The Elegant Variation: EVENT: PETER CAREY AT THE HAMMER

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April 26, 2010

EVENT: PETER CAREY AT THE HAMMER

Peter Carey is absolutely one of my favorite living novelists - we're talking top five list, here - and he will be in Los Angeles next week at the Hammer Museum in conversation with Mona Simpson and ... me. I've been asked to join Mona for his post-reading interview. (I don't mind admitting to you all that I'm just a wee bit intimidated by the prospect.)

Carey truly is a giant - can anyone forget their first encounter with Oscar and Lucinda? True History of the Kelly Gang? Australia came alive to me years before I got to see it through Carey's novels. And now he's turned his attention to Alexis de Tocqueville with his latest, Parrot and Olivier in America.

Please come out on May 4 and join us at the Hammer. Writers of this stature do not pass through town every day - he's one of only two writers to win the Booker Prize twice - and it's free. Hope to see you there!

Posted at 11:31 AM in Events | Permalink

Comments

I'll be there. I think Peter Carey will turn out to be one of the most signifcant writers of our day. He is truly brilliant.

Posted by: Niall | April 26, 2010 at 07:36 PM

Peter Carey live!

I read 'Oscar and Lucinda' nine years ago, a truly unforgettable novel.

Posted by: eeleenlee | April 27, 2010 at 11:48 AM

Each of the Peter Carey novels I read, My Illegal Self and My Life As A Fake, I found both depressing and exciting. A way, I suppose, of lifting the gloom so the reader could see some light in a character's tunnel, one he liked, even rooted for.

Posted by: Ward | April 27, 2010 at 12:47 PM

I hadn't heard much about him. What book should somebody new to Carey start on?

Posted by: Neil | April 27, 2010 at 03:28 PM

Neil, I started with Kelly Gang, and really enjoyed it, and I would re-read it given the chance. I read another of his books which I didn't like as well (Theft), actually, didn't like whatsoever to be honest, but I am in the minority there to be sure. I hear great things about Oscar and Lucinda, and that will probably be the next of his books I read.

What I like about Carey is the diversity of his ouevre. There is something, somewhere, in there for everyone, just have to find the right time period and theme.

Posted by: Drew | April 27, 2010 at 07:01 PM

Neil, Drew advises you well, although I myself loved Theft. But I'd say the big three are Oscar and Lucinda, Kelly Gang and Jack Maggs. Any one of those will see you off nicely.

Posted by: TEV | April 27, 2010 at 07:14 PM

The Tax Collector is brutally funny, and highly underrated. Carey is an example of a writer who has struggled to find the right story after writing his "big" novel, Kelly Gang. Nothing he's written since measures up to his earlier novels, in my non-expert opinion.

Posted by: Michael | April 28, 2010 at 10:35 AM

Excuse me, that should read Tax Inspector.

Posted by: Michael | April 28, 2010 at 10:36 AM

Thanks for the advice. I'll try to finish one before the reading.

Posted by: Neil | April 28, 2010 at 10:38 AM

One other voice supporting Oscar and Lucinda as your lead-off hitter. My favorite and my first. Not sure that those two things are related, but worked for me.

Posted by: Skip | April 28, 2010 at 01:37 PM

Just read Oscar and Lucinda--my first Carey--a few months ago. Started it, and somewhere around page 150 it hooked me with some crazy manic energy. Great, great book. Can't wait to read some more of his works this summer!

Posted by: Annie | April 28, 2010 at 03:29 PM

I've enjoyed several Carey books as well, but could we squeeze in a shout out for Mona Simpson here? Characters, narratives and good sentences -- tough combo to beat.

Posted by: Don | May 03, 2010 at 10:06 AM

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The Elegant Variation is "Fowler’s (1926, 1965) term for the inept writer’s overstrained efforts at freshness or vividness of expression. Prose guilty of elegant variation calls attention to itself and doesn’t permit its ideas to seem naturally clear. It typically seeks fancy new words for familiar things, and it scrambles for synonyms in order to avoid at all costs repeating a word, even though repetition might be the natural, normal thing to do: The audience had a certain bovine placidity, instead of The audience was as placid as cows. Elegant variation is often the rock, and a stereotype, a cliché, or a tired metaphor the hard place between which inexperienced or foolish writers come to grief. The familiar middle ground in treating these homely topics is almost always the safest. In untrained or unrestrained hands, a thesaurus can be dangerous."

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*Now in Paperback*

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The Elegant Variation

A Literary Weblog.
A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog
"Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

April 26, 2010

EVENT: PETER CAREY AT THE HAMMER

Comments

MY NOVEL

WORTHY READINGS

TEV DEFINED

RECOMMENDED

THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
Reviews & Criticism

SECOND LOOK

Categories

The Elegant Variation

A Literary Weblog. A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog "Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

April 26, 2010

EVENT: PETER CAREY AT THE HAMMER

Comments

MY NOVEL

WORTHY READINGS

TEV DEFINED

RECOMMENDED

THIS GUN FOR HIRE: Reviews & Criticism

SECOND LOOK

Categories

A Literary Weblog.
A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog
"Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
Reviews & Criticism