{"id":7663,"date":"2010-07-29T06:00:05","date_gmt":"2010-07-29T12:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs2.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/?p=7663"},"modified":"2010-07-19T10:49:17","modified_gmt":"2010-07-19T16:49:17","slug":"parrot-olivier-in-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/parrot-olivier-in-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Parrot & Olivier in America"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Two-time Booker Prize winner Peter Carey creates a vividly funny work of historical fiction in Parrot and Olivier in America<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/a>by imagining the real-life experiences of\u00a0Alexis de Tocqueville, a French aristocrat and author of Democracy in America<\/em><\/strong>, a hugely popular work first published in 1835.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Carey cleverly uses dual narrators,\u00a0each with completely different perspectives; \u00a0Alexis is protrayed as Olivier while\u00a0his servant companion\u00a0is John “Parrot” Laritt.\u00a0 Parrot is the orphaned son of an\u00a0itinerant English printer\u00a0who is forced to accompany Olivier as he\u00a0sets sail for the United States.\u00a0\u00a0Ostensibly, Olivier is being sent to research the\u00a0U.S. penal system for\u00a0a report to the French government.\u00a0 In reality, he’s being sent by his parents (who barely avoided the guillitine during the\u00a0French Revolution) as a politically-correct way for their son\u00a0to safely escape the reignited Terror back in France.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

In alternating chapters, Parrot sets the tone as the more likeable character — though uneducated and long-suffering, he’s obviously talented and intelligent.\u00a0 Olivier initally comes across as a pampered snob (Parrot often refers to him as “Lord Migraine) but he proves remarkably open-minded in observing\u00a0 most Americans (with President Andrew Jackson as a notable exception).\u00a0<\/p>\n

As the novel progresses, we see a change in attitude.\u00a0 Indeed, a most unlikely friendship develops, particularly as both title players have varying troubles with their love lives.\u00a0 I think it’s primarily because the characters are so well developed (even the minor ones) that makes this\u00a0an enjoyable and entertaining read.\u00a0 And then, the little history lesson is just thrown in for free!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two-time Booker Prize winner Peter Carey creates a vividly funny work of historical fiction in Parrot and Olivier in America\u00a0by imagining the real-life experiences of\u00a0Alexis de Tocqueville, a French aristocrat and author of Democracy in America, a hugely popular work first published in 1835.\u00a0 Carey cleverly uses dual narrators,\u00a0each with[Read more]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10,8],"tags":[705,523,230,616,330],"class_list":["post-7663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-staff-picks","tag-america","tag-drama","tag-france","tag-historical-fiction","tag-history"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd0CXx-1ZB","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7663"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7663\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7804,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7663\/revisions\/7804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}