Bliss (novel)
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| Author | Peter Carey |
|---|---|
| Country | Australia |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Novel |
| Publisher | Faber and Faber |
| Released | 1981 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 336 pp (first edition, hardback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-571-11769-4 (first edition, hardback) |
Bliss is a novel by Australian writer Peter Carey. Published in 1981, the book won that year's Miles Franklin Award.
Written as a dark, comic fable, the story concerns an advertising executive, Harry Joy, who briefly 'dies' of a heart attack. On being resuscitated, he realizes that the life he has previously drifted aimiably through is in fact Hell - literally so to Harry. His wife is unfaithful with his partner. His son is selling drugs, and his daughter is a communist selling herself to buy them. In one of the novel's more shocking scenes, glimpsed through a window, incest occurs.
Redemption comes in the form of Honey Barbara - pantheist, healer, whore. In the words of the book's blurb "Honey is to Harry as Isis is to Osiris. Together they conquer Hell and retire to the forest where their children inherit the legend of paradise regained." But Harry must die for a second time to be truly saved.
In 1985 Bliss was adapted into a film, Bliss, directed by Ray Lawrence and starring Barry Otto.
[edit] Trivia
In an auto-biographical short story titled Bruce-Like, the author Bruce Redmond describes the second date he went on with his now wife. He took her to a video store to rent the film based on his favourite Peter Carey novel, Bliss. He requested it from the video store and they put it aside for him and his date to pick up. To his surprise (and to the shock of his date), a pornographic film that happened to be of the same name was reserved for him in its place.
[edit] External sources
- Find Bliss in Libraries Australia - click on the name 'Heading' to find all related works in 800+ Australian library collections
