Review
From the book jacket: Michael—a.k.a. "Butcher"—Boone is an ex–"really
famous" painter: opinionated, furious, brilliant, and now reduced to living in
the remote country house of his biggest collector and acting as caretaker for
his younger brother, Hugh, a damaged man of imposing physicality and childlike
emotional volatility. Alone together they’ve forged a delicate and shifting
equilibrium, a balance instantly destroyed when a mysterious young woman named
Marlene walks out of a rainstorm and into their lives on three-inch Manolo
Blahnik heels. Beautiful, smart, and ambitious, she’s also the daughter-in-law
of the late great painter Jacques Liebovitz, one of Butcher’s earliest
influences. She’s sweet to Hugh and falls in love with Butcher, and they
reciprocate in kind. And she sets in motion a chain of events that could be...
Beyond the Book
Peter Carey was born in Australia in 1943 (in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria, about 30
miles from Melbourne). He attended Geelong Grammar School (one of
Australia's top private schools which at one time or another has been
responsible for educating many of the most powerful names in Australian business
and government). He left university
after a year having failed his science exams and found work as a copyrighter in
London (UK) and Melbourne - and eventually started his own agency. He published his first volume of short stories,
War Crimes,
in 1979, followed by another volume of short stories,
The Fat Man in History,
in 1980.
He then wrote three novels,
Bliss (1981) - about an advertising executive
who has an out-of-body experience;...
