Oscar and Lucinda - Peter Carey

Oscar and Lucinda is the Booker-prize winning novel of 1988 that introduced me to the wonderful Peter Carey - I would guess I've owned more of his novels than of anyone else along the way. I remember my English teacher at school recommending it - I also remember him describing the story culminating in the attempt to transport a glass church to the Australian outback, but that we should read it despite this - and he was right! Oscar Hopkins is an Anglican priest troubled by faith, filial rebellion (from his forbidding Plymouth Brethren father and community) and compulsive gambling. Lucinda Leplastrier is a young heiress with a similar predilection for ...  Read the complete review

Australian author Peter Carey wrote Oscar and Lucinda in 1988 and it went on to win the Booker Prize for that year. The book is described on the back as a love story but after reading it I can confirm that it is much more than boy meets girl. Set in the late 1800's this is a book which explores a period of time when emigration between the UK and Australia first became popular. The book deals with the cultural issues which surround the aborigines and more strongly with the issue of religion. The book starts long before Oscar and Lucinda actually meet, when they are both children living on different continents. We start with Oscar who is spending his childhood ...  Read the complete review