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Illywhacker

Illywhacker

by PeterCarey (Author)

  • Used

    Paperback 2004

    $3.28

  • Used

    Paperback 1985

    $19.82
Synopsis

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.

$3.28

Save:$8.10 (71%)

Quantity

1 in stock

More Information

Format: Paperback
 Pages: 576
 Edition: New edition
 Publisher: Faber and Faber
Published: 05 Aug 2004
ISBN 10: 057122590X
ISBN 13: 9780571225903

Media Reviews
Carey can spin a yarn with the best of them.... Illywhacker is a big, garrulous, funny novel.... If you haven't been to Australia, read Illywhacker. It will give you the feel of it like nothing else I know. -- The New York Times Book ReviewIn Australian slang, an illywhacker is a country fair con man, an unprincipled seller of fake diamonds and dubious tonics. And Herbert Badgery, the 139-year-old narrator of Peter Carey's uproarious novel, may be the king of them all. Vagabond and charlatan, aviator and car salesman, seducer and patriarch, Badgery is a walking embodiment of the Australian national character -- especially of its proclivity for tall stories and barefaced lies.As Carey follows this charming scoundrel across a continent and a century, he creates a crazy quilt of outlandish encounters, with characters that include a genteel dowager who fends off madness with an electric belt and a ravishing young girl with a dangerous fondness for rooftop trysts. Boldly inventive, irresistibly odd, Illywhacker is further proof that Peter Carey is one of the most enchanting writers at work in any hemisphere. A book of awesome breadth, ambition, and downright narrative joy.... Illywhacker is a triumph. -- Washington Post Book World