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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'Olivier is a young aristocrat, one of an endangered species born in France just after the Revolution. Parrot, the son of an itinerant English printer, wanted to be an artist but has ended up in middle age as a servant.
When Olivier sets sail for the New World - ostensibly to study its prisons, but in reality to avoid yet another revolution - Parrot is sent with him, as spy, protector, foe and foil. Through their adventures with women and money, incarceration and democracy, writing and painting, they make an unlikely pair. But where better for unlikely things to flourish than in the glorious, brand-new experiment, America?
A dazzlingly inventive reimagining of Alexis de Tocqueville's famous journey, Parrot and Olivier in America brilliantly evokes the Old World colliding with the New. Above all, it is a wildly funny, tender portrait of two men who come to form an almost impossible friendship, and a completely improbable work of art.' (From the publisher's website.)
Notes
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Dedication: For Frances Coady.
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Epigraph: 'Can it be believed that the democracy which has overthrown the feudal system and vanquished kings will retreat before tradesmen and capitalists?' 'It is not good to announce every truth.' ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Sound recording.
Works about this Work
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Local Publisher, Global Agent
2023
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Peter Carey : The Making of a Global Novelist 2023; (p. 133-189)'This chapter focuses on three late-career Carey novels, namely My Life as a Fake, Parrot and Olivier in America, and Amnesia, on the thread to complete my analysis of Carey’s ongoing engagement in and around his fiction with the status of the Australian author in the transnational literary marketplace. Carey’s visibility in this period is marked by his shifting position in relation to the globalising publishing industry, the rise of digital publishing, and the mutations of academic and political recognition into convertible cultural capital in the literary field. These changes in practice and modes of recognition are analogous with the aggressive move towards monopoly capitalism by corporate systems in liberal democracies, including Australia.' (Publication abstract)
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True History of a Rogue : Parrot and Olivier in America by Peter Carey
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 77 no. 1 2017; (p. 199-219)As a silent rule, historians do not mess with creative writers, but it a fact that works like Umberto Eco's best selling The Name of the Rose (1980) appeal to the essence and scope of narrating the past. Likewise, a host of modern and postmodern authors like Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Jose Saramago, Doris Lessing or Patrick White have opened new frontiers in historical fiction, submerging fact with invention, often disproving official historical evidence. The advent of anti-idealism in many fields of the humanities has also downsized history from indisputable, factual eyewitness to an elaborate, time-constrained, and often reticent account. Reliability and faithfulness have ceased to be the purpose of historical fiction and, to be true, what is at stake is not only the process of fictionalising history, but also the transmission of historical events as a distinct kind of narrative.' (Introduction)
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On the Genealogy of Democracy : Reading Peter Carey's Parrot and Olivier in America
2012
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , vol. 27 no. 2 2012; (p. 68-80) -
A Nine-Course Rendering of the New American Democracy
2011
single work
review
— Appears in: Antipodes , June vol. 25 no. 1 2011; (p. 100-101)
— Review of Parrot and Olivier in America 2009 single work novel -
Australia más cerca
2011
single work
column
— Appears in: El país , 7 May 2011; La literatura de un país hecho con partes de todo el mundo protagoniza un fenómeno global y multilateral. Escritores de prestigio cuyas obras han alcanzado un registro intelectual posmoderno. España empieza a conocer más este nuevo territorio literario. [Spain gets to know a little better the new terrain of Australian literature, which is both postmodern and transnational. - Translation]
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[Review] Parrot and Olivier in America
2009
single work
review
— Appears in: Bookseller + Publisher Magazine , October vol. 89 no. 3 2009; (p. 28)
— Review of Parrot and Olivier in America 2009 single work novel -
Well Read
2009
single work
review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 24 October 2009; (p. 24)
— Review of Parrot and Olivier in America 2009 single work novel ; Wonders of a Godless World 2009 single work novel -
American Sprawl
2009
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 24 October 2009; (p. 11)
— Review of Parrot and Olivier in America 2009 single work novel -
Books
2009
single work
review
— Appears in: The West Australian , 31 October 2009; (p. 26)
— Review of Parrot and Olivier in America 2009 single work novel ; The First Boxer 2009 single work novel ; The Last Stormlord 2009 single work novel -
The Oddest of Carey Couples
2009
single work
review
— Appears in: The Age , 31 October 2009; (p. 20)
— Review of Parrot and Olivier in America 2009 single work novel -
Temple Hero Set for Small Screen
2009
single work
column
— Appears in: The Age , 2 May 2009; (p. 28) A column canvassing current literary news including reports on a planned adaptation of Peter Temple's Jack Irish novels and news of the forthcoming publication by Penguin imprint Hamish Hamilton of Peter Carey's Parrot and Olivier in America. Jason Steger also provides an update on developments in the parallel importation debate. -
Undercover
2009
single work
column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 9-10 May 2009; (p. 26)A column canvassing current literary news including a report on Penguin's forthcoming publication of Peter Carey's Parrot and Olivier in America.
Wyndham also reports on Philip McLaren's grievances with the Byron Bay Writers' Festival. McLaren asserts (inaccurately according to festival organisers) that the writers' festival has been practicing 'racism by omission' in not inviting Indigenous writers to participate. Wyndham notes the organisers' counter-claims, including a list of Aboriginal writers invited to attend in recent years.
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Page Turners
2010
single work
column
— Appears in: The Adelaide Review , January no. 359 2010; (p. 27) -
Off the Top Shelf
2010
single work
column
— Appears in: The Age , 31 July 2010; (p. 24-25) The judges for the 2010 Age Book of the Year Awards provide a summary for the category for which they are responsible and comments on each shortlisted title. -
Aussies Make Booker Long-List
2010
single work
column
— Appears in: Illawarra Mercury , 29 July 2010; (p. 10)
Awards
- 2011 shortlisted New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards — Christina Stead Prize for Fiction
- 2011 longlisted International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
- 2010 finalist National Book Awards (USA)
- 2010 inaugural winner Randwick Award for Literature
- 2010 shortlisted Victorian Premier's Literary Awards — Prize for Fiction
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cUnited States of America (USA),cAmericas,
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cFrance,cWestern Europe, Europe,
- 1700-1799
- 1820s