Illywhacker
First edition (Australia)
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| Author | Peter Carey |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Christopher McVinish |
| Country | Australia |
| Language | English |
| Publisher |
UQP (Australia) Faber & Faber (UK) Harper & Row (US) |
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Publication date
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1985 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback and Paperback) |
| Pages | 600 pp |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 217478264 |
| Preceded by | Bliss |
| Followed by | Oscar and Lucinda |
Illywhacker is a novel by Australian writer Peter Carey. It was published in 1985, short-listed for the 1985 Booker Prize, and won the Victorian Premier's Literary Award and The Age Book of the Year Award. It was also short-listed for the 1986 World Fantasy Award.
The novel tells the story of Herbert Badgery, self-admitted liar, trickster, and confidence man, the "Illywhacker" of the title (though "illywhacker" is also supposed to be Australian slang for "a stick for smacking a child with").
Considered metafiction or magical realism by some, the novel is divided into three books of eighty-six, sixty-one, and sixty-six short chapters respectively, with chapters often shorter than a single page. It covers Herbert's life and marriage and that of his son, Charles, in a rambunctious and meandering style.
The novel is related in broad chronological order by the main protagonist, Herbert Badgery, but with frequent digressions that relate the circumstances and life history of Badgery himself, and of many of the characters he meets.
The story begins in 1919 when the thirty-three-year-old Herbert lands his aeroplane in a field close to the wealthy former bullock-herder Jack McGrath. Herbert befriends Jack and persuades him to invest in the construction of an aeroplane factory. Herbert also becomes the lover of Jack's teenage daughter Phoebe, who had previously been involved in a lesbian relationship with a teacher, Annette Davidson. Jack commits suicide following a violent argument between Herbert and some other potential investors. Herbert marries Phoebe and they bear two children, Charles and Sonia. After learning to fly Herbert's aeroplane, Phoebe steals it, abandoning her husband and children to live with Annette. Herbert briefly becomes the lover of Jack's widow, Molly, but goes out on the road to scrape a living, often as a confidence trickster, accompanied by his two children. He meets Leah Goldstein, a former medical student turned dancer who is married to the Communist agitator Izzie Kaletsky. She and Herbert become lovers and develop a variety act, but Leah returns to care for Izzie after he has both legs amputated following an accident.
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