Parrot and Olivier in America

{{Infobox book

| name = Parrot and Olivier in America

| title_orig =

| translator =

| image = Peter carey parrot and olivier in america cover 9781926428147.jpg

| caption = Cover of Australian edition

| author = Peter Carey

| Jacket photograph =

| cover_artist =

| country = Australia

| language = English

| series =

| genre =

| publisher = Hamish Hamilton (Australia)
Knopf/Doubleday (US)
Faber & Faber (UK)

| release_date = 2009 (Australia)
2010 (US & UK)

| media_type = Print (hardback)

| pages = 464 pp

| isbn = 978-1-926428-14-7

| oclc = 426034998

| preceded_by =

| followed_by =

}}

Parrot and Olivier in America is a novel by Australian writer Peter Carey. It was on the shortlist of six books for the 2010 Man Booker Prize.{{cite web |url=http://www.themanbookerprize.com/news/stories/1451 |title=News | the Man Booker Prizes |access-date=2016-01-14 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160202191241/http://themanbookerprize.com/news/stories/1451 |archive-date=2016-02-02 }} It was also a finalist for the 2010 National Book Award.{{cite web|url=https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-2010#.UtV5KCiyVcg|work=National Book Foundation|access-date=14 January 2014 | title=Images From The 2010 National Book Awards Medal Ceremony And Finalists Reading}}

The book, according to its publisher, is "an improvisation on the life of Alexis de Tocqueville", and focuses on Tocqueville's trips to the United States.{{Cite news|title = Review: Tocqueville: The Novel|url = https://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/18/books/review/Mallon-t.html|newspaper = The New York Times|date = 2010-04-18|access-date = 2015-11-09|issn = 0362-4331|first = Thomas|last = Mallon}} The novel mimics this life with the fictional character, Olivier de Garmont, to the life of Tocqueville, to help the reader explore Tocqueville's life. The titular "Parrot" is Garmont's secretary, which New York Times reviewer Thomas Mallon describes as "Dickensian" character, and a guardian of Garmont as they explore the American environment.

While Carey was developing the novel, an excerpt was published in 2009 in Granta as "Parrot". {{cite journal |last=Carey |first=Peter |date=Autumn 2009 |title=Parrot |journal=Granta |issue=108 |pages=245–284}}

Plot summary

As the novel opens, Olivier recalls his childhood. Born to members of the French aristocracy, Olivier grows up a strange, unhealthy, and eternally curious boy. Meanwhile, Parrot grows up in working-class England, where his father works for a printer, and Parrot spends his days taking care of Watkins, an elderly engraver and counterfeiter.

Critical reception

New York Times reviewer Thomas Mallon did not think the novel as a whole was very successful, though the style followed the quality of Carey's other work. He described the novel as "replete with expressed feeling, if too wittily contrived for actual passion" and as well written, with each sentence "matchlessly robust".

Parrot and Olivier in America

Plot summary

Critical reception

References

Further reading