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Oscar and Lucinda

3.7 of 5 stars 3.70 · rating details · 8,550 ratings · 390 reviews

Peter Carey's Booker Prize winning novel imagines Australia's youth, before its dynamic passions became dangerous habits. It is also a startling and unusual love story. Oscar is a young English clergyman who has broken with his past and developed a disturbing talent for gambling. A country girl of singular ambition, Lucinda moves to Sydney, driven by dreams of self-relianc...more

515 pages

Published (first published 1988)

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The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

Booker Prize Winners

23rd out of 49 books — 987 voters

Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden

Best Modern Australian Literature

16th out of 235 books — 274 voters

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Feb 08, 2013 mark monday rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: romantika, into-the-past

technicolor and wide-screen in scale and spectacle, quirky and consistently surprising in characterization and incident. virtually a catalog of bizarre imagery, you-are-there historical detail, and way-off-center characters. so many beautiful sequences linger on in the mind, so many wonderful characters, such a surprising lightness of tone, such gorgeous prose... it all almost, but not quite, causes the reader to forget the bleakness at this novel's core. strange, compassionate and, finally, tra...more

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May 27, 2008 Kristina A rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: those who like novels set in the 19th century and unhappy endings

Shelves: neo-victorian, favorites

(I struggled to decide between a 4 and 5 star rating on this novel. If I could I would do 4.5.)

For the past few years, I've thought about endings a lot. I've excused a lot of novels (esp contemporary ones) for bad or unsatisfying endings. Some novels end in a way that goes against all you've learned from the novel; others just... stop. Then there are the "conservative" endings of Victorian novels that many scholars complain "shut down" or tidy the "subversive" or threatening ideas raised in the...more (I struggled to decide between a 4 and 5 star rating on this novel. If I could I would do 4.5.)

For the past few years, I've thought about endings a lot. I've excused a lot of novels (esp contemporary ones) for bad or unsatisfying endings. Some novels end in a way that goes against all you've learned from the novel; others just... stop. Then there are the "conservative" endings of Victorian novels that many scholars complain "shut down" or tidy the "subversive" or threatening ideas raised in the novel. Lately I've found myself arguing against this complaint, because even if a novel ends conservatively, I don't think that erases what's come before it. After all, you don't read just to get to the end, do you? That's one reason I find it annoying when people complain Victorian novels are "too long" -- are you just reading in order to finish? (One of the students in my Victorian novel class complained that Dickens's BLEAK HOUSE ended at all -- she said, in a wistful way that proclaimed her love for the novel, that she was disappointed because she "thought it would never end.")

And then, once in a while, there comes an ending that makes you believe in endings again. Many people here on GoodReads did not like the ending of this novel, which I understand. It is deeply unsettling and unexpected, even though you realize when you get there that the novel sets you up for it for some time. The night I finished reading the novel, I couldn't shake the sadness of the ending and actually woke up in the middle of the night because I was having a bad dream about it. Yes, it was that striking. And that's exactly why I found it to be brilliant.

Part of the reason the ending is so good is that the novel simultaneously prepares you for it and upends your expectations. The ending would never be so striking if the novel didn't take its time with the characters -- not just the eccentric title characters, but also the supporting ones. (The word "Dickensian" often gets unfairly slapped on undeserving texts, but what is Dickensian about this novel is the way it approaches each chapter from a distinct perspective and gives you insight into even the most seemingly fleeting and insignificant characters.) If you didn't understand all the feelings, all the convoluted motivations of the characters, the things they reveal to and conceal from each other, then the ending wouldn't have the impact it does.

Finally, the ending reveals something that is there throughout but which the reader often forgets: the novel is simultaneously a personal story of two unusual individuals, a story about the lives they touch -- including their progeny, and a story about something much bigger: the very nation those characters inhabit -- the ways they consciously shape it, and the ways they are unknowingly complicit in something they never intended.

Plus, Carey writes some gorgeous prose.
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Jul 06, 2007 Francesca rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: verynice

lucinda has a fond memory of glass and buys a glassworks factory with her inheritence.
oscar has fond memories of 'truth' and seeks a path divined by god.
they are both lonely, gamblers and meet on a boat.

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Oct 15, 2012 Helen Jackson rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, literary-fiction, male, own, re-read, read-2012

My partner's just finished reading this, after years of me telling him how brilliant it is. He really enjoyed it -- right from the first few pages -- which means I've been a little jealous of him all the way through. I couldn't resist picking it up when he put it down.

--

I love Oscar and Lucinda. The plot is intricate, delicately moving yet action-packed. The characters are fantastic: so full, so frail. And the narrative voice is delightful, always making sure the reader understands the secrets o...more

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Nov 01, 2012 Tony rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction-mainstream

OSCAR AND LUCINDA. (1988). Peter Carey. ***.
This was Carey’s Booker Prize winning novel set – mostly – in Australia, although it takes a while to get there. Although he has been a long-time resident of the U.S., the books he writes based on his experiences in Australia, his native land, seem to be more alive than those using other countries as the backdrop. I suspect it is because of the almost infinite number of details that he seems to be able to drop into the story line that maintain the rea...more

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Jul 25, 2012 Smcleish rated it 3 of 5 stars

Originally published on my blog here in June 2000.

An epic about New South Wales in the 1860s, Oscar and Lucinda is basically the story of Oscar Hopkins, English clergyman, and Lucinda Lepastrier, rich young glassworks owner. These two characters, particularly Oscar, are very strong and dominate the novel. They, like the minor players, are distinctly imperfect people, and in fact idiosyncratic slightly beyond the point of believability so far as I was concerned.

Oscar comes from a Plymouth Brethre...more Originally published on my blog here in June 2000.

An epic about New South Wales in the 1860s, Oscar and Lucinda is basically the story of Oscar Hopkins, English clergyman, and Lucinda Lepastrier, rich young glassworks owner. These two characters, particularly Oscar, are very strong and dominate the novel. They, like the minor players, are distinctly imperfect people, and in fact idiosyncratic slightly beyond the point of believability so far as I was concerned.

Oscar comes from a Plymouth Brethren background, and religion is one of the most important themes of the novel (gambling and love of glass - made into something symbolic - are among the others). Although never exactly reacting against his upbringing (he becomes an Anglican because he thinks God has told him to do so, not because he no longer believes in the harsh evangelicalism of his upbringing), and despite the religion of his father being deeply felt rather than hypocritical, the first half of the novel is deeply indebted to Samuel Butler's The Way of All Flesh. However, while Butler based his novel on his relationship with his own father, what Peter Carey writes does not seem to me to indicate much understanding of any evangelical denomination. Two major decisions made by Oscar illustrate this, in both of which he believes God has guided him. The first is to abandon the Brethren for the not very evangelical local Anglican church, and the second that gambling was the way in which God wanted him to support himself as a student in Oxford. While today denominations are not particularly important to many British evangelicals, to a member of a Plymouth Brethren congregation in the 1860s, an Anglican church would have been seen as only a small step better than a Roman Catholic one (and they would have believed that the Pope was the Antichrist). Though Oscar's father and others in his church are horrified, such considerations are disregarded by Oscar himself. Similarly, Oscar would almost certainly have been taught from early childhood that gambling was a serious sin. The orthodox evangelical belief in guidance, which would mean that both of these ideas would have been ruled out for Oscar, is that God would never suggest a sinful action; any such apparent guidance is to be seen as a temptation from the devil and not followed.

A deeply ambitious novel, Oscar and Lucinda succeeds in many of its aims. Nonetheless, it has annoying flaws, of which the most serious is the grotesque nature of the central characters. The author most famous for writing grotesques in an otherwise realistic narrative, Charles Dickens, generally restricts this to comparatively minor characters; most of his heroes and heroines are normal, conventional people.(less)

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Jul 09, 2012 Colleen Stone rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: australian-fiction, historical-fiction

It's such a while since I read this book but it's right up there among my all time favourites.

Oscar and Lucinda are such improbable characters ... Unfit for the world on so many levels but with robust conviction in their own world view. While they should both be cowering forlornly in some remote and dimly lit place, they embark on a mad mission with the sort of passion we all hope to experience at least once in our lives but probably never will.

The Prince Rupert's Drop that so impresses the yo...more

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Feb 01, 2012 Courtney H. rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: bookers

Oscar and Lucinda is a feat. It is a huge accomplishment, and you are aware of that as you read it (I think I mentioned Midnight's Children is a bit like that; it is even more prominent in Oscar and Lucinda). The book is meticulous. Carey paints a careful, rich landscape of backwater England and Australia in the mid 1800s -- not only the physical attributes, but a landscape of culture and society. Carey must have been entrenched in his research, because he entrenched me, as a reader, in his back...more Oscar and Lucinda is a feat. It is a huge accomplishment, and you are aware of that as you read it (I think I mentioned Midnight's Children is a bit like that; it is even more prominent in Oscar and Lucinda). The book is meticulous. Carey paints a careful, rich landscape of backwater England and Australia in the mid 1800s -- not only the physical attributes, but a landscape of culture and society. Carey must have been entrenched in his research, because he entrenched me, as a reader, in his backdrop. He also created several fascinating characters. He had an almost Dickensian way of weaving their lives together in the beginning, drawing them closer so that you began to guess at how they would interlock before they knew. There is nothing simple about his characters and he creates a careful landscape of their personalities in the same way that he crafts a landscape of the scene.
But I have to admit, while I understand why Oscar and Lucinda won a Booker, I cannot for the life of me understand how this was shortlisted for a Best of the Bookers, especially when The Famished Road, The Remains of the Day, and Michael K. were all left off. Not to mention A Sacred Hunger or Schindler's Ark. Oscar and Lucinda was a feat of historical fiction and a total force of a book, but it didn't have the heft that some of these other books have. It reminded me of those footballers that have technical ability but no spark. You watch them play and it seems like great soccer. But then you see Pele, or Ronaldinho, or Michelle Akers, and then you get what soccer is really supposed to be. The Famished Road and The Remains of the Day are Ronaldinho. Oscar and Lucinda is Germany, circa 2002.

I never was totally sucked in. I felt that the characters were clinical; his descriptions were perfect and deep, but I was an impersonal spectator to the story. I didn't join the characters; I wasn't invited to do so. I'll give Carey the benefit of the doubt and guess that it is a technique, a writing-style-reminder of Oscar's father. But of course, Oscar's father's descriptions of nature were poetic, even if he didn't live his life with poetry. So I don't know.
Of course, Oscar and Lucinda, as characters, were fiercely set off from society and Carey's writing may try to reflect that. But you can just look to The Bone People (which perhaps I should not have read right before taking this book up) for an example of writing that totally embodies the alienation of some seriously flawed characters who did truly hateful things, and yet still brought you with them on their journey, made you care about them not just in spite of (because of?) themselves. Oscar and Lucinda was brilliantly written, but the writing and the characters, for me in the end, did not resonate. I didn't actually care about where they were going. Because of that, the Dickensian paths registered less powerfully than they ought to have. Again, I viewed the characters clinically and so I viewed their stories clinically. Also, in my opinion the vastly more interesting story happens (he tells us) after the novel ends; and in fact, I think the two most interesting stories happen after the novel ends.
In the end, I deeply admire this book, but I do not love it.

In other news, my soccer analogy made me look up Youtube videos of those guys. They are so badass. (less)

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May 11, 2011 Kenneth Dumas rated it 3 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Genre: Romantic
Awards: Booker Prize
Star rating: 3 stars

Summary:

This story takes us on a journey of two lives. Oscar a priest who runs from home to become a member of the Anglican Church and Lucinda who inherits a great fortune from her family who sold their farms. The unlikely pair have one thing in common, gambling. When they meet on a boat to Sydney the both realize their fatal flaw. Together they become good friends and eventually fall in love. They then make the biggest wager of their lives...more Genre: Romantic
Awards: Booker Prize
Star rating: 3 stars

Summary:

This story takes us on a journey of two lives. Oscar a priest who runs from home to become a member of the Anglican Church and Lucinda who inherits a great fortune from her family who sold their farms. The unlikely pair have one thing in common, gambling. When they meet on a boat to Sydney the both realize their fatal flaw. Together they become good friends and eventually fall in love. They then make the biggest wager of their lives. Oscar bets Lucinda that he could take a church entirely made of glass across the huge continent of Australia. He takes the church to a small remote town where Lucinda's previous love is serving as a town preacher. Oscar completes the task successfully and believes that he has won Lucinda's heart but he already had. He is then seduced by a local woman of the town, leading him to confess his sins in the glass church. However he falls asleep, and while asleep one of the barges break and the church begins to sink with him in it.

Evaluation:

The novel fits the romantic genre very well. We see how Oscar and Lucinda grow together from their fatal flaw of Gambling, which had pushed them away from all others. It's great to witness the two grow together and eventually fall in love, which Oscar tests by bringing the church across Australia, a truely remarkable feat. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys romantic stories. However I would warn them the background to the characters is very lengthy and developed, so the begging does drag on a bit.

Ending
Type: Closed

The ending of this great novel was very tragic. After Oscar cheats on Lucinda and repents in the glass church, the barge breaks and begins to sink. However Oscar had fallen asleep and wakes up to find himself in a terrible situation, as the church is rapidly filling with water. However shaken by his phobia of water, he cannot focus and open the church doors. So the church sinks with him in it, and eventually drowns poor Oscar. Leaving Lucinda to mourn his death when se arrives upon the little town.

Suggestions.

The literary elements present a deep themes. We see isolation felt by both characters. Oscar runs away from home following a sign of God and forced to isolate himself from his family. Lucinda is isolated from the life she knew, when her parents sell their family farms and leave her with a great deal of wealth. We also again see older english words and a traditional use of diction, which help add to the 1800's setting. Also because of Carey's australian influence we see some slang terms used that are quite unfamiliar sometimes to us. (less)

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Jan 31, 2011 Ben rated it 3 of 5 stars

Oscar is a priest, Lucinda an heiress with a glass factory, both addicted to gambling. Lucinda bets Oscar that he can't transport a glass church 400 miles overland through the Australian wilderness, and Oscar takes the bet. It's a good premise.

I read this book in high school English - or rather, read part of it. I was a conscientious student and avid reader, but I never managed to make it all the way through. The story is sad and sensuous and the writing, while delightful in small doses, was sim...more

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Jan 31, 2011 Andy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Andy by: The Booker Prize

Shelves: 2011, prize-winners

The second of Peter Carey's books which I've read, both Booker prize winners. Recounting the historical tale of the two title characters we journey from England to Australia in the mid 19th century.

It's a harsh and vibrant world, populated by an extraordinary cast of well composed characters. Oscar's battles with hardline religion, gambling addiction and constant lack of self confidence and insight are shadowed and reflected in the passions and restrictions Lucinda imposes on herself. Carey pai...more

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Oct 03, 2010 Dhitri rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: booker-books, australia

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Aug 01, 2010 Nom rated it 4 of 5 stars

Peter Carey is a brilliant writer. That statement, though simplistic, must be made. I adored the narrative strategy of this book--of a young person recounting ancestors and history. But the best thing about it, for me, is that each character who enters the space if this narrative is respected as a character, and we see over and over again that each person has her own individual life,and a whole world of ideas in her mind, even if she is just a minor character to the two titular characters. And b...more

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Dec 28, 2009 Julie Whelan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: booksread

Gambling and the struggle to find strength in religion rather than oppression are the themes of this novel. Most of it is set in Australia, Sydney and New South Wales. Oppressive religion is depicted through Oscar's father, a naturalist who is narcissistic bully. Oscar runs away from his father to live with the Stanton's an Anglican preacher and his wife who have no deep faith or joy in their belief but see it merely as a way to earn a living and an intellectual puzzle. They enable Oscar to stud...more

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Apr 04, 2011 Melee rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Oscar and Lucinda was constructed like a house of cards: slowly and carefully. Just when the house of cards had reached near perfection, Peter Carey gave what I perceived to be a malicious smile, and started to deconstruct his creation. I could only sit dumbly as he started pulling cards off the top. Then after a while of that, he unemotionally took a deep breath and... blew the whole thing over; leaving me in the midst of the ruins, unable to close my gaping mouth.
I knew it ended unhappily bef...more Oscar and Lucinda was constructed like a house of cards: slowly and carefully. Just when the house of cards had reached near perfection, Peter Carey gave what I perceived to be a malicious smile, and started to deconstruct his creation. I could only sit dumbly as he started pulling cards off the top. Then after a while of that, he unemotionally took a deep breath and... blew the whole thing over; leaving me in the midst of the ruins, unable to close my gaping mouth.
I knew it ended unhappily beforehand - I knew it! But that still did not fully prepare me for the end which made me groan aloud. I actually had to re-read the last four chapters (they're very short) to fully realize all the implications of everything since I was a bit dazed the first time through. I did not hate the ending, actually. That's not to say I liked it, but something about a devastating end... appeals to me.

The back of the book is definitely misleading, causing you to think the transportation of the glass church is the backbone of the story. It wasn't, not by a long shot. The idea didn't even come till the last 100 pages or so and the transportation was actually my least favourite part and the most painful to read.
I wish more of the book had been about Oscar and Lucinda together. So much of the book was spent on their formative years and also tangents about the surrounding characters. They didn't meet till page 192! My favourite parts of this book, were in the too short section when Oscar was lodging in Lucinda's house. I loved those parts - two misfits (and outcasts) had finally found a friend... and maybe something more. But then the whole glass church thing was conceived and soon afterward Peter Carey started his demolishing...

I just am not exactly sure how I feel about this book. The story was unique, often strange, and had a plethora of beautiful sentences. Though it was slow to get started, I never wanted to stop reading it (until near the end when they were moving the church). Sometimes I felt I was learning way too many extraneous details about all the supporting characters. Most of them were jerks, so I just didn't care.
I think overall, there just weren't enough parts I loved. But I may read it again someday and I'd be interested to see the film!(less)

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Jul 27, 2007 Destinee Sutton rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: tragic lovers

Shelves: favorites, historical-fiction, romance, grown-up-books

When I read this book I was more depressed than I've ever been. I was on the verge of quitting the Peace Corps and loathing myself for it. Then I read Oscar and Lucinda and ended up completing my service and feeling great! Just kidding.

Even though it didn't improve my circumstances or self-esteem, this book was like a gift. It's a beautifully told, terribly sad story. I'm afraid to read it again because I don't think I'll ever feel as strongly about it as I did in Namibia.

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Nov 01, 2012 Aravind P rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: couldn-t-complete

“Writing long books is a laborious and impoverishing act of foolishness: expanding in five hundred pages an idea that could be perfectly explained in a few minutes" Jorge Luis Borges

“So the writer who breeds more words than he needs, is making a chore for the reader who reads.”
― Dr. Seuss

What a pity. There hasn't been a book that has annoyed me as much as this one. I can't take this prose style anymore. It talks about 2 "outcasts", I couldn't find a plausible reason other than their own assumpti...more

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Jun 25, 2012 Christy rated it 3 of 5 stars

I'm really not sure how I feel about this book. It was hard to put down (but then again I feel that way about almost any novel) yet I continually felt removed from the histrionics of Oscar and Lucinda. I think the characters I liked best were Lucinda's mother and Miriam (despite her hatefulness!) though both appeared only very briefly.

The historical circumstances are well-developed, full of rich detail, and entirely believable. What I found much harder to swallow was the purity of the eccentri...more

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Jan 09, 2011 Becky rated it 3 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Oct 08, 2012 Alison Petchell rated it 4 of 5 stars

Quirky, unusual, intelligent, at times tedious. Littered with entertaining characters that made me laugh out loud, giggle, frown and cringe. I found all the peripheral characters more real and crisp than the rather bizarre principals. Oscar I found spineless and annoying but loved the chapters focused on Lucinda with her notions and aspirations implanted by her mother (and her bush upbringing?) well before her time. I just burned with indignation each time she was ostracised, dismissed, demeaned...more

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Jan 03, 2012 Alison O'keefe rated it 2 of 5 stars

I have to say, I could not stop reading this book. I couldn't quite understand what I enjoyed about it until half way through where there was a paragraph given to what I thought was 'the point' of the story - which up until then had been a bit boring. Being so excited by my realisation of what drew me into the book I eagerly kept reading, only to find that what I thought 'the point' was - wasn't. I still really don't understand what this unnecessarily tragic story was meant to be about and I don...more

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Feb 28, 2009 Dagny rated it 5 of 5 stars

Prompted by a contemporary descendant of Oscar, one is placed in the middle of the nineteenth century, first in England among religious fundamentalists and a naturalist, then, via sea, in Australia. During the sea-route Oscar meets Lucinda, the Australian glass factory owner who holds the other main strand of narrative. Their relationship and their eventual whacky enterprise, to built and transport a glass church, maps the route.

The whole amazing story is told in short chapters which shimmer a...more

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Nov 25, 2011 Catriona rated it 4 of 5 stars

Another Carey novel, another masterclass in rich, dense, sometimes almost overpowering prose.

I really did enjoy this book. The ending wasn't what I was expecting (nor really what I would have liked) but the more I think about it, the more I see why it had to end the way it did.

Carey brilliantly describes the vibrant, filthy, dangerous, aliveness of Sydney in the late 19th Century - it is such a treat to see familiar street names and imagine how they must have been in Oscar and Lucinda's time.

The...more

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Jul 06, 2012 Michael Walkden rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recommended to Michael by: Will Eaves, China Mieville

Shelves: the-rushlight-list, guardian-1000-booklist

The Rushlight List - A novel for each and every country

This was a slow read. Five-hundred pages shouldn't have been too daunting to a regular reader of epic fantasy, but I have to say that after the first few it was clear to me that Oscar and Lucinda was no page-turner. However, I was determined to persevere - not only is this the Rushlight selection for Australia, but I'd also had it recommended by tutors Will Eaves and China Miéville as being thematically relevant to a project I'm working on...more The Rushlight List - A novel for each and every country

This was a slow read. Five-hundred pages shouldn't have been too daunting to a regular reader of epic fantasy, but I have to say that after the first few it was clear to me that Oscar and Lucinda was no page-turner. However, I was determined to persevere - not only is this the Rushlight selection for Australia, but I'd also had it recommended by tutors Will Eaves and China Miéville as being thematically relevant to a project I'm working on called The Glass Architect.

Is Oscar and Lucinda a book about Australia? Not really. Is it set in Australia? Well, mostly. The story follows two children - duh, Oscar and Lucinda - through to their meeting in young adulthood. Both have experienced death early in life. Both have developed gambling habits - "one obsessive, the other compulsive." They are damaged, flawed, often dislikeable individuals, drawn together by this one shared passion - or weakness.

Before reading, I had understood Carey's Booker Prize winner to be about a man and a woman transporting a glass church across Australia for a bet. What I didn't realise was that, although this is indeed the part that people remember most - there's a film, which I haven't seen, but I'm guessing it focusses most heavily on this aspect of the story - this plotline doesn't come to the surface until the last hundred pages of the book. There's plenty of foreshadowing and pre-construction, but this doesn't change the fact that most of the book reads as slightly directionless. Even when the two titular protagonists' lives begin to intertwine, we are given little indication of what this portends. Had I approached the book with no prior knowledge, I would have been bemused and probably rather bored by the lengthy descriptive passages with no obvious purpose.

The biggest and most obvious defect of the book was, for me, the author's excessively minute descriptions of his more peripheral characters. I often felt that he was engaging in unnecessary padding, and sometimes even using these passages to avoid the business of progressing the story. But this is precisely why I'm glad I never leave a book unfinished. Much - though not all - of what I had considered irrelevant does eventually present a purpose, and we see by the end how many of those characters besides Oscar and Lucinda - Dennis Hassett, Mr d'Abbs, the unforgettable Mr Jeffris - are in fact integral to the story.

Peter Carey's prose is consistently sublime, and the sheer amount of crafting that has gone into this book is evident. It seems too easy to go for the glass church metaphor, but I'm going there anyway: Oscar and Lucinda is a colossal, fragile work, built on a hundred contingencies, constantly threatening to collapse under the weight of its own improbability. The shocking gravity of its conclusion, which I don't want to spoil here - because, in case you were wondering, you should definitely read this book - is dependent upon the multitude of set pieces that have been painstakingly put in place over the sedate, sometimes sluggish course of 400 pages.

In this sense, Oscar and Lucinda is a wager. The stakes: your time and engagement. Whether the return is ultimately worth it depends upon the reader. You may find yourself questioning whether the story is really going anywhere. You might lose your faith in it entirely. My advice would be to stick with it to the end; leave before the game's over and you'll only wonder what you missed.

The Rushlight List - A novel for each and every country (less)

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Apr 02, 2013 Arax Miltiadous rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"υπάρχει μια υπέροχη αίσθηση ξαλάφρωσης που επέρχεται κάθε φορά της χασούρας σου και σε κάνει να πιστοποιείς την ελευθερία σου μέσα από τα πιο καταστροφικά πάθη."

Σαν διάβασα την περίληψη, είχα κατενθουσιαστεί. Η παραδοξολογία του σεναρίου και η υποψία κωμικοτραγικής κατάστασής είναι τα στοιχεία που λατρεύω σε λογοτεχνικές ιστορίες. Η αλήθεια όμως είναι ότι οι τρομερά μακρόσυρτες περιγραφές έσβηναν το όλο παράδοξο και τελικά με έχασαν.
Ωραίο βιβλίο άπλα σε εμένα δεν άρεσε το ύφος του και τρόπος πο...more

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Dec 31, 2009 Jane rated it 4 of 5 stars

Oscar, raised in England by a fundamentalist, naturalist preacher comes to believe his father's religion is wrong. He deserts his father and goes to live with the impoverished local Anglican priest. Oscar takes up gambling to finance his education to become a priest.

Lucinda, a young heiress, also has a passion for gambling and a dream to own a glass factory. They meet on a long voyage to Australia and eventually end up in a scheme to move a glass church in New South Wales Australia.

For much of t...more

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May 25, 2008 Crispycms rated it 4 of 5 stars

Beautiful. Carey uses language here like a musical instrument. So different from Theft or My Life as a Fake, it flows and meanders, gently blending together subplots and characters until the inevitable conclusion.

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Feb 07, 2011 Lynne Norman rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: book-group-reads

Thoroughly enjoyed this novel and its many layers meant that it gave my book group plenty to talk about. I believe that this is, essentially, a cautionary tale about lost opportunities and failing to seize the day - or failing to speak up/out when your instinct moves you. Someone hesitates to express their love for another, someone else is too cowardly to challenge an injustice when they see it... and, before you know it, the narrative is moving fast towards an all to avoidable tragic outcome. I...more

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Sep 12, 2007 Cadillacrazy rated it 2 of 5 stars

Takes place in Australia, or New Zealand, I've forgotten now... A preacher and a woman find a common thread in gambling because they are both social outcasts. Slow read, I liked the movie better.

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Jul 23, 2011 Tracey-Lee rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

Loved this book! What talent Peter Carey has as a writer! My first Carey novel was Oliver & Parrot in America. When I finished O&PIA I did something I rarely ever do...I went online a bought a copy of every other novel Carey has ever writen. I figured if his other work was half as good as O&P then my money would be well spent! Now I have read Oscar & Lucinda and I enjoyed it very much.

Clever ol toff this Mr. Carey...super ending! It takes a pretty clever author to surprise this o...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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Trivia About Oscar and Lucinda

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Quotes from Oscar and Lucinda

“To know you will be lonely is not the same as being lonely.” — 20 people liked it

“You could not tell a story like this. A story like this you could only feel.” — 15 people liked it

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