Summary
Peter Carey's first novel concerns Harry Joy, an advertising executive in the thick of a mid-life crisis. He has had a heart attack; his wife is pressuring him to move to New York City; his kids are into drugs, sex, and money. When his wife commits him to a mental hospital, Harry escapes and throws himself into a new relationship with a political subversive. The two run from her enemies into the rain forest. Leavened with a healthy streak of irony, Bliss takes the Cheever-Updike style of novel one step further into the world of the political thriller.
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Media Reviews
"Carey is serious about dreams and delusions. Harry's new vision of the ugliness and despair in the here and now releases all kinds of magic and poison in the family network. He leaves home; he is committed to a mental hospital by his son; his wife takes over his advertising agency; his partner takes over his wife; she dies of cancer; he leaves the city for the rain forest where Honey Barbara lives with her father, a beekeeper, in an enclave of communards and cult-followers. (This is where bliss comes in.)....Carey uses coarse elements of farce-elephants that sit on cars, funny waiters or wives and lovers caught flagrante delicto...with a stylish insouciance." -- John Ryle
-- Times Literary Supplement
Bibliographic Details
Publisher: Harpercollins
Published date: 1982
Edition: 1th edition
Pages: 296
Publisher's Notes
Harry Joy returns to his family and business after his heart attack, but, believing that he has died after all and that his corrupt life is hell, he seeks a new, purer existence.
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