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MY LIFE AS A FAKE
by Peter Carey
Recorded Books, October 2003
Unabridged audio pages
$29.99
ISBN: 1402556004


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Buy or rent from www.recordedbooks.com

Peter Carey keeps the suspense at a rolling boil all the way through MY LIFE AS A FAKE. Don't let the literary genius stuff you've heard about Carey scare you off; this guy has written one enthralling mystery. The dead body doesn't pop into the story until the end, but you'll wonder the whole book through who is going to die.

The story is loosely based on an actual event in Australian literary history: In the 1950s, a poet tries to teach the stuffy literary establishment a lesson by submitting a collection of salacious poems to a well-regarded journal under a false name. That's the lump of truth out of which Carey fashioned this novel.

The narrator of our story, Sarah Wode-Douglass, herself the editor of a genteel poetry journal, is lured to Kuala Lumpur by an older author, an old friend of her family's, with the hope of an emotional reconciliation. She doesn't get it, though; her escort takes off on an alcoholic binge and leaves her stranded in the hotel. Before he leaves, they take a walk along a side street and encounter a ragged man in a bicycle repair shop who is reading a rare edition of Rilke. When it is clear her escort recognizes the man as the poet Chubb, Sarah persuades her companion to begin to tell her Chubb's story.

Chubb turns out to be a gifted poet who, early in life, perpetrated a hoax on a literary editor that resulted in disgrace and tragedy. At his editor's trial for fraud, Chubb encounters a large man who turns out to bear the fictitious name under which Chubb wrote the poems, Bob McCorkle. McCorkle is not only real; he makes it his life's work to torment Chubb.

What a story this is! On one level it revolves around Sarah's uncovering the many layers of Chubb's life and deceptions. Since none of our characters are reliable witnesses to anything, the story also becomes a meditation on the fragile nature of truth. On another level, it's a story about authorial invention and the mysterious veil between the manuscript and real life.

The story includes all of the seven deadly sins but gluttony. Its Victorian structure allows Carey the leeway to develop a story that is at once breathtaking and inventive. Here you will find echoes of every adventure story you've ever loved adding resonance to this ingenious narrative.

If you're sick of the same old formula mysteries, you should think seriously about giving MY LIFE AS A FAKE a try. It's challenging, but I think you'll love every minute of it. I did.

Susan Lyons' excellent reading gives the story an immediacy and plausibility that enhances the book. Recordedbooks.com has produced its usual high quality audio version of a remarkable book.

Reviewed by Carroll Johnson, February 2004

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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