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Collected Stories
Peter Carey is justly renowned for his novels, which have included the Booker Prize-winning titles Oscar and Lucinda and True History of the Kelly Gang. He is also a dazzling writer of short stories and this volume collects together all the stories from The Fat Man in History and War Crimes as well as three other stories not previously published in book form.
The stories, persuasive and precisely crafted, reveal Carey to be a moralist with a sense of humour, a surrealist interested in naturalism and an urban poet delighting in paradox.
Contents:
- "Do You Love Me?"
- The Last Days of a Famous Mime
- Kristu-Du
- Crabs
- Life & Death in the South Side Pavilion
- Room No. 5 (Escribo)
- Happy Story
- A Million Dollars' Worth of Amphetamines
- Peeling
- A Windmill in the West
- Concerning the Greek Tyrant
- Withdrawal
- Report on the Shadow Industry
- Joe
- The Puzzling Nature of Blue
- Conversations with Unicorns
- American Dreams
- The Fat Man in History
- The Uses of Williamson Wood
- Exotic Pleasures
- A Schoolboy Prank
- The Journey of a Lifetime
- The Chance
- Fragrance of Roses
- He Found Her in Late Summer
- War Crimes
- A Letter to Our Son
The stories, persuasive and precisely crafted, reveal Carey to be a moralist with a sense of humour, a surrealist interested in naturalism and an urban poet delighting in paradox.
Contents:
- "Do You Love Me?"
- The Last Days of a Famous Mime
- Kristu-Du
- Crabs
- Life & Death in the South Side Pavilion
- Room No. 5 (Escribo)
- Happy Story
- A Million Dollars' Worth of Amphetamines
- Peeling
- A Windmill in the West
- Concerning the Greek Tyrant
- Withdrawal
- Report on the Shadow Industry
- Joe
- The Puzzling Nature of Blue
- Conversations with Unicorns
- American Dreams
- The Fat Man in History
- The Uses of Williamson Wood
- Exotic Pleasures
- A Schoolboy Prank
- The Journey of a Lifetime
- The Chance
- Fragrance of Roses
- He Found Her in Late Summer
- War Crimes
- A Letter to Our Son
353 pages, Paperback
First published August 21, 1995
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456 people want to read
About the author
Peter Carey
102 books1,033 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. Not all books on this profile are by the same author. See this thread for more information.
Peter Carey was born in Australia in 1943.
He was educated at the local state school until the age of eleven and then became a boarder at Geelong Grammar School. He was a student there between 1954 and 1960 — after Rupert Murdoch had graduated and before Prince Charles arrived.
In 1961 he studied science for a single unsuccessful year at Monash University. He was then employed by an advertising agency where he began to receive his literary education, meeting Faulkner, Joyce, Kerouac and other writers he had previously been unaware of. He was nineteen.
For the next thirteen years he wrote fiction at night and weekends, working in many advertising agencies in Melbourne, London and Sydney.
After four novels had been written and rejected The Fat Man in History — a short story collection — was published in 1974. This slim book made him an overnight success.
From 1976 Carey worked one week a month for Grey Advertising, then, in 1981 he established a small business where his generous partner required him to work only two afternoons a week. Thus between 1976 and 1990, he was able to pursue literature obsessively. It was during this period that he wrote War Crimes, Bliss, Illywhacker, Oscar and Lucinda. Illywhacker was short listed for the Booker Prize. Oscar and Lucinda won it. Uncomfortable with this success he began work on The Tax Inspector.
In 1990 he moved to New York where he completed The Tax Inspector. He taught at NYU one night a week. Later he would have similar jobs at Princeton, The New School and Barnard College. During these years he wrote The Unusual Life of Tristan Smith, Jack Maggs, and True History of the Kelly Gang for which he won his second Booker Prize.
He collaborated on the screenplay of the film Until the End of the World with Wim Wenders.
In 2003 he joined Hunter College as the Director of the MFA Program in Creative Writing. In the years since he has written My Life as a Fake, Theft, His Illegal Self and Parrot and Oliver in America (shortlisted for 2010 Man Booker Prize).
Peter Carey was born in Australia in 1943.
He was educated at the local state school until the age of eleven and then became a boarder at Geelong Grammar School. He was a student there between 1954 and 1960 — after Rupert Murdoch had graduated and before Prince Charles arrived.
In 1961 he studied science for a single unsuccessful year at Monash University. He was then employed by an advertising agency where he began to receive his literary education, meeting Faulkner, Joyce, Kerouac and other writers he had previously been unaware of. He was nineteen.
For the next thirteen years he wrote fiction at night and weekends, working in many advertising agencies in Melbourne, London and Sydney.
After four novels had been written and rejected The Fat Man in History — a short story collection — was published in 1974. This slim book made him an overnight success.
From 1976 Carey worked one week a month for Grey Advertising, then, in 1981 he established a small business where his generous partner required him to work only two afternoons a week. Thus between 1976 and 1990, he was able to pursue literature obsessively. It was during this period that he wrote War Crimes, Bliss, Illywhacker, Oscar and Lucinda. Illywhacker was short listed for the Booker Prize. Oscar and Lucinda won it. Uncomfortable with this success he began work on The Tax Inspector.
In 1990 he moved to New York where he completed The Tax Inspector. He taught at NYU one night a week. Later he would have similar jobs at Princeton, The New School and Barnard College. During these years he wrote The Unusual Life of Tristan Smith, Jack Maggs, and True History of the Kelly Gang for which he won his second Booker Prize.
He collaborated on the screenplay of the film Until the End of the World with Wim Wenders.
In 2003 he joined Hunter College as the Director of the MFA Program in Creative Writing. In the years since he has written My Life as a Fake, Theft, His Illegal Self and Parrot and Oliver in America (shortlisted for 2010 Man Booker Prize).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews
March 22, 2022
Read this for "American Dreams" if nothing else. One of the best fabulist short stories ever written.
December 11, 2018
Peter Carey has been one of my favourite writers since the 1980s, and I decided this year that I would re-read all of his books in chronological order.
First, a bit of context. He is described as ‘Australia’s most popular living writer’ (although to be brutal, he may be swimming in a shallow pool). Most of the stories were previously published as ‘A Fat Man in History’ (1974) and ‘War Crimes’ (1979). So PC was in his 30s, working as an advertising copy writer, writing fiction in his spare time. In the 60s he had dropped out, travelled Europe with his wife, lived for a time in London, had written stories and novel(s) but without great success. He returned to Australia in 1970, working in advertising, gradually getting stories published. 1976 (between the 2 published collections) he moved with new partner to alternative community in Queensland, writing for 3 weeks, then spending 4th week in Sydney in the advertising agency. He was there until about 1981….but possibly more about that in the next book ‘Bliss’.
Its difficult to review short stories, because the tendency is to try to describe each one - but that doesn’t really add much to actually reading them.
One of my observations about this collection is that it doesn’t feel really dated considering it is more than 40 years since they were written. Perhaps that’s because PC writes about imagined landscapes, unreal situations, but with great insight into the human condition and human behaviour. So the feelings and emotions remain relevant, and the circumstances and environment are a bit weird anyway, so they travel quite well.
I think there are a number of themes which run through the collection. There is a lot about power, and who has it, and what it is like to feel powerless. Sometimes this is victim vs bully, sometimes it is individual against the system.
A lot of the stories describe oppressive situations, sometimes on a societal level (The Chance, Kristu Du) but also on a relationship or situational level. There is a feeling of an individual trapped within the system and not being about to get out, in an almost Kafkaesque sort of way. The Windmill in the West and Life and Death in the South Pavilion are examples of one man doing a job, which he doesn’t quite understand the purpose of, but he is trapped in the doing of it, and cannot break out of it – attempts are futile. Crabs describes a situation where someone actually cannot escape from the drive in, because gangs of thieves gradually dismantle his car and life becomes a microcosm of survival in a primitive society. In Life and Death in the South Pavillion we see the futility of fighting the system as well as the futility of the eternal treadmill.
The Americanisation of Australia is hinted at a number of times, which I know was quite a concern in the 1970s, and connected to that there are a series of descriptions of colonisation, different species becoming dominant or infiltrating (The Chance, Exotic Pleasures, Conversations with Unicorns, The Puzzling Nature of Blue), some stories are more allegorical than others but they describe an alien or external culture gaining ascendancy and the consequences of that, sometimes in a sort environmental apocalyptic way (Exotic Pleasures) or in a much more complex way (Conversations with Unicorns).
Closely related to this recurring colonisation thread is the element of revolution, counter revolution, oppression and rebellion against oppression. People are thrust into new power structures and they have to adjust to new norms, or there is the creeping threat of potential violence which provides a constant tension (Ecribo, Crabs, Kristu Du, Fat Man, War Crimes).
Unintended consequences are common in the stories, or possibly more accurately, it is the message that actions have consequences. If you wish for American Dreams, you might end up living inside one. If you exploit indigenous populations you might create a blue handed elite who then have a distorted moral perspective, if you sell your soul for a ride on the luxury train you have to pay the price and do the deed – sometimes you actually have to eat shit (The Uses of Williamson Wood is particularly memorable for a shit eating episode, when a bully is finally cut down, but it is sadly unsatisfactory for the victim, not triumphant).
You also get a sense of PCs background in marketing, and I suspect he felt he was selling his soul to make a living rather than devote his time to his art. There is a feeling of being sold a shallow dream. Most directly in Report of the Shadow Industry – marketization of shadows. Shadows are bought in packets. 25% of income spent on shadows. Promising an impossible dream than can never be realised leaving a feeling of emptiness when one has failed to grasp the shadow.
People are alienated from their environment or sometimes from their own nature. Last Days of a Famous Mime show the artist as misunderstood, ‘capitalising on his neuroses’ and unable to connect with people. Human nature is selfish, hedonistic, shallow- and people who are altruistic or benevolent often come unstuck. The architect in Kristu Du has one last chance for creation of a great building, but can only be achieved by engaging with an oppressive and malignant regime. Big power oppressing the people. Architect becomes just a cog in the wheel, a weapon in the battle. Unintended consequences, his demands make matters much worse for workers. The climax is one of ironic symbolism of the building creating the miracle of ‘rain’ and therefore dazzling the oppressed and legitimising the regime.
In Do You Love Me people and places are disappearing if they are not valued. This is a metaphor for losing sight of things that matter, and if we don’t reassess the things that count they will be gone. Conversely it is also about being loveable, being valuable in order to be valued.
Having now thought about it I think it is very reminiscent of the 70s – the end of the decade of peace and love had been replace by the harsh reality of addiction and capitalism.
All together, they are thought provoking and well crafted, funny and horrible and bleakly honest.
First, a bit of context. He is described as ‘Australia’s most popular living writer’ (although to be brutal, he may be swimming in a shallow pool). Most of the stories were previously published as ‘A Fat Man in History’ (1974) and ‘War Crimes’ (1979). So PC was in his 30s, working as an advertising copy writer, writing fiction in his spare time. In the 60s he had dropped out, travelled Europe with his wife, lived for a time in London, had written stories and novel(s) but without great success. He returned to Australia in 1970, working in advertising, gradually getting stories published. 1976 (between the 2 published collections) he moved with new partner to alternative community in Queensland, writing for 3 weeks, then spending 4th week in Sydney in the advertising agency. He was there until about 1981….but possibly more about that in the next book ‘Bliss’.
Its difficult to review short stories, because the tendency is to try to describe each one - but that doesn’t really add much to actually reading them.
One of my observations about this collection is that it doesn’t feel really dated considering it is more than 40 years since they were written. Perhaps that’s because PC writes about imagined landscapes, unreal situations, but with great insight into the human condition and human behaviour. So the feelings and emotions remain relevant, and the circumstances and environment are a bit weird anyway, so they travel quite well.
I think there are a number of themes which run through the collection. There is a lot about power, and who has it, and what it is like to feel powerless. Sometimes this is victim vs bully, sometimes it is individual against the system.
A lot of the stories describe oppressive situations, sometimes on a societal level (The Chance, Kristu Du) but also on a relationship or situational level. There is a feeling of an individual trapped within the system and not being about to get out, in an almost Kafkaesque sort of way. The Windmill in the West and Life and Death in the South Pavilion are examples of one man doing a job, which he doesn’t quite understand the purpose of, but he is trapped in the doing of it, and cannot break out of it – attempts are futile. Crabs describes a situation where someone actually cannot escape from the drive in, because gangs of thieves gradually dismantle his car and life becomes a microcosm of survival in a primitive society. In Life and Death in the South Pavillion we see the futility of fighting the system as well as the futility of the eternal treadmill.
The Americanisation of Australia is hinted at a number of times, which I know was quite a concern in the 1970s, and connected to that there are a series of descriptions of colonisation, different species becoming dominant or infiltrating (The Chance, Exotic Pleasures, Conversations with Unicorns, The Puzzling Nature of Blue), some stories are more allegorical than others but they describe an alien or external culture gaining ascendancy and the consequences of that, sometimes in a sort environmental apocalyptic way (Exotic Pleasures) or in a much more complex way (Conversations with Unicorns).
Closely related to this recurring colonisation thread is the element of revolution, counter revolution, oppression and rebellion against oppression. People are thrust into new power structures and they have to adjust to new norms, or there is the creeping threat of potential violence which provides a constant tension (Ecribo, Crabs, Kristu Du, Fat Man, War Crimes).
Unintended consequences are common in the stories, or possibly more accurately, it is the message that actions have consequences. If you wish for American Dreams, you might end up living inside one. If you exploit indigenous populations you might create a blue handed elite who then have a distorted moral perspective, if you sell your soul for a ride on the luxury train you have to pay the price and do the deed – sometimes you actually have to eat shit (The Uses of Williamson Wood is particularly memorable for a shit eating episode, when a bully is finally cut down, but it is sadly unsatisfactory for the victim, not triumphant).
You also get a sense of PCs background in marketing, and I suspect he felt he was selling his soul to make a living rather than devote his time to his art. There is a feeling of being sold a shallow dream. Most directly in Report of the Shadow Industry – marketization of shadows. Shadows are bought in packets. 25% of income spent on shadows. Promising an impossible dream than can never be realised leaving a feeling of emptiness when one has failed to grasp the shadow.
People are alienated from their environment or sometimes from their own nature. Last Days of a Famous Mime show the artist as misunderstood, ‘capitalising on his neuroses’ and unable to connect with people. Human nature is selfish, hedonistic, shallow- and people who are altruistic or benevolent often come unstuck. The architect in Kristu Du has one last chance for creation of a great building, but can only be achieved by engaging with an oppressive and malignant regime. Big power oppressing the people. Architect becomes just a cog in the wheel, a weapon in the battle. Unintended consequences, his demands make matters much worse for workers. The climax is one of ironic symbolism of the building creating the miracle of ‘rain’ and therefore dazzling the oppressed and legitimising the regime.
In Do You Love Me people and places are disappearing if they are not valued. This is a metaphor for losing sight of things that matter, and if we don’t reassess the things that count they will be gone. Conversely it is also about being loveable, being valuable in order to be valued.
Having now thought about it I think it is very reminiscent of the 70s – the end of the decade of peace and love had been replace by the harsh reality of addiction and capitalism.
All together, they are thought provoking and well crafted, funny and horrible and bleakly honest.
August 23, 2012
I feel like Peter Carey is an author who abuses his talent. Of the many stories in this book, I think I enjoyed about... three: Do You Love Me?, American Dreams and Happy Story - the latter because it was one of the very few that did not have explicit content. Maybe I'm just immature (wait - maybe? who am I kidding? I'm as immature as 17 can get), but I don't understand why this kind of stuff is needed to express every darn view of his. If they're not explicit, they're just plain... weird. And not in a good way. I feel like this book has taken out every last shred of innocence I had and burnt it before tossing the ashes in the wind. I'm disgusted. I DO NOT LIKE.
That being said, I cannot write Carey off as a dreadful writer - he has talent. There were some beautiful descriptions, and such potential. I just feel like he let it all down with his... disturbing mind. Personal opinion only - as I said, I'm very immature.
That being said, I cannot write Carey off as a dreadful writer - he has talent. There were some beautiful descriptions, and such potential. I just feel like he let it all down with his... disturbing mind. Personal opinion only - as I said, I'm very immature.
November 20, 2017
This review has been crossposted from my blog at The Cosy Dragon . Please head there for more in-depth reviews by me, which appear on a timely schedule.
'Collected Stories' by Peter Carey is a set text for one of my literature classes, as it is a good example of Post-Modernism. As such, I was not very interested in reading it, but my other alternatives were Feminism and Constructions of Gender! The short stories are clearly critiquing society, and so are not particularly comfortable to read.
These collected stories are numerous in both theme and setting. Some, such as 'Exotic Pleasures' are set in our world, but in a future time. Others are in a complete fantasy world, such as 'Do You Love Me?'. Possibly the most famous two short stories are 'War Crimes' and 'The Fat Man in History', so if you don't read any other stories from this collection, read those.
Carey aims to shock and appall at all times. Why else would he have someone eat a dog turd, or consume the flesh of a fellow human? Other elements include vivid imagery, such as the snakes of 'The Uses of Williamson Wood', and interesting characterization 'Life and Death in the South Side Pavillion'. He makes his reader think, and doesn't encourage compassion for his characters.
Because I had to analyse these stories, and I'm not that fond of short stories to begin with, I could almost say I hated this book! Sure, the stories were interesting in an abstract way, but it certainly required a lot of thought. I like to have cohesion between short stories, some central theme, but there wasn't anything. People who enjoy post-modernism and metafiction (exposing the constructs of fiction) will probably like this book, but it just wasn't for me.
'Collected Stories' by Peter Carey is a set text for one of my literature classes, as it is a good example of Post-Modernism. As such, I was not very interested in reading it, but my other alternatives were Feminism and Constructions of Gender! The short stories are clearly critiquing society, and so are not particularly comfortable to read.
These collected stories are numerous in both theme and setting. Some, such as 'Exotic Pleasures' are set in our world, but in a future time. Others are in a complete fantasy world, such as 'Do You Love Me?'. Possibly the most famous two short stories are 'War Crimes' and 'The Fat Man in History', so if you don't read any other stories from this collection, read those.
Carey aims to shock and appall at all times. Why else would he have someone eat a dog turd, or consume the flesh of a fellow human? Other elements include vivid imagery, such as the snakes of 'The Uses of Williamson Wood', and interesting characterization 'Life and Death in the South Side Pavillion'. He makes his reader think, and doesn't encourage compassion for his characters.
Because I had to analyse these stories, and I'm not that fond of short stories to begin with, I could almost say I hated this book! Sure, the stories were interesting in an abstract way, but it certainly required a lot of thought. I like to have cohesion between short stories, some central theme, but there wasn't anything. People who enjoy post-modernism and metafiction (exposing the constructs of fiction) will probably like this book, but it just wasn't for me.
December 25, 2008
I hesitate using the L word on this, Christmas morning, because, you know, everyone is walking around with that distant, vacant look in their eyes. That look that says, stop talking, please, I'm bloated and can't think, and I can use a little hair of the dog that bit me, this fine, blessed morning.
But anyway, most short story collections I've read and enjoyed have been of the Literary nature, with everyday, common settings and with emphasis on the characters. What struck me with Peter Carey's collection is his imagination with setting and plot. A few of the stories involve weapons, a couple is Sci-Fi and surrealist, and on the whole his characters are harsh and cynical, his stories well written, well paced, and engrossing. It's a great collection.
Merry Christmas. There's some eggnog left in the fridge.
But anyway, most short story collections I've read and enjoyed have been of the Literary nature, with everyday, common settings and with emphasis on the characters. What struck me with Peter Carey's collection is his imagination with setting and plot. A few of the stories involve weapons, a couple is Sci-Fi and surrealist, and on the whole his characters are harsh and cynical, his stories well written, well paced, and engrossing. It's a great collection.
Merry Christmas. There's some eggnog left in the fridge.
August 9, 2013
There's no other way to describe this collection other than...holy crap!
There are some really, really confronting stories here. I mean it. Lots of swearing, some very freaky ideas, and many stories that make you sit up in astonishment.
As an English teacher and a reader this collection speaks to my soul. The content is just so meaty, earthy, and goddamn interesting! Each story has depth and breadth. Not all were to my taste, in fact some stories are distasteful and some are downright yucky.
And there is NEVER a dull moment.
Peter Carey is acknowledged as one of Australia's premier authors, and this collection shows why.
There are some really, really confronting stories here. I mean it. Lots of swearing, some very freaky ideas, and many stories that make you sit up in astonishment.
As an English teacher and a reader this collection speaks to my soul. The content is just so meaty, earthy, and goddamn interesting! Each story has depth and breadth. Not all were to my taste, in fact some stories are distasteful and some are downright yucky.
And there is NEVER a dull moment.
Peter Carey is acknowledged as one of Australia's premier authors, and this collection shows why.
February 27, 2021
I'm not really a fan of the short form, but I am a fan of Carey's long form, so I thought I'd give his short stories a go. I've discovered in the process ... that his short stories are not for me. I can't do the bizarre and the dystopian. I really enjoyed some of them, and Carey's writing is always outstanding (the best in the game), it was only the tales I couldn't click with. Most of the stories read like he wrote them during a drug-induced haze, and I prefer my stuff logical and less tripped out.
August 21, 2015
Peter Carey has rapidly become one of my favourite authors, so reading some of his short stories seemed in order. He’s had a few collections published; this 2001 edition is, I think, the most comprehensive, combining his previous volumes The Fat Man in History and War Crimes, and adding a few extra stories which had previously been unpublished.
Although most of them take place in no particular time or place, the majority of these stories were written in the 1970s, before Carey turned his hand to writing novels. Carey was self-admittedly suffering from cultural cringe at the time, and therefore he usually avoids naming the setting, despite the fact that nearly all the stories are clearly set somewhere in Australia or an Australian-like nation. The effect, when combined with his usual surreal and magical style, is to create a sort of fantasy Australia – a land of dusty country towns and strange cityscapes built around anonymous harbours, stifling factories at the edge of the desert, bleak motels and seedy bars, secret rivers and dark forests. It actually reminded me, in a wonderful way, of the artwork of Shaun Tan – clearly Australian, yet also strange and fantastic. I said in my review of Illywhacker that I loved the way Carey took Australian place names and turned them into something beautiful and lyrical, but there is equally something marvellous about the mythical not-Australia of his early fiction.
As in any collection, I have varying opinions on the stories. Some of my favourites included Kristu-Du, about an architect building a monument for a third-world dictator and turning a blind eye to his role in the dictator’s human rights abuses; Crabs, a strange story about a man who becomes trapped in a drive-in theatre in a sort of post-apocalyptic world in which possession of a car is paramount to survival; A Windmill in the West, about a soldier guarding a fence in the desert who becomes confused about which side is which; The Puzzling Nature of Blue, about an Australian who must confront what has actions have wrought upon a tropical island nation; Exotic Pleasures, about an alien bird which gives intense pleasure to all who stroke it; A Schoolboy Prank, about an act of revenge and intimidation a group of alumni perform upon their former teacher; and The Journey of a Lifetime, about a clerk obsessed with travelling on a luxury train.
Carey’s prose is brilliant as always, and his stories range across a variety of post-modern anxieties and unease: Australia’s relationship with America, the stultifying effects of consumer culture, the lip service people pay to the notion that physical beauty isn’t important. Sometimes these themes can be buried deep within complex allegories – beautifully written allegories, but nonetheless difficult to extract. I can’t say I enjoyed every one of these stories, and I do still think Carey is a better novelist than a short story writer. Nonetheless, I enjoyed Collected Stories a lot.
Although most of them take place in no particular time or place, the majority of these stories were written in the 1970s, before Carey turned his hand to writing novels. Carey was self-admittedly suffering from cultural cringe at the time, and therefore he usually avoids naming the setting, despite the fact that nearly all the stories are clearly set somewhere in Australia or an Australian-like nation. The effect, when combined with his usual surreal and magical style, is to create a sort of fantasy Australia – a land of dusty country towns and strange cityscapes built around anonymous harbours, stifling factories at the edge of the desert, bleak motels and seedy bars, secret rivers and dark forests. It actually reminded me, in a wonderful way, of the artwork of Shaun Tan – clearly Australian, yet also strange and fantastic. I said in my review of Illywhacker that I loved the way Carey took Australian place names and turned them into something beautiful and lyrical, but there is equally something marvellous about the mythical not-Australia of his early fiction.
As in any collection, I have varying opinions on the stories. Some of my favourites included Kristu-Du, about an architect building a monument for a third-world dictator and turning a blind eye to his role in the dictator’s human rights abuses; Crabs, a strange story about a man who becomes trapped in a drive-in theatre in a sort of post-apocalyptic world in which possession of a car is paramount to survival; A Windmill in the West, about a soldier guarding a fence in the desert who becomes confused about which side is which; The Puzzling Nature of Blue, about an Australian who must confront what has actions have wrought upon a tropical island nation; Exotic Pleasures, about an alien bird which gives intense pleasure to all who stroke it; A Schoolboy Prank, about an act of revenge and intimidation a group of alumni perform upon their former teacher; and The Journey of a Lifetime, about a clerk obsessed with travelling on a luxury train.
Carey’s prose is brilliant as always, and his stories range across a variety of post-modern anxieties and unease: Australia’s relationship with America, the stultifying effects of consumer culture, the lip service people pay to the notion that physical beauty isn’t important. Sometimes these themes can be buried deep within complex allegories – beautifully written allegories, but nonetheless difficult to extract. I can’t say I enjoyed every one of these stories, and I do still think Carey is a better novelist than a short story writer. Nonetheless, I enjoyed Collected Stories a lot.
July 17, 2015
While well-written, Peter Carey'c collected stories just aren't for me.
The collection, written in the style of magic realism, uses disjointed time and unresolved narratives, with plots that shift and change focus mid story. Characters are often in strange situations and there are themes such as dreams, entrapment, cannibalism, sex, fantastical creatures, rewritten history and many other strange focuses.
However, Carey's prose is wonderful, clear and enthralling and wonderfully descriptive, which helps create the surreal worlds of the stories.
Character often play the role of the moral hero, illustrating the moral issue through metaphoric comments on society. Motivation, values and characterisation isn't always clear in these characters, but playing a similar role, they are meant to be read more symbolic.
3 out of 5 stars to Peter Carey's surreal stories. I recommend for older readers those who like a good wacky read and don't mind some mature content.
The collection, written in the style of magic realism, uses disjointed time and unresolved narratives, with plots that shift and change focus mid story. Characters are often in strange situations and there are themes such as dreams, entrapment, cannibalism, sex, fantastical creatures, rewritten history and many other strange focuses.
However, Carey's prose is wonderful, clear and enthralling and wonderfully descriptive, which helps create the surreal worlds of the stories.
Character often play the role of the moral hero, illustrating the moral issue through metaphoric comments on society. Motivation, values and characterisation isn't always clear in these characters, but playing a similar role, they are meant to be read more symbolic.
3 out of 5 stars to Peter Carey's surreal stories. I recommend for older readers those who like a good wacky read and don't mind some mature content.
May 27, 2014
Only read 2 stories, "Do You Love Me?" and "Kristu-Du".
I really liked the concept behind "Do You Love Me?" and I found the idea of people disappearing when they cease to be loved quite interesting and terrifying at the same time. I don't share the same feelings about "Kristu-Du", though. I found it long, boring and without much meaning.
I really liked the concept behind "Do You Love Me?" and I found the idea of people disappearing when they cease to be loved quite interesting and terrifying at the same time. I don't share the same feelings about "Kristu-Du", though. I found it long, boring and without much meaning.
October 24, 2010
Some of the most brilliant short stories I've ever read. "The Last Days of a Famous Mime" is fantastically good, and fantastically good to teach. I don't know about Carey as a novelist, but as a short story writer I think he's one of the twenty first century's best. Damn that sounded pretentious.
May 8, 2013
I hardly understood any of these stories and most of them made me feel quite uncomfortable and slightly violated, but at the same time they provoked copious amounts of thought and I walked away totally in awe of Carey's controversial imagination.
April 1, 2016
I think I was too stupid for these stories as I think the meanings were lost on me. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and hope I'll like them better when I understand them more. But, for now, I'm sticking to a two star rating.
August 10, 2012
Disturbing.
February 22, 2019
I still think about these stories, 20 years after reading them. An astounding collection.
January 2, 2022
Grotesque, well crafted stories with the bleak, relentless logic of nightmares. Many of the stories focus on the construction, loneliness, guilt, and fragility of misconstructed masculinity or repressed homosexuality. Key examples include, first and foremost, Peeling , ”Do you love me?, and A million dollars' worth of amphetamines followed by A windmill in the west, Life & death in the South Side Pavillion, A schoolboy prank, Exotic pleasures. Kafkian surrealism and perversion, in a psychoanalytic sense, also spills over into his excursions into dystopian SF (Exotic pleasures or the Mad Max like atmosphere of Crabs), neocolonial satire (Kristu-Du, The puzzling nature of blue, Conversations with unicorns, The Chance) and postmodern deconstructionism into his anachronystic reimagining of Homer (A greek tyrant).
In my opinion, these restless stories, most of which were written in the 1970s, range from two to four stars.
In my opinion, these restless stories, most of which were written in the 1970s, range from two to four stars.
July 23, 2025
"'Do You Love Me?'": 4 stars
- And I fully support plagiarism; pilfer your darlings. Why not take Borges for a spin? Start with the premise and tone, and switch it up — add an emotional, more character-driven core to it (this will be your contribution) — and, hell, now the world has one more Borgesian story than it did before. What can be wrong with that?
"The Last Days of a Famous Mime": 2 stars
- Eww, mimes.
"Kristu-Du": 4 stars
- His success in longer forms is starting to make sense, for the space agrees with him here (as do the interpersonal scenes in the earlier stories, which likewise suggest a flare for the interpersonal). Eh, meh on the ending.
- And I fully support plagiarism; pilfer your darlings. Why not take Borges for a spin? Start with the premise and tone, and switch it up — add an emotional, more character-driven core to it (this will be your contribution) — and, hell, now the world has one more Borgesian story than it did before. What can be wrong with that?
"The Last Days of a Famous Mime": 2 stars
- Eww, mimes.
"Kristu-Du": 4 stars
- His success in longer forms is starting to make sense, for the space agrees with him here (as do the interpersonal scenes in the earlier stories, which likewise suggest a flare for the interpersonal). Eh, meh on the ending.
February 11, 2021
Peter Carey's 'Collected Stories' is able to successfully retain a specific tone and feel that holds momentum driving you from the previous story, to the next. However not every story is as good as the last, or as good as the next. Maybe I am not deep enough to understand the hidden meanings but some stories are written so extravagantly that any notion of plot is lost between an attempt to augment the word count. With some stories being so shrouded with explicit content that you feel the need to throw the book away and call Peter Carey a seven year old who had just discovered the internet, or a man who needs to touch grass. But do not get me wrong, the collection is unique and at times splendid. But some stories should be removed.
July 14, 2018
A 3.5 star book. I'm not a huge fan of short stories but I am a huge fan of Peter Carey. Most of the stories are set in a dystopian future and are darkly humorous. However, the final story is a factual account of his son's birth amidst his wife's serious illness. One would have to be very hard hearted not to be moved by this account.
February 28, 2024
The Collected Stories are an interesting array of odd and provocative stories of varying lengths that when mid, are meh, but when good, are very good. The latter stories make up for the earlier ones in the collection, which I found tedious or uninteresting, but with stories such as ‘American Dreams’, ‘War Crimes’, and ‘A Windmill in the West’, the caliber of Carey’s artistry is better unveiled.
December 20, 2019
Although some stories were difficult to get through the writing and ideas were so superb that i really liked this book.
August 18, 2020
What a brilliant read. Pure genius.
August 30, 2021
The stories are all quite bleak so this is a hard read.
May 30, 2023
This is a striking collection of stories. Mr. Carey has one of the most singular imaginations of any writer of his time.
September 1, 2022
hated it. so much. like i can appreciate the art in the writing, but i think that the stories sucked and the sheer amount of sex and implied misogyny was just excessive. i had to read this as part of my school, and not even my teacher likes it. i mean she just doesn't like peter carey in general, but i think that there were just so many things wrong with this. the only reason its getting any stars at all is because i think that the characters in war crimes were hot (that said, i tend to be attracted to the worst kind of person so that should say something). like, they were deeply flawed and crude and repulsive (as were many of the other characters) but overall war crimes didn't suck as bad as any of the others. american dreams was the second least worst one, but it was so dull. i think that it needed significantly more dialogue to be even half worth the effort it took to read it.
November 3, 2014
I can’t believe it took me so long to discover Peter Carey. All I can say in my defence is that maybe he’s an acquired taste? Possibly I made a mistake by starting off with one of his novels. I slogged through a few pages of Bliss, many years ago, but couldn’t get into it. (Maybe I found non-fiction accounts of NDEs more interesting, or the prose seemed bogged in vivid description?) Then I read an extract from Oscar and Lucinda (in Making Stories by Kate Grenville and Sue Woolfe) – hardly fair to Carey (it put me off all the novels they look at).
So when I started on this collection, I didn’t expect to enjoy it, I was just determined to figure out why his work is rated so highly, and not only by countless critics but authors I deeply admire. What is it, I asked myself as I read the first three or four stories, which struck me as both quirkily inventive and faintly familiar — the latter, I soon realised, because these stories all date from the ’70s and, over the last four decades, there’s been a host of imitators.
The first story impressed me with ‘good ideas’ – he’s innately political – yet felt ‘superficial’; he was ‘establishment’, ‘bourgeois entertainment’ (I was concurrently reading Kathy Acker). A note to self, having read two or three more, was: ‘feels DEAD. Intriguing but SOULLESS. Clever but EMPTY… characters are cut-outs, despite having thoughts & dreams etc.’ (Again, I was comparing Carey to a vastly different author: unfairly.)
My conversion happened during story #5, ‘Life & Death in the South Side Pavilion’. Here, Carey’s comic genius, his mastery of irony, shines, and that rib-shaking revelation cast the whole collection in a new light. I read the rest of it to my partner, who often broke into (and this is rare) laughter, to spare him from having to hear about Carey’s hilarious set-ups second-hand. Not that all the stories are funny; some are too grimly realistic. He specialises in dystopian visions. And the state of the world today vindicates his bleak view of the future. His faith, such as it is, in human nature shows through in subtle touches. If I had to find a comparison, he’s kind of a literary Leunig, a soulful cartoonist. Like Leunig, Carey does awesome surrealism: see, e.g., the exquisite ‘Peeling’ or the satiric ‘American Dreams’.
This collection (1994) comprises 26 stories, a repackaging of two earlier collections, the first of which Carey began work on in 1970. A recurring motif is the colour blue – not as in the blues, though. There’s ‘every blue possibly imaginable. Proud Prussian blue at the head then, beneath a necklace of emerald green, ultramarine and sapphire which gave way to dramatic tail feathers of peacock blue. Its powerful chest revealed viridian hidden like precious jewels in an aquamarine sea.’ (– ‘Exotic Pleasures’) And ‘Is this why I now find blue hands beautiful where once I called them grotesque?’ (– ‘The Puzzling Nature of Blue’)
Now I’ve acquired a taste for Carey’s style and sensibility, I’m itching to move on to one of his novels.
So when I started on this collection, I didn’t expect to enjoy it, I was just determined to figure out why his work is rated so highly, and not only by countless critics but authors I deeply admire. What is it, I asked myself as I read the first three or four stories, which struck me as both quirkily inventive and faintly familiar — the latter, I soon realised, because these stories all date from the ’70s and, over the last four decades, there’s been a host of imitators.
The first story impressed me with ‘good ideas’ – he’s innately political – yet felt ‘superficial’; he was ‘establishment’, ‘bourgeois entertainment’ (I was concurrently reading Kathy Acker). A note to self, having read two or three more, was: ‘feels DEAD. Intriguing but SOULLESS. Clever but EMPTY… characters are cut-outs, despite having thoughts & dreams etc.’ (Again, I was comparing Carey to a vastly different author: unfairly.)
My conversion happened during story #5, ‘Life & Death in the South Side Pavilion’. Here, Carey’s comic genius, his mastery of irony, shines, and that rib-shaking revelation cast the whole collection in a new light. I read the rest of it to my partner, who often broke into (and this is rare) laughter, to spare him from having to hear about Carey’s hilarious set-ups second-hand. Not that all the stories are funny; some are too grimly realistic. He specialises in dystopian visions. And the state of the world today vindicates his bleak view of the future. His faith, such as it is, in human nature shows through in subtle touches. If I had to find a comparison, he’s kind of a literary Leunig, a soulful cartoonist. Like Leunig, Carey does awesome surrealism: see, e.g., the exquisite ‘Peeling’ or the satiric ‘American Dreams’.
This collection (1994) comprises 26 stories, a repackaging of two earlier collections, the first of which Carey began work on in 1970. A recurring motif is the colour blue – not as in the blues, though. There’s ‘every blue possibly imaginable. Proud Prussian blue at the head then, beneath a necklace of emerald green, ultramarine and sapphire which gave way to dramatic tail feathers of peacock blue. Its powerful chest revealed viridian hidden like precious jewels in an aquamarine sea.’ (– ‘Exotic Pleasures’) And ‘Is this why I now find blue hands beautiful where once I called them grotesque?’ (– ‘The Puzzling Nature of Blue’)
Now I’ve acquired a taste for Carey’s style and sensibility, I’m itching to move on to one of his novels.
December 25, 2012
Carey, simply put, is a genius. Sadly, all too often, the right bastard spoils his handiwork in an almost too-obvious manner, like a Japanese potter utilizing the concept of wabi-sabi to save his work from the possibility of perfection. I read most of these stories at absolutely the wrong time for me. My own vulnerabilities and alienation hovering about the edges of my consciousness made reading so many of these things like twisting the knife in my own psyche. Still one can't blame Carey for such a thing. But be forewarned: the bulk of these stories are cruel, bleak things which are highly specifically written and do not shun from destroying their protagonists.
Some notable exceptions escape Carey's bludgeon: 'A Million Dollars Worth of Amphetamines'; 'The Fat Man in History'; 'Exotic Pleasures'; 'The Chance.' Heartbreaking, wondrous, deeply moving stories I still inhabit and that still move with me, like secret memories writ down by a puzzling Australian scribe, surreptitiously stolen from my own well of experience.
Some notable exceptions escape Carey's bludgeon: 'A Million Dollars Worth of Amphetamines'; 'The Fat Man in History'; 'Exotic Pleasures'; 'The Chance.' Heartbreaking, wondrous, deeply moving stories I still inhabit and that still move with me, like secret memories writ down by a puzzling Australian scribe, surreptitiously stolen from my own well of experience.
January 7, 2017
Peter Carey is a weird and wonderful dude - nearly all of his stories are twisted and warped, driven by flawed characters. At the same time he has this innate ability to deconstruct the human condition in a engaging way that forces you to stop and think.
I'd like to have see some of his stories further fleshed out - I could imagine the likes of The Chance making great full length novels.
I generally enjoy books with characters like the ones within Collected Stories; they aren't shining protagonists and it's much easier to imagine them in the real world despite all the crazy surrealism and strange happenings. This book was no different - super thought provoking and I'm glad it was recommended to me.
I'd like to have see some of his stories further fleshed out - I could imagine the likes of The Chance making great full length novels.
I generally enjoy books with characters like the ones within Collected Stories; they aren't shining protagonists and it's much easier to imagine them in the real world despite all the crazy surrealism and strange happenings. This book was no different - super thought provoking and I'm glad it was recommended to me.
September 4, 2009
This book boasts a liberal dollop of favorable praise from a wide variety of publications, but I'm personally unimpressed. The guy is trying way too hard. When I buy a book of short stories, I have an expectation: that somebody's going to tell me a darn story, not that I'm going to have to wade my way through the bloated pretentious verbal secretions of a self-indulgent brain. When a 3-page story seems interminable, it's time to relegate the book to the garage sale. Think I'm exaggerating? Here is a sample sentence: "Sometimes she felt she'd been invented by Leonard Cohen, whom she hated." Seriously, who writes like this?
June 28, 2010
definitely going to look into his novels now...
favorites include 'The Chance' (definitely 5 stars), 'Kristu-Du', 'Concerning the Greek Tyrant' and 'A Million Dollars' Worth of Amphetamines'.
'Room No. 5 (Escribo)' would make a fantastic short film. so would '. . .Amphetamines' (which could easily be stretched to feature length) and 'Withdrawal'... actually, most of them would be interesting on-screen, but those seem most feasible. others would need substantial dream/scifi/scale effects, is my guess.
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