A review by ianbanks
Bliss by Peter Carey

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.