His Illegal Self by Peter Carey 2008 SIGNED Hardcover, 1st Edition

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Item specifics

Condition
Very Good: A book that has been read and does not look new, but is in excellent condition. No ...
ISBN
9780307263728
Category

About this product

Product Identifiers

Publisher
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
ISBN-10
030726372X
ISBN-13
9780307263728
eBay Product ID (ePID)
20038298009

Product Key Features

Book Title
His Illegal Self
Number of Pages
288 Pages
Language
English
Publication Year
2008
Topic
Family Life, Coming of Age, Literary
Genre
Fiction
Author
Peter Carey
Format
Hardcover

Dimensions

Item Height
1.1 in
Item Weight
17.3 Oz
Item Length
9.6 in
Item Width
6 in

Additional Product Features

Intended Audience
Trade
LCCN
2007-042862
Reviews
"Peter Carey's enthralling new novel is psychologically taut [and] starkly beautiful . . . It marks a departurean altogether successful onefor the versatile author . . . Here, the world he inhabitsthe protest movement of the '60s and '70sis both familiar and recent. You might think this would constrain Carey's creative powers, but if anything, it has concentrated them. His backdrop is no less exotic for its realism, and his close portrait of the relationship between one benighted woman and the child who depends on her is exquisite, enlarging the story beyond the frame of its epoch." New York Times Book Review "Magnificent . . .His Illegal Selfis a novel of narrative complexity and blindingly direct emotion . . . Carey has created three alluring, unexpected, and intensely moving characters who do not so much reveal themselves as transform themselves into revelation . . . Here he achieves the texture and human depth he reached inOscar and LucindaandJack Maggs,perhaps his two best. Except thatHis Illegal Selfis better." Richard Eder,Boston Globe "His Illegal Selfdevelops the kind of emotional impact that renders it enriching and satisfying . . . Carey is still the master . . . The genius of the novel is his portrayal of Che." Washington Post Book World "Carey's often beautiful novel, one of his best recent works, has the bruising tang of all his fiction . . . The result is brilliantly vital . . . On the second page, we [are] caught by a voice, and held for the next two hundred pages . . . Funny and forlorn." James Wood,The New Yorker "Carey once again proves himself to be a master of perspective . . . Visceral and beautifully written . . . Carey reminds us of a time in America when people risked everything for a cause, for the dream of a better country. Ultimately, though,His Illegal Selfis a love storyone between a young boy, longing for a love from his past, and a woman whose unexpected love for a boy forever alters her fate." San Francisco Chronicle "Carey is a prose Pied Piper, a dazzling stylist whose work possesses mythic elements. Once he launches into a tale, he's always worth following . . . Carey enters fully into the character of Che, who is neither snarky nor cloying [but] utterly compelling . . . The story moves along at a thriller's pace." Miami Herald "Reading this novel is like peering at the human heart, at the world itself, through the distorted precision of a magnifying glassone carried in the pocket of a seven-year-old boy . . . One of the wonders of Carey's work is that his great, urgent narratives, so turbulent, so dark, so grand, are at the same time animated by such conscious and playful craft, as well as by a profound comic awareness . . .His Illegal Self, like his other work, is an adventure story for the modern, tormented soul." Cathleen Schine,New York Review of Books "A beautiful new novel . . . Carey's stark language imbues the narrative with suspense, and his characters feel absolutely real. He's crafted an unconventional love story that's a striking portrait of the counterculture's dregs." People(4 stars, critic's choice) "Carey is a thoroughly modern writer, smashing genre boundaries, ranging in tone from wild comedy to grim tragedy, viewing the past with a decidedly contemporary eye and firmly placing late 20th century adventures in social and cultural context. This breadth of experience and abilities enriches C, "A psychologically astute and diabolically suspenseful novel . . . Carey has a gift for bringing to creepy-crawly and blistering life Australia's jungle and desert wilds. His latest spectacularly involving and supremely well made novel of life on the edge begins in New York [and] ends up in Australia . . . Carey's unique take on the conflict between the need to belong and the dream of freedom during the days of rage over the Vietnam War is at once terrifying and mythic." -Donna Seaman, "Booklist " "Peter Carey is one of the great writers in English now. This book is further proof, a book in which he's created a little boy who is neither too precious nor too wise, a little boy on a sad hard trip with his eyes wide open, watching everything and everyone around him. He makes you think of your own past life and all you felt when you were a kid being played upon and moved about by the adults of the world. This book is another triumph, among Carey's other wonderful books. The man can write. He seems capable of anything." -Kent Haruf "Carey's mastery of tone and command of point of view are very much in evidence in his latest novel, which is less concerned with period-piece politics than with the essence of identity . . . This isn't the first fictional work to explore the militant radical underground of the late 1960s and early '70s, but it may well be the best."" "-"Kirkus Reviews "(starred), "A beautiful and emotionally compelling novel . . . There is in this book a fascinating and deeply intelligent evocation of late '60s, early '70s period detail, but at its coreHis Illegal Selfis an ancient and magnificently eerie fairy tale, about a child wise beyond his years, stolen away to the forest, undergoing every kind of mortal trial, and surviving, in a surprising state of luminous grace." O Magazine "A psychologically astute and diabolically suspenseful novel . . . Carey has a gift for bringing to creepy-crawly and blistering life Australia's jungle and desert wilds. His latest spectacularly involving and supremely well made novel of life on the edge begins in New York [and] ends up in Australia . . . Carey's unique take on the conflict between the need to belong and the dream of freedom during the days of rage over the Vietnam War is at once terrifying and mythic." Booklist "Peter Carey is one of the great writers in English now. This book is further proof, a book in which he's created a little boy who is neither too precious nor too wise, a little boy on a sad hard trip with his eyes wide open, watching everything and everyone around him. He makes you think of your own past life and all you felt when you were a kid being played upon and moved about by the adults of the world. This book is another triumph, among Carey's other wonderful books. The man can write. He seems capable of anything." Kent Haruf "Carey's mastery of tone and command of point of view are very much in evidence in his latest novel, which is less concerned with period-piece politics than with the essence of identity . . . This isn't the first fictional work to explore the militant radical underground of the late 1960s and early '70s, but it may well be the best." Kirkus Reviews(starred), "A psychologically astute and diabolically suspenseful novel . . . Carey has a gift for bringing to creepy-crawly and blistering life Australia's jungle and desert wilds. His latest spectacularly involving and supremely well made novel of life on the edge begins in New York [and] ends up in Australia . . . Carey's unique take on the conflict between the need to belong and the dream of freedom during the days of rage over the Vietnam War is at once terrifying and mythic." Donna Seaman,Booklist "Peter Carey is one of the great writers in English now. This book is further proof, a book in which he's created a little boy who is neither too precious nor too wise, a little boy on a sad hard trip with his eyes wide open, watching everything and everyone around him. He makes you think of your own past life and all you felt when you were a kid being played upon and moved about by the adults of the world. This book is another triumph, among Carey's other wonderful books. The man can write. He seems capable of anything." Kent Haruf "Carey's mastery of tone and command of point of view are very much in evidence in his latest novel, which is less concerned with period-piece politics than with the essence of identity . . . This isn't the first fictional work to explore the militant radical underground of the late 1960s and early '70s, but it may well be the best." Kirkus Reviews(starred)
Dewey Edition
22
Dewey Decimal
823.3
Synopsis
When the boy was almost eight, a woman stepped out of the elevator into the apartment on East Sixty-second Street and he recognized her straightaway. No one had told him to expect it. That was pretty typical of growing up with Grandma Selkirk . . . No one would dream of saying, Here is your mother returned to you. His Illegal Self is the story of Cheraised in isolated privilege by his New York grandmother, he is the precocious son of radical student activists at Harvard in the late sixties. Yearning for his famous outlaw parents, denied all access to television and the news, he takes hope from his long-haired teenage neighbor, who predicts, They will come for you, man. They'll break you out of here. Soon Che too is an outlaw: fleeing down subways, abandoning seedy motels at night, he is pitched into a journey that leads him to a hippie commune in the jungle of tropical Queensland. Here he slowly, bravely confronts his life, learning that nothing is what it seems. Who is his real mother? Was that his real father? If all he suspects is true, what should he do? Never sentimental, His Illegal Self is an achingly beautiful story of the love between a young woman and a little boy. It may make you cry more than once before it lifts your spirit in the most lovely, artful, unexpected way.
LC Classification Number
PR9619.3.C36H57 2008

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Registered as a private sellerThereby, consumer rights stemming from EU consumer protection law do not apply. eBay buyer protection still applies to most purchases.
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