Tuesday, 23 October 2012

Carey, Peter. Oscar & Lucinda. London: Faber & Faber, 2011.

Oscar Hopkins follows in his father’s footstep to read for the Anglican ministry    at Oxford University.While there IanWardley-Fish takes him to the racetrack Oscar devises an elaborate betting system and is able money to his mentor the impoverished Anglican minister Hugh Stratton.  Oscar becomes a school teacher, but to save himself from the vice of gambling joins a mission to Australia.

On   the     same  ship   is Lucinda, who  is  returning to 
Australia   after  studying  glass  manufacture.   Lucinda
  inherited a farm in Australia and bought a glass factory
 in Sydney. She ran it with the assistance of Dennis Hasset, who knows about glass,   and  Jimmy  d’Abbs  her  accountant. Lucinda  often visited d’Abbs house to gamble. On the ship Oscar and  Lucinda  spend  the night playing cards.  The next  time they  meet  is in Sydney, where there  association continues, with most  unexpected consequences.

This novel won the Booker Prize in 1988 and three literary prizes the next year. The novel shows the eccentricity and relative integrity of Oscar and Lucinda, who are isolated from so-called respectable society. It is a moving story with many unexpected twists and turns.

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