Parrot and Olivier in America Book

Whimsical & epic, occurring in a place so magical but which really truly existed. There are forgeries & revolutions, dynamics of brotherhood which bring to mind Chabon's "Kavalier and Clay", and a style and tone which reminds me, at its zenith, of Ackroyd's "Hawksmoor."

But it truly is demanding upon the reader-- this is NO SUMMER BOOK-- like an even more labyrinthine work by Saramago. The title is misleading (a crime for which an artist, I truly believe, should suffer dearly) for "America" apparently stands for "the voyage to" (with ships grand and not) and very few of the adventures being kept land-locked. I mean, wtf. Yep, it's also symbolic-- it's a European foreigner's unique take on the Land of the Free. (Olivier surveys various prisons of the New World... Egads!) It is optimistic & alive, but sorta like the two or three movies that escape your attention each year now that more categories have been added to the Best Picture race. "Parrot and Olivier" stands to be the perpetual Oscar movie novel you never will bother with, won't bother to even sit down & watch.

Let me go further, making an additional analogy (I know, I know). The novel, a contender for the Booker, is like a mountain of rocks... somewhat like one of the fantastic hiking trails found in Las Cruces, NM. Rocky and uphill, it's a total workout in nature for the city-locked individual. Carey's words are the crazy rocks... polished, harsh, resolute. Are there any tarantulas? No. (Because for that kind of experience, one must travel to the amphitheater at McKelligon canyon... there are huge ones with hairy legs aplenty.) It's all struggle & the landscape is beautiful, but it sucks when you figure that there were like six other trails you could have chosen and instead stuck to the most difficult one. And there are no tarantulas to grab at you, to make it risky enough.

"You are an American now, and you must take the rough with the smooth," says Olivier's brother-in-law. It's pretty lame the writer did not play with this idea more-- making it for us readers a more enjoyable journey and less harsh terrain.