Jack Maggs by Peter Carey
Reviews If any contemporary author has the goods to pull off a variation on Dickens, Carey (The Unusual Life of Tristan Smith) is certainly the man. With great panache, he executes an abundantly atmospheric and rollickingly entertaining reprise of Great Expectations. In 1837, a mysterious man'hulking, silent, missing two fingers'steps off the coach in London. His name, we eventually learn, is Jack Maggs (read Abel Magwitch), and he has illegally returned to England from Australia, where he was brutally used in the penal colony. He's a dead man if discovered, but he's obsessed with finding his (adoptive) son, whom he's been supporting for years'facts we glean in small, suspenseful increments. Circumstances propel Maggs into the home of Sir Percival Buckle, where he is quickly employed as a footman, and where he catches the eye of a saucy chambermaid with a tragic past. An attack of tic doloureux brings Maggs to the attention of ambitious young writer Tobias Oates, who employs the newly fashionable science of animal magnetism to draw out the phantom in Maggs's subconscious that is causing the pain. Under hypnosis, Maggs reveals some of his secrets, and Oates determines'without informing Maggs'to make his reputation with a novel about the criminal mind. Oates has other tawdry secrets'an affair with his sister-in-law, monstrous debts, the legacy of a terrible childhood'but he is protected by the veneer of respectability. Indeed, the thin line between respectability and ruin, the corrupting power of money and the cruelty of class distinctions are themes that Carey rings with adroit authority. As the plot rockets along with surprises at every turn, Carey creates a vivid, multifaceted picture of 1800s London, especially the squalid and tormented lives of the poor and the criminal underclass. The racy, pungent dialogue is faithful to period idioms and to the muscular vulgarity of Cockney slang. Best of all, Carey's memorable characters can stand proudly in the pantheon beside those of Dickens. If one book earns the accolade of irresistible'' this year, it should be this novel. (Feb.) FYI: The movie version of Oscar and Lucinda, Carey's Booker Prize-winning novel, will be released in December. Viking will publish a tie-in edition in trade paperback. Carey's Booker Prize-winning novel, Oscar and Lucinda (1988), has recently been released in motion-picture form, and it is easy to visualize on screen this new, rollicking, scary novel of London's underbelly circa 1838. A vivid, sensory study of circumstance and need, the story commences with its protagonist newly, illegally arrived in London, single-mindedly seeking one person who can calm his roiling heart. With a hidden but doubtless criminal history and an intriguingly mysterious present, the young but imposing Jack Maggs affects everyone he encounters, even as he insinuates himself into a wealthy household. Among those he inadvertently fascinates is Tobias Oates, a writer, adulterer, and amateur practitioner of the mesmeric arts, whose soul plummets as his fame rises, his fortunes suddenly, inextricably linked to Maggs. A broad, suspenseful story that releases its secrets gradually and masterfully; highly recommended. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 10/1/97.]'Janet Ingraham Dwyer, formerly with Worthington P.L., Ohio YA-A bizarre tale set in Dickensian London. Jack Maggs, a foundling who has been trained as a small child to rob wealthy houses, is caught, sentenced for deportation, and forbidden to return to England on pain of execution. At age 15, the helpless young man is on his way to Australia when a 4-year-old orphan shows him a kindness by feeding him from his own meager food supply. The boy's generosity is never forgotten; from Australia, Jack manages to locate him in an English orphanage, arranges for his education and support, and comes to think of the lad as his son. In middle age, Jack defiantly returns to London in search of the boy, now a young man living the life of a gentleman. He encounters Tobias Oates, a famous writer fascinated with the criminal mind who wants to probe his subconscious. In return, Tobias promises to help him find his son. This story has as many twists and turns as the streets of London, but in the end justice is done and Jack finds peace and contentment back in Australia. Readers familiar with Great Expectations will enjoy making parallels with the classic from which this story is taken and YAs who enjoyed Caleb Carr's The Alienist (Random, 1994) will find in this novel the same authenticity of speech and setting, madcap chases, and surprising plot elements. The major characters, while not always endearing, are always entertaining and colorful.-Molly Connally, Kings Park Library, Fairfax County, VA
Publication Details
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Binding: Paperback
Published by: University of Queensland Press: , 1998
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ISBN: 9780702230431 | 070223043X
272 pages.
Book Condition: Good
Cover worn
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