gritty. The story centers around Che, or Jay as his grandmother calls him, Selnick. A seven year old living with his grandmother in the glass windows world of New York City. They have money and security, but the boy is cut off from the world. He cannot watch television. He is told by a next door neighbor that his mother and father are radicals from Harvard, part of the SDS movement and on the lam. Grandmother won't mention them. Che is left with a vision, long lost of his father. On one fine day, the front door opens and a woman called 'Dial' comes into his life, and off they go to adventure. His world has opened. First on the subway and then to Philadelphia and it is there that Dial discovers that Che's mother has blown herself up attepting to make a bomb. Plans change, a trip to the west coast and then they are sent to Australia.

Along the way we learn that Dial was a babysitter for Che when his mom was at Harvard. Dial has left her job as assistant professor at Vassar to help her old friends. Why? Che thinks of Dial as his mother and as time moves on that is what she becomes. She is a little naive- not understanding what Australia is about or what life outside of the US is all about. And, why Australia, wouldn't Canada seem more logical? Life in Australia in a commune is the life that Che grows up with. Some communication is made to grandmother via a lawyer who is sent to NYC to offset the abduction scene and make things ok again. Time heals all wounds, we are told. Really? We are looking for the timebomb and all along the real hero is Che. Che taken willingly from what he knows with grandmother, to a new world on the other side of the ocean. He absorbs all of this and the new culture; he finds he is ready, able and willing. He has struggled to make sense of this new world and it is his.

"Carey's emotional choreography isn't sure-footed enough to make Che's story live up to its dramatic opening. As you'd expect, he does a good job of creating a lively - and carefully Americanised - idiom for his central characters. And having lived in one himself, he clearly knows a lot about alternative communities in Queensland. Yet, coming as it does on the heels of such books as True History of the Kelly Gang, the new novel seems badly paced and weirdly dull. Carey is a formidable writer, and this isn't a complete disaster by any means, but it's hard not to see it getting filed under "occasional misfires". Christopher Taylor

What is this story all about? The 1970's and radicalism is but a part of the plot that entices. The trip to Australia and the story told from Che's point of view, and then from Dials viewpoint intercept, and the real story is left with Che. The writing of Peter Carey is the best there is, the writing of a master.

Recommended. prisrob 03-01-08

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Dec 07, 2008 Tony rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction-mainstream

Carey, Peter. HIS ILLEGAL SELF. (2008). ****. Carey is an excellent writer, having twice won the Booker Prize for fiction. This novel is no exception. It is the story of a young boy caught between two cultures and alternative sets of parents. His biological parents are active in some facet of a revolutionary underground, constantly in hiding, and wanted by the police. Their son, Che (or Jay), now lives with his grandmother in New York’s upper East Side. The grandmother hires a part-time caretake...more

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Mar 01, 2009 Melody rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: bookgroup

I was halfway through this book before I fell in love with it. The first half - I fought with the narrator. Who the hell is telling this story anyway? It’s part boy and part kidnapper. Part memory and part here and now. Part dreamy and part all-too-real reality. Part stinky-hairy armpit and part old-money, ivy-league’s the only way – martini breath. And then – deep in the bush of Australia – with penises peaking at me like mushrooms I was captured by Peter Carey’s lovely prose.

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Dec 28, 2012 Grace rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: gd-2012

Generally audio books add a new dimension to the pleasure I get from a well-told story. In the case of this book, the opposite is the case. The story is told in a series of flash-forward/flash-back narratives and it's hard to keep track of when a particular event is supposed to have happened. I don't fault the author - I'm sure there were ample clues and indicators in the written book. I can't fault the narrator - at least, not without knowing what direction he was given. I have to assume that t...more

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Dec 20, 2012 Nivedita Barve rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012-reading

This protagonist of the novel is Che Selkirk, an eight year old boy, the son of SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) activist parents. Che lives with his grandmother, an upper class American woman. His activist parents are absent, being on the run from the FBI having been involved in violent activities. Che’s life is comfortable and peaceful; decidedly maintained that way by his grandmother who has kept him away from the television, shielding him from all the disturbing news of his famous par...more

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Aug 02, 2011 Barbara Ellison rated it 1 of 5 stars

Peter Carey is one of the few authors whose works I've read in their entirety. I've enjoyed some very much and others were blown away by. I think he should get at least as much attention and fame as Ian McEwan. However, "His Illegal Self" is a misstep. The novel reads like a draft--something quick and dirty that Carey had to get out to the publisher in order to fulfill a contract having already spent the advance.

There's nothing to hold on to in this book--if character makes plot then there's no...more

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Apr 14, 2011 Simon rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It's just chance that I read two Peter Carey novels in a row. While I appreciated the difference in period and setting between this and Parrott & Olivier, I found His Illegal Self to be a lesser work. A young boy named Che lives in New York in the '70s with his wealthy grandmother, who has raised him after gaining custody from his Sixties radical mother. The bulk of the story concerns what happens when Anna (aka Dial) arrives to take Che to see his mother. Plans change, and the two end up in...more

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Feb 04, 2011 Gregory Marris rated it 2 of 5 stars

I found the characters' voices very confusing in the first few chapters of this novel by Pater Carey.
I have had a mixed relationship with this author. Years ago he was my preferred author and I lapped up the wonderful tales in Fat Man in History, Illywacker & Oscar & Lucinda. By History of the Kelly gang he had pretty well lost me. So when I was struggling with the opening of His Illegal Self I almost put it aside. The dialogue is spoken without quotation marks and two voices can be hear...more

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Jan 22, 2010 Donald rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: aust-lit, queensland

Looking through some of the Goodreads reviews on this book shows a real diversity of experiences. Even the story itself is a thing in question. Carey has jammed a lot of ambiguity into His Illegal Self and it starts in the first chapter.

I jumped into this and became totally bewildered. After about 40 pages I assumed the fault was mine so I put the book down and started again some days later. But it is bewildering, it's not me. About as confusing as an eight years old being kidnapped by a fake mu...more

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Jul 22, 2011 Rebecca rated it 2 of 5 stars

This book had some potential as it took place in both the US and Australia as the author has spent loads of time in each country. And actually when talking about both those countries, he did a very good job at writing about them, which is rare because usually the author is only familiar with one of the places they are writing about and it ends up crappy, but this one was good. But that is the only thing that was. I didn't care about the plot at all. It was about some Dude who had hippie parents,...more

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May 29, 2009 Susan H. rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

I'd happily read anything Carey has written. This wasn't my all-time favorite, but it was still a fantastic read. Carey does a magnificent job of doling out tiny pieces of information at a time, letting the reader puzzle characters and events together (in a way that apparently irritates some people). Isn't this how life works, though? There are layers of complexity to people and things that take time for us to unravel. In the book, it serves to build some pretty intense mystery and suspense. Car...more

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Jan 18, 2009 Flippy Odegard rated it 1 of 5 stars

I didn't know whether to add this to my "Couldn't Finish" shelf or my "Read" shelf. I started reading the book and while I think that the author is a good writer (this is another one of those books from the top whatever of 2008 that just didn't grab me - perhaps I'm not deep enough for these books), the plot both bored and confused me. It was much like "The Confessions of Max Tivoli", in that I knew it was supposed to be good, so I went to Amazon to read the bad reviews. Since the bad reviews ag...more

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Mar 10, 2008 Cns rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: abandoned

I will not finish reading this book in protest of the CHEAP novelist's tactic of introducing a beloved pet only to kill it later for emotional effect. For once, can't we have a puppy or kitten that makes it through the whole story and is last seen curling comfortable in its bed at the end of the novel? I can only hope a stingray's barbed tail pierces your cold, cold, kitten-hating heart, Peter Carey, and that this book shows up on remainder shelves very soon.

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Mar 06, 2008 Rhonda rated it 2 of 5 stars

I am a huge Peter Carey fan - huge. I can't tell you how disappointed I was in this book. I couldn't see the character, I couldn't find the voice, I didn't see the connections, and don't get me to talk about the ending, how predictable. I'm sorry, Peter, but I don't want you to use bits of your old books either!
I will give an extra star to the place they end up living and the grandmother. Both of these are well described and alive, for me.

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Mar 12, 2011 Eliza rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: novel

3/9/2011: Peter Carey has an amazing imagination. I've read only two of his books (he's written at least 15 novels), but it becomes clear quickly that he's very good at taking a "What if..." and letting his imagination turn the answer to that question into a story. In this novel, Che/Jay, the 7-year-old son of two radical Harvard students of the 1960s, is being raised by his grandmother in Park Avenue style. Then the message comes through from the mother (who is underground) that she wants to se...more

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Feb 19, 2013 Melissa rated it 5 of 5 stars

This was a riveting amazing book! I was so surprised by the twists and turns and riveted by the political aspects as well as the relationships that came up in the book. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in fiction about the student demonstration/protest movements of the late 1960s-early 1970s like Weather Underground and SDS, but even if you aren't interested in hippies or revolutionaries, it was really well-written.

One of the more unique aspects to the storytelling is that you hear a...more

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Feb 05, 2009 Bookmarks Magazine added it

The mother-son relationship forms the heart of Peter Carey's new novel, and critics agreed that the touching bond that develops between the two gives the book its merit. Carey packs a strong emotional punch as he explores Dial's conflicted view of motherhood and Che's desperate love, attachments, and doubts. No less compelling are Carey's sparkling descriptions of the Australian outback. The majority of reviewers, however, felt that the novel bogs down in the middle with the introduction of an A

...more

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Mar 02, 2009 Stephanie rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: immigrant-lit

Like a political manifesto, His Illegal Self is filled with moments of transcendent brilliance that will make you go "Aha!" and, quite possibly, change your world view.

Also like a manisfesto however, this tale of the young son of American radicals is just as often a record of the author's quirks and idiosyncracies.

Peter Carey is the Man Booker Prize-winning Australian author of Oscar And Lucinda (1988) and True History Of The Kelly Gang (2001), and his distinctive writing style -- no quotation...more

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Jun 07, 2009 Steve rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: novels

It seems like an unfair complaint, but I think I would like this better if it wasn't by Peter Carey. What I usually enjoy most in his novels is the combination of detailed places and events (whether historical or fantastic) with philosophical engagement of cultural politics. His Illegal Self doesn't really develop that interpretive layer. It suggests the possibility of larger questions about 1960s radicalism, commune culture, and class conflict, among other provocative subjects, but doesn't do m...more

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Jul 26, 2011 Stuart added it

I gave up on this book. It seems to be one of those books that delights in making it as difficult as possible for the reader to follow the story. First, we have no punctuation marks on the conversations. OK, I can put up with that if I must. Then we have the chapters being told from different viewpoints (the child or “the mother” – who appears not to be the mother) without making that clear. OK, so I can get used to that as well, once I realize what’s going on. But add to that the time-slicing n...more

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Sep 18, 2011 Alison O'keefe rated it 4 of 5 stars

I gave this book four stars as I could not put it down and enjoyed reading it. However, having said that I felt quite underwhelmed by the ending and now feel quite dissatisfied with the whole book in general.
I have never read a Peter Carey book before and found that I enjoyed his writing style and use of language so I think I shall have to read a few more now.
I liked that it was a complex story told in a very simple way so as not to let the reader get too drowned in what they believed was righ...more

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Jun 27, 2009 Stacy rated it 1 of 5 stars

I almost stopped reading this book. I went so far as to remove my bookmark...literally 5 seconds later I was trying to find my place. The lack of quotation marks or anything at all to let you know that someone was speaking was incredibly distracting, but that in and of itself is not why I gave this book 2 stars. I just didn't GET it. I couldn't identify with any of the characters and I just very sorry for the boy. He wasn't abused or neglected. Instead he was uprooted and lied to and thrown into...more

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About Peter Carey

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Peter Carey was born in Australia in 1943.

He was educated at the local state school until the age of eleven and then became a boarder at Geelong Grammar School. He was a student there between 1954 and 1960 — after Rupert Murdoch had graduated and before Prince Charles arriv...more Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Peter Carey was born in Australia in 1943.

He was educated at the local state school until the age of eleven and then became a boarder at Geelong Grammar School. He was a student there between 1954 and 1960 — after Rupert Murdoch had graduated and before Prince Charles arrived.

In 1961 he studied science for a single unsuccessful year at Monash University. He was then employed by an advertising agency where he began to receive his literary education, meeting Faulkner, Joyce, Kerouac and other writers he had previously been unaware of. He was nineteen.

For the next thirteen years he wrote fiction at night and weekends, working in many advertising agencies in Melbourne, London and Sydney.

After four novels had been written and rejected The Fat Man in History — a short story collection — was published in 1974. This slim book made him an overnight success.

From 1976 Carey worked one week a month for Grey Advertising, then, in 1981 he established a small business where his generous partner required him to work only two afternoons a week. Thus between 1976 and 1990, he was able to pursue literature obsessively. It was during this period that he wrote War Crimes, Bliss, Illywhacker, Oscar and Lucinda. Illywhacker was short listed for the Booker Prize. Oscar and Lucinda won it. Uncomfortable with this success he began work on The Tax Inspector.

In 1990 he moved to New York where he completed The Tax Inspector. He taught at NYU one night a week. Later he would have similar jobs at Princeton, The New School and Barnard College. During these years he wrote The Unusual Life of Tristan Smith, Jack Maggs, and True History of the Kelly Gang for which he won his second Booker Prize.

He collaborated on the screenplay of the film Until the End of the World with Wim Wenders.

In 2003 he joined Hunter College as the Director of the MFA Program in Creative Writing. In the years since he has written My Life as a Fake, Theft, His Illegal Self and Parrot and Oliver in America (shortlisted for 2010 Man Booker Prize).
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