Jack Maggs - Peter Carey

Jack Maggs is a criminal - a convict shipped away from England to Australia for his crimes, who returns to his native 19th century London to contact one Henry Phipps. Henry was an orphaned boy who showed Maggs a small kindness just before his exile, and whom Maggs has been secretly financially supporting from afar. Maggs returns to England, despite personal danger, so he can finally reveal and explain himself to his "son", Phipps. Does this sound at all familiar to you? Anyone read any Dickens, perhaps? Maybe you read Great Expectations? Maybe you recall a minor character that plays a major but secret role in the life of young Pip? Do you recall the ...  Read the complete review

Peter Carey is one of the most successful and respected author in modern fiction and is one of only two authors to have won the Booker/Mann prize on two occasions once for 'Oscar and Lucinda' (1988) and then later for the 'True History of the Kelly Gang' (2001). In 'Jack Maggs' written in 1997 Carey is once again writing a historical novel set in early Victorian times and is in this way similar to his two Booker prize winning novels. The story centres on Jack Maggs a criminal who is transported to Australia to a penal colony in New South Wales. There he eventually obtains a pardon and goes on to make a small fortune. Many years later Maggs decides to return ...  Read the complete review

Jack Maggs recounts the tale of a convict returning to London in search of Henry Phipps, an English gentleman who has been assisted and elevated into the upper classes by financial support from an unseen benefactor. Maggs risks the death penalty if he is found by the police since he is returning from New South Wales, where he was deported to some years earlier. For anyone who has read Dickens' Great Expectations, this plot will be known more familiarly as the tale of Abel Magwitch, the villainous convict who provided Pip with such a handsome amount of money to establish himself in London. From a personal perspective, this was the first Peter Carey novel I ...  Read the complete review

This review clearly demonstrates a lack of understanding of what Carey was trying to do in this novel. He most definitely imitates the tone and style that Dickens utilizes, and even some of the same techniques. If you haven't read much Dickens, you might not notice, but I certainly was surprised and impressed with the degree of skill involved in Carey's narrative voice. Maggs is a truly compelling character, and his similarities to Pip are what make this novel so meaningful in the context of Great Expectations. Maggs is in many ways just another of Dickens' orphans, and Carey's exploration of how such a child could grow up. This book was brilliant, and this review ...  Read the complete review