Theft: A Love Story Book

I'm a Peter Carey junkie, slowly coming down again from the wild rush that his books give me. There's hardly a writer whose books are just so much damned FUN. This is another example of his versatility and originality, especially obvious in the two narrative voices of the two brothers, so different at the beginning of the book, but that seem to approach each other more and more. It becomes clearer and clearer that Butcher Bones is the less reliable of the two, his 'damaged' brother Hugh, the 'idiot savant' really is much more perceptive and astute than his brother gives him credit for. The plot roars and lurches along, the people come leaping and bounding into the imagination, the intricacies of the trickery and subterfuge keep your mind racing, and the whole thing rounds out to a hugely satisfying ending that shows that the true love story was that of the two brothers, tied together like the two halves of a double helix.

And just as much fun the second time around.