Parrot and Olivier in America

Parrot and Olivier is least interesting as a commentary on French Society (one-dimensional) and really fun when it describes the odd economic and social behavior of 19-century America. Don't expect a historical tour-de-force, but do expect fun, interesting characters that make you think about the good and bad of American Free enterprise.

Parrot and Olivier in America is a rich, eloquent and magniloquent tale of Olivier and Parrot's journey to America; Olivier, a French aristocrat born in France after the French Revolution and Parrot, the son of an itinerant English printer who aspired to be an artist but ends up as a servant.

Inspired by Alexis de Tocqueville's famous journey to America, the novel captures Olivier and Parrot's sojourn through the soils of France, England and Australia to America.
Two time Booker Prize winner author Peter Carey's latest novel is definitely an interesting and engaging read more so as it captures the intense odyssey of the lives of Parrot and Olivier through the land of democracy.

Mr Peek, Mathilda and her mom, Olivier's love interest, the famous Watkins and Mrs Piggot add further colour to the novel with their tales.

Written through the eyes of Peter and Olivier alternately, the perceptions of both of them towards life and democracy provide a contrasting viewpoint.

Olivier's narration portrays his feeling of repulsion against the American democracy and a failed attempt to shed his aristocratic ethos.

To quote an excerpt of Olivier's emotions as he sojourns the democratic land......"How comic, you would have thought, to see this solemn participation of the industries and trades. There was no king or parliament, no nobles of the sword or robe, instead an Association of Butchers and an Association of Apprentices, and you must allow that these emblems are very natural to a people who owe their prosperity to commerce and industry."

Parrot on the other hand reveals a very different overture as he goes on to adapt to the new ways of American life.

The story unravels slowly at times testing the reader's patience while at the same time, the whole melodramatic sequence of their lives lullingly persuades the reader to come back to find out what happened.

What I loved was how the sometime casual and sometime thought evoking perceptions toss around in the book. Also interesting tales from the lives of those with whom they connect during their journeys is intriguing especially the tale of the pigeon man.

The book is brimming with ideas on love and greed, perception and change. The author's writing is beautifully sparrowed by art and history and glory and tyranny. Against the backdrop of gloom there is a glow and against prosperity, a hope.

The mention of the flora and fauna now extinct is heartbreaking. Olivier was right to be disturbed by the greed and ambition of the early settlers. Unfortunately, our progress is also our doom. We are killing ourselves because we are like ticks on a dog. The dog is better off without the parasites, and the earth is better off without us. We will eventually kill ourselves, but the earth will heal and go on without us and the surviving life forms will be better off.

I was a little disappointed in this historical novel; was hoping I'd like it more. The author, Peter Carey, does have a great way with words at times. And the sense of France and America in the 1830s is evoked nicely in various passages; you get a good feel for the social and physical environment of those times. Still, the narrative flow was often awkward, such as when we get a flashback to Parrot on a penal ship to Australia. I never found myself liking or caring about the characters all that much. The plot developments weren't any more interesting than you'd find in anyone's personal diary. The story itself didn't amount to all that much. The one-armed Frenchman was an odd character who I could never quite figure out. Would have a hard time recommending it to a friend.

Peter Carey's books are amazing, fun, sharp-witted and always a treat. This is no exception. His characterizations of the foppish Olivier and reluctant Parrot encountering the "New World" and its messy experiment with Democracy in the early 1800s breath life and hilarity into the real-life observations of de Toqueville during the time France was busy with its own issues of Democracy. From its varying perspectives of Aristocrat and former servant, a fresh-minted representative of the new "middle class," it also highlights the fact that Democracy, in its capacity to enrich the lives of the upwardly mobile, can also, in its majority rule, lead to a certain mediocrity of culture, a concern which is as relevant then as it is now. Reality TV, anyone? A delightful, thought provoking tale, and also a great adventure story.

The author uses beautiful language and paints a vivid picture of landscapes, emotions, a new world as America took birth.Rich with lovely similes and metaphors. If you take pleasure in the beauty of the English language you will find this book a delicious read.

but _Parrot & Olivier in America_ was tedious to read. While there are many beautiful sentences--and I found myself pausing to re-read the most charming ones--I found myself somewhat alarmed that Olivier was portrayed as a vacuous fop obsessed with his mother and the guillotine imagery (thus raising vulgarized Freudian notions). I knew I never should have purchased a book with the word `parrot' in the title that wasn't about birds. In fact, I put off buying this novel for about six months; I wish I'd listened to my first instinct.

Also, the invention of the character Blacqueville was pointless; I was surprised a Carey would stoop to that. Creating Blacqueville, then killing him off, and then having Olivier think of him from time to time was too clever a literary stroke and a weak nod toward the real Beaumont, Tocqueville's traveling companion to the U.S. And it didn't help that at the end of the novel a final page reveals that Parrot, a.k.a. Larrit, has written the entire novel including the Olivier character. Another the store reviewer called this novel a "hat trick"; I have to agree, however, the novel was really good until about page 68. While young Parrot/Larrit was a boy apprentice at the engravers and counterfeiters, and up through the appearance of Lord Devon and the breaking up of the money-printing operation, I enjoyed and was intrigued by the secrecy, the efforts to escape detection, and the human relations involved. For 68 pages, I was so charmed that I forgot I was reading. But then Olivier enters the scene as a spoiled, spineless prig, and suddenly I realized I was reading Peter Carey writing--the magic was gone. Conveying truth through humor can so easily fail.

Nonetheless, several characters were well-turned; I'm glad to have experienced the creation of Mathilde, the painter, the wealthy Amelia and her father, and Mr. Peek. And I'm so grateful that author Carey didn't try to fictionalize some of the Anishanabee/Chippewa Indians Tocqueville and Beaumont met near Saginaw, Michigan. In fact, thankfully, Oliver doesn't travel much beyond Connecticut.

In the end, I was reminded that I'm tired of "career novelists." I'm tired of M.F.A.-pretty writing by single-focus people who are more interested in outdoing each other than really telling a story. And that includes Ian McEwan. Why don't they stop writing novels for a while and actually go out and dig a ditch or clean a toilet or stand in a soup kitchen line before writing again?

This book gets great reviews from some readers, but I picked it up and put it down several times before slogging through it in a misguided hope of finding the wit and charm others have found. None of the characters are interesting or particularly sympathetic. The "fictionalized" history is no more gripping than the usual school history textbook. Far better novels have been written about the French revolution or about post-colonial America, Since many passages are directly from de Toqueville's Democracy in America, the interested reader might be better off just to read the original de Toqueville instead of Olivier's copy.

Finishing books that I have started is pretty much a religion with me, but this one made me a heretic. I made it 38% of the way (on Kindle version) and I finally gave myself permission to quit. Dense, confusing, unapproachable. And worst of all, not a single character that is remotely likable, about whom you want to know more, or see suceed, or at the very least, grow into someone better. I salute all of you who read it all, and I'm sorry if I missed something wonderful in the end, but I feel so liberated tonight.

I tried to listen to the unabridged audiobook, but the French accent of the reader kept me thinking of Inspector Clousseau played by Peter Sellars. It ruined what was probably a good book: I could not get past the first disc.