The Unusual Life of Tristan Smith
by Peter Carey
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 137)
Read in May, 2008
recommends it for:
Anyone ever told they couldn't be actor because of how they looked.
I've never read a Peter Carey novel that I haven't enjoyed. He's a brilliant stylist with an great ear for language (of the spoken and written varieties) and he can spin a good yarn. "The Unusual Life of Tristan Smith" is no exception. I spent a while trying to figure out if its setting was intended to be futuristic or just an alternate reality present. I believe it's the latter--a conceit that allows Carey ample opportunity to poke fun at what I read as USA stand-in. Of course, he al...more
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It is an odd book. I really like Peter Carey, but I'm not quite sure what he was trying to get at in this story. Still, it is well written, with magical elements and a picture of a weird world, and it is written as a quest which I always like. It somehow seems like it owes something to the Tin Drum by Gunter Grass, but maybe because they both feature deformed midgets.
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Read in June, 2004
recommends it for:
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A strange and twisted novel set in a non-existent place yet imbued with a ring of familiarity despite its fantastical set-up and singularly mal-formed title character. We never exactly what is wrong with him, but the story doesn't suffer, it's a very interesting work.
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Read in January, 2004
Somewhere between 3 and 4 stars. As usual, Peter Carey writes a very good book that is very difficult to read at times. One of my favorite writers.
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One of the most intriguing and mystifying books I have ever read. Outstanding, imaginative and compelling.
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Amusing, twisted, uncomfortable, and politically fused. Very Carey.
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