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Illywhacker (Faber Library)
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Product Description
Book Description
As part of Faber's Secrets and Lies series comes a classic novel of deception and deceit.
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
Product Description
Illywhacker is a dazzling comic narrative, from the lips of the 139-year-old Herbert Badgery, the 'illywhacker' or confidence trickster of the title. Overflowing with magic, jokes and inventions, peopled with aviators, car salesmen, Chinamen and impresarios, Peter Carey's novel is a contemporary classic.
'Illywhacker is a tour de force, both funny and moving, the work of an original at full stretch.' Financial Times
'It is impossible to convey in a review the cumulative brilliance and accelerating hilarity of the prose.' London Review of Books
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Illywhacker is an Australian word for a con-man. The books' illywhacker, and narrator, is Herbert Badgery, who suffers the fate of many dishonest people. Writing from his old age of 139, he weaves us an extraordinary tale of his life as reptile catcher, car salesman and aviator. A chinaman teaches him how to become invisible, a useful skill when out in the bush. His aviation attracts him a lovely wife, but married life is less than satisfactory, ending in tragedy. And so we move on to the life of his son, sent off as a student to the big city, consorting with communists and jews, and then setting up as a pet shop to make ends meet. The tragedy carries on.
Within the context of the book, we find ourselves asking how much of this conman's story is "true". It leaves you wondering, and that is really the key to the book.
Its a toss-up whether my favourite Australian novel is this, or Tim Winton's Cloudstreet. In both books, the Australian accent jumps off the page at you. Among Carey's other books, my literary friends prefer Oscar and Lucinda, perhaps because it is more perfectly formed, a typical Booker Prize winner. But I find Illywhacker funnier, more exciting, more original.
Within the context of the book, we find ourselves asking how much of this conman's story is "true". It leaves you wondering, and that is really the key to the book.
Its a toss-up whether my favourite Australian novel is this, or Tim Winton's Cloudstreet. In both books, the Australian accent jumps off the page at you. Among Carey's other books, my literary friends prefer Oscar and Lucinda, perhaps because it is more perfectly formed, a typical Booker Prize winner. But I find Illywhacker funnier, more exciting, more original.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
You cannot help falling in love with the Illywhacher, a tale that takes shape in the mind.. vividly coloured with classic tales that take the reader into the magical and enchanting world of Herbert Bagery. Herbert Bagery's story is entertaining, funny and exciting, Carey's simply a comic genius! If he were living next door, I'd fall in love with him, too. This book manages to give you a sense of the real battler inside of everyone. It's a monster journey, the epic tale of an life of 139 years of trickery, fraud and deception. Beg, steal or borrow, you MUST read it!
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I think that simply to dismiss Herbert as "dishonest" is to miss the central theme of this tale. The one thing which many a comedian, romancer or flim-flammer has in common is their desire simply to be loved. Thus Herbert is more to be pitied and admired by turns than scolded men of his ilk who afford the rest of us the chance to escape the humdrum and enter their carefully woven web of the warming fellowship of the fantastical can have a quid of mine anyday of the week. Read it, its dinkum.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Oz-tastic
An excellent book! Takes me back to my happy days wandering aroun areas such as "uluru", formerly known as ayers rock. Read more
Published on 29 May 2001
Duuuuuuuuulll.
I loved "The amazing live of Tristan Smith". I can't say the same about this. It's slooooow and uneventful. Read more
Published on 10 May 2001
Entertaining, but not sure I really understood it
Having loved Oscar and Lucinda, and enjoyed Jack Maggs, I thought I'd try Illywhacker.
I enojyed it, but was left with the feeling that I just hadn't understood it at... Read more
Published on 7 Feb 2000
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