1. First, a good summary of the story:

Oscar Hopkins is a high-strung preacher’s kid with hydrophobia and noisy knees. Lucinda Leplastrier is a frizzy-haired heiress who impulsively buys a glass factory with the inheritance forced on her by a well-intentioned adviser. In the early parts of this lushly written book, author Peter Carey renders the seminal turning points in his protagonists’ childhoods as exquisite 19th-century set pieces. Young Oscar, denied the heavenly fruit of a Christmas pudding by his cruelly stern father, forever renounces his father’s religion in favor of the Anglican Church. “Dear God,” Oscar prays, “if it be Thy will that Thy people eat pudding, smite him!” Lucinda’s childhood trauma involves a beautiful doll bought by her struggling mother with savings from the jam jar; in a misguided attempt to tame the doll’s unruly curls, young Lucinda mutilates her treasure beyond repair. Neither of these coming-of-age stories quite explains how the grownup Oscar and Lucinda each develop a guilty passion for gambling. Oscar plays the horses while at school, and Lucinda, now an orphaned heiress, finds comfort in a game of cards with an odd collection of acquaintances. When the two finally meet, on board a ship bound for New South Wales, they are bound by their affinity for risk, their loneliness, and their awkwardly blossoming (but unexpressed) mutual affection. Their final high-stakes folly–transporting a crystal palace of a church across (literally) godforsaken terrain–strains plausibility, and events turn ghastly as Oscar plays out his bid for Lucinda’s heart. Yet even the unconvincing plot turns are made up for by Carey’s rich prose and the tale’s unpredictable outcome. Although love proves to be the ultimate gamble for Oscar and Lucinda, the story never strays too far from the terrible possibility that even the most thunderstruck lovers can remain isolated in parallel lives. [1]

2. The reviews have been highly commendatory. Like these:

“We have a great novelist living on the planet with us, and his name is Peter Carey.”
—Los Angeles Times Book Review

‘Luminous and magical, Oscar and Lucinda dances with a shimmer of light and dark as its two noble gamblers play out dreams of God and glass. A spectacular achievement.’
—Helen Daniel, The Age

“Destined to [be] one of the most widely read and admired writers working in English.”
—Edmund White, The Times Literary Supplement (London) [2]

3. Awards: 1988 Book Council Award (Australia); 1988 Booker Prize for Fiction; 1989 Miles Franklin Award (Australia) [3]

4. A few observations:

4-1 No religious group gets a bouquet from Peter Carey. In fact I’m having a hard time thinking of anything he said that was positive about any Christian church/pastor/denomination. The Plymouth Brethren and Baptists (in England – including the Baptist ‘Crouchers’!) are noted mostly for their various scrupulosities – the Brethren with more than the Baptists (that’s a relief!). For example a pivotal episode in the story of Brethren father/son alienation was about whether Christmas cake – with raisins!!! – was ‘of the Devil’. They are also guilty of sheep-stealing from the Church of England – and are better Christians because they do not say their prayers by rote.

All the Anglican clergy – in England and in New South Wales – are ‘innocents abroad’ – noted variously for their incompetence/foolishness/left-footedness/eccentricities and/or deceitfulness – and also their proclivity for engaging in time-consuming hobbies which involve collecting and arranging physical objects. One of them ‘had the habit of chewing [his bread] thirty-two times’; another for conducting a ‘dismal morning service’: that same vicar, in his daily prayers ‘prayed loudly… self-importantly… as if he were the centre of the universe’, and had ‘one of those faces that took some time to arrange themselves for the business of the day’. The chief (male) protagonist, Oscar (Brethren-cum-Anglican), walks, or, rather, hobbles,  through the sagas like a human scarecrow.

The key motif in the story – the destructiveness and sinfulness of gambling – is best understood against the legalistic background of all these various groups. Peter Carey has obviously researched the foibles of those who represent these churches – though he misquotes the Bible here and there (eg. ‘walking through the shadow of the valley of death’; calling the last book of the New Testament ‘Revelations’). Various divisive doctrinal controversies get a mention at least once or twice each fifty pages. Like: [He] ‘argued against eternal damnation  by suggesting that it was ridiculous to postulate a God with a less well-developed moral sense than our own, and damnation was, therefore, unthinkable’.

4-2 I have a problem (eccentricity?) when novels or movies are riddled with improbabilities. Without spoiling it for any who haven’t yet read this book, how these two adults can live together, and have a developing affection for one another, and not misbehave in any way sexually – or even affectionately – stretches one’s credulity, especially as one of them (I won’t say who) is so libidinous that the first chance erotic encounter with a stranger leads to an act of fornication. All that said, the plot is marvelously tantalizing: the two key characters – Oscar and Lucinda – do not speak to each other until page 231 of the 520-page edition.

4-3 When overseas on speaking tours and they want an introduction about Australia, I’ve often said ‘We’re proud of our ancestry: many of our forefathers were sent DownUnder by some of the best judges in England!’ The seamy side of mid-nineteenth century New South Wales is brilliantly portrayed by Carey – especially the filth and the odours. (‘Most of the crowd were drunk. They smelt loathsome: unwashed clothing, rum, vomit’).

4-4 In 111 short chapters Carey often digresses and gives us background details of the many minor characters in the story: so you’d better have plenty of time on your hands. But this frustrates our desire to know what eventually happens to Oscar and Lucinda. The denouement comes with a rush at the end – and, again, I won’t spoil it for you with any clues.

Overall, a marvelous read for January holidays!

[1] http://petercareybooks.com/Oscar-And-Lucinda

[2] More here: http://petercareybooks.com/Oscar-And-Lucinda/Reviews-Excerpts

[3] More awards – for other works by Peter Carey - http://petercareybooks.com/Prizes

Rowland Croucher

January 6. 2011