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sarahjjs's review against another edition
5.0
This might be my new fav books - I dunno, it's between this and CloudStreet. These characters are so dirty and bad and human and real. The writing describes hatred and revenge but every sentence is beautiful. The wife is so nasty but she's what a real human is, in her environment. God, I love her. I love Harry and Honey and all of their flaws. I love this, I don't know why Australian literature by male authors resonate with me so much. I'll be forcing this into so many people's hands :-)
ianbanks's review against another edition
3.0
I don't love this book as much as I used to. Part of it is because the characters behave foolishly and selfishly for no real or good reason which doesn't give me much reason to be interested in them the way it might have 30 years ago (I behave foolishly and selfishly all the time but I know why I'm doing many of those things). Another is that I'm not really interested in the travails of wealthy people having a crisis of conscience simply because they've been exposed to a side of life they've chosen to ignore previously: the author being the hero of their own story doesn't appeal to me any longer. On the plus side, this is a novel from Mr Carey's career before he decided that there was more money in being impenetrable. The writing is clear, lucid and insightful but - like Harry Joy - I'm a different person now than I was then. It's not Bliss, it's me.
rtay's review against another edition
4.0
I really, really liked this book when I read it, but none of my friends had ever heard of it. Apparently it's a big deal in (Peter Carey's home country) Australia, because they have just made a musical out of it!
tien's review against another edition
2.0
I'm really not one for dark humour so this book, for me, is a weird literary fiction. I can cope with weird but when there were extramarital affairs & taboo relationship etc etc, umph, I nearly gave up. I really don't know why I didn't... actually, I think it had to do with a quite a bit of alcohol so I can't say that this read was memorable to me...
innerweststreetlibrarian's review against another edition
4.0
Wow. What a bizarre and lovely book. I can't tell you much about what happens, because there are too many twists and turns in the life of Harry Joy, and to mention them would be to spoil the story. If you read it, just let it flow. Don't think too hard about it. It's like a window into a weird, paranoid, 80's version of Queensland, where everyone wears white linen suits and is quite mad. Great holiday read, especially if you're in the vicinity of a rainforest.
*UPDATE* I just accidentally found the movie version on SBS which is BRILLIANT!! The screenplay was adapted by Peter Carey, and I've never seen such perfect casting in a book-to-film translation before. I knew who everyone was before they were even introduced, it was like the filmmakers had looked inside my head and pulled them straight out of my imagination. (Betty should have been a brunette, but it was the 80's so the blonde perm is appropriate. I'll forgive that one). I also LOVED all the visual gags that really enhanced some of the funnier parts of the book, taking a very literal approach to things that were more conceptual on paper, e.g. the scene in the restaurant between Betty & Joel, followed by the sardines. My god, those sardines flopping around are hysterical!! Read the book, then watch the movie.
http://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/video/373116483521/bliss
*UPDATE* I just accidentally found the movie version on SBS which is BRILLIANT!! The screenplay was adapted by Peter Carey, and I've never seen such perfect casting in a book-to-film translation before. I knew who everyone was before they were even introduced, it was like the filmmakers had looked inside my head and pulled them straight out of my imagination. (Betty should have been a brunette, but it was the 80's so the blonde perm is appropriate. I'll forgive that one). I also LOVED all the visual gags that really enhanced some of the funnier parts of the book, taking a very literal approach to things that were more conceptual on paper, e.g. the scene in the restaurant between Betty & Joel, followed by the sardines. My god, those sardines flopping around are hysterical!! Read the book, then watch the movie.
http://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/video/373116483521/bliss
belinda_palamara's review against another edition
Wasn't feeling it. I gave up on this book on page 115.
avitalgadcykman's review against another edition
5.0
Peter Carey tells you how people look, think and feel-each of these in total disharmony with the rest of it and with other people, how each trait and person keeps changing and is completely unreliable, and he even goes to the incestuous, and yet he tells you about the most common feelings of people regarding themselves and others. Some descriptions of the mindwork and of perceptions take my breath away with their accuracy.
Finished it, and now I want more peter Carey!
Interestingly, his biography combines with the issues of Bliss (if wikipedia got it right): In 1976, Carey moved to Queensland and joined an 'alternative community' named Starlight in Yandina, north of Brisbane. He would write for three weeks, then spend the fourth week working in Sydney. It was during this time that he wrote most of the stories collected in War Crimes, as well as Bliss, his first published novel
Finished it, and now I want more peter Carey!
Interestingly, his biography combines with the issues of Bliss (if wikipedia got it right): In 1976, Carey moved to Queensland and joined an 'alternative community' named Starlight in Yandina, north of Brisbane. He would write for three weeks, then spend the fourth week working in Sydney. It was during this time that he wrote most of the stories collected in War Crimes, as well as Bliss, his first published novel
jgwc54e5's review
5.0
One of my favourite books of all time. Brilliant characters, so funny and brilliant satire about modern society.
kalikabali's review
3.0
Black comedy, a political and moral stance, some hard truths about the world we have built around us. But also a little disjointed narrative and a very black and white evil (as embodied in the ad world, greedy liars of corporate world) versus good (as in communal back to nature hippie life-style)
His first book, so, I guess like many first novels, tries to tackle too many issues and themes under one. A bit better than most first novelists do.
His first book, so, I guess like many first novels, tries to tackle too many issues and themes under one. A bit better than most first novelists do.