Hardcover
272 pages, 560 grams

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When the boy was almost eight, a woman stepped out of the elevator into the apartment on East Sixty-second Street and he recognized her straightaway. No one had told him to expect it. That was pretty typical of growing up with Grandma Selkirk . . . No one would dream of saying, Here is your mother returned to you.

His Illegal Self is the story of Che — raised in isolated privilege by his New York grandmother, he is the precocious son of radical student activists at Harvard in the late sixties. Yearning for his famous outlaw parents, denied all access to television and the news, he takes hope from his long-haired teenage neighbor, who predicts, They will come for you, man. They'll break you out of here.
 
Soon Che too is an outlaw: fleeing down subways, abandoning seedy motels at night, he is pitched into a journey that leads him to a hippie commune in the jungle of tropical Queensland. Here he slowly, bravely confronts his life, learning that nothing is what it seems. Who is his real mother? Was that his real father? If all he suspects is true, what should he do?

I'd like to send this book out as an Australia-only Bookring PLUS!

The following guidelines will apply:

1. Make a journal entry when the book arrives safely.
2. Please try to read the book within 6-8 weeks of receiving it
(or make a journal entry to let us know how you're getting on if you need longer)
3. When finished, journal your thoughts about the book.
4. PM the next person on the list and send it to them.

And now for the PLUS! bit:

This is a heavy (560 gram) hardcover book so the cheapest way to post it in Australia will be in a 3kg prepaid satchel.

It seems a shame to waste all that extra weight allowance, so I'm going to include extra books with this one when I send it out. When you send this book on you must include at least as many books in the bag as were there when you received it. If none of the extras appealed to you they can be sent to the next person at no additional cost, but if you received something you'd like to read please replace it with a good book (something you'd rate 7/10 or higher)

This ring should kick off early in April 2008.

Participants
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01. crimson-tide (WA)
02. KLL (WA)
03. sorcha-sidhe (SA)
04. sarahbear (TAS)
05. Melanie2474 (ACT)
06. jeniwren (NSW)
07. dolphin-au (NSW)
08. jubby (NSW)
09. briz-cowgirl (QLD)
10. froggirlwendy (QLD)
11. amberC (NT)
12. livrecache (VIC)
13. freelunch (home)

en-route to crimson-tide (with company)

Arrived safely today (with company).
Thanks freelunch.

Righto - I'm back from a fantastic holiday. :-D
I read this one soon after it arrived, so will have to think back hard.

It is certainly an interesting read, even if not a totally satisfying one. I had great trouble in believing the story to be plausible. I can almost understand why Dial agreed to the initial plan, but the fact she didn't immediately go back to New York when things started going pear shaped just did not make sense to me. The character of Che (seven going on thirty) is a darling, but would he have been quite so wise ALL of the time?
Maybe I shouldn't be so picky. Maybe you had to be there.

There is no doubt that Carey can write. I loved the language and the way he puts words together. Very tight and tense in this case. I also appreciated the technique of feeding us the facts bit by bit in retrospect - others may find that annoying or confusing but for me it added to the enjoyment. It did get bogged down in the middle though, with all sorts of uninteresting 'add-ons'. In others' hands the whole thing could have been a disaster but for me the writing saved it.

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I'll have this in the bag and off to KLL soonish . . . I'm currently reading one I want to add to the bag, but it shouldn't take too long.

Off to KLL tomorrow (Friday).

Received in the post this morning! It *is* lovely to have a hardcover to read - quite luxurious in a way - so I'm looking forward to it! (As always there's a few more books I need to read beforehand!)

The company it arrive with looks interesting as well!! I haven't decided what I'll take from that yet, but I'll journal the ones I decide to take once I've, er, decided :-)

I found this a very interesting book - and different to, I think, other Carey novels I've read though I'm not sure if that impression is actually correct or not. The subject matter is unusual - starting in the US (Boston/New York) and ending up in Queensland. I know Carey now lives in NY, but I'm not sure I've read anything of his that wasn't primarily based in Aus (I guess my life as fake stand out). Like crimson-tide, I'm not sure I completely believe the tale and I'm not sure I understand Dial's motivation. At several points where she carried on 'kidnapping' Che, I would have turned back. There were hints of a relationship with Che's dad, but I'm not sure that was enough to explain her actions.

Carey's skill as a writer does come through in the way his has written the book - the chapters that chop around in view point and feed tiny bits of information - they way the dialogue is written without quotation marks and is therefore almost hidden in the prose (i think doing this enhances the overall 'dreamlike' effect of the book, though I did find it difficult on occasion to tease the dialogue out of the page. In the hands of a lesser writer, however, it could have been much worse!)

The novel is notable also for being completely based in real life (as far as I can tell). Carey does tend toward the fantastical in his novels - particularly in his finales so it's interesting to read a book where he didn't take that approach. Finally, I have to say that I *loved* the short chapters - reading chapters that were sometimes no more than a page or two did give me a real sense of achievement (though I doubt this was the effect Carey was going for here - it was mostly because the book is comprised of such very short vignettes :-)

All in all, glad to have read it and I'm not left *as* bemused as some other Carey novels have :-) Sorry for holding onto the book for so long. I've been keeping the other books that came with this one in a safe place and I'll go through them now to see if there's any I'd like and also PM sorcha-sidhe to continue the ring on!!

Thanks freelunch!!

Put in the post today :-)

Bookring as arrived (with friends)!

Am looking forward to reading this one very soon. I've just started reading another book so I'll need to finish that first before I get to this one.

Shouldnt take too long, though. :)

It took me a little longer than expected to get around to reading this book, but boy did I enjoy it.

I started it on a Friday afternoon whilst travelling sit-up on the Indian Pacific to Perth, where I had to attend the funeral of a friend. I finished it 12 days later on the flight back home. I couldnt have been any farther away from tropical Queensland and still have my feet planted on mainland Australia!

I love Peter Carey. What more can I say? His stories are always different, always engrossing, and always inspiring - HIS ILLEGAL SELF is no exception.

I hope everyone else taking part in this bookring will enjoy it as much as I have.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Now on it's way (via post) to sarahbear in Tasmania, as BellaMack advised she did not have the time to take part.

Additional books included as part of Bookring PLUS.

Arrived safely and soundly today. Thanks for sharing.

Sincere apologies for holding up this ring for so long. Contacting livrecache today for her address.

Livrecache has asked to be passed over so I will now contact Melanie2474.

Posting to melanie2474 today.

I don't remember signing up for this bag (but given that it arrived with sarahbear in December last year, not surprising!) but a lovely surprise when hubby came home with the post.

Will get to this as quickly as I can and pass along a bag full of goodies.

Interesting but disjointed at times, I felt this story went on longer than it needed to and there was no real resolution of the characters' conflict. Dial's back story was insufficient to explain why she would go all the way to Australia rather than return to New York, and the tit bits about Trevor are tantalising but again not a satisfactory explanation.

But it filled a lazy, sunny Saturday afternoon so, in that respect at least, it was a worthwhile read.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Off to jeniwren to continue the bookring.

Received today along with the other books. All previous novels by Carey have been enjoyed so looking forward to this recent work. Thanks to Freelunch for sharing.

Unfortunately this was a bit of a slog. I always enjoy Carey's work but found the plot inplausible and the motivations of the characters were never fully explored which was a major flaw. Why would someone with so much to lose in her professional life choose to take a child from America and bring him to the rainforests of Australia?? I did finish reading in hope that all would be explained but sadly it was not to be.

I have contacted the next recipient of the ring and await a reply for posting next week with the additional books.

The bookring plus arrived safely today. The reactions look like a bit of mixed bag. I've enjoyed all other books by Carey I've read, so will have to see if this book can live up to that.

Sorry for taking so long, but I have been terribly disorganised the last month or so. I read this book a few weeks back and thoroughly enjoyed it. I didn't have any problem with the believability of the story, people do stupid things and get stuck.
I loved the part of the Queensland commune. I live in an area where there are a lot of these communities and recognised a lot in Carey's descriptions. Apparently he used to live in this area when he was younger (when he wrote Bliss).
In most of Carey's characters there is a slightly insane streak, so I think this book fits in well within that tradition, although I must say he usually makes it appear less obvious.
Thanks freelunch for organising the ring and all other readers for participating. It has been a genuine pleasure.

Received in the post this week. Thank you very much.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Finally postingon to Briz-cowgirl.

Comments to come. Had to keep one HUGE book, so replaced it with another.

Received a few days ago, ?Thursday last week (15/4) from jubby. Meant to journal its arrival at the time but slipped my mind somehow..
Just finished this book tonight, thoughts to come later. Pondering which of the other books in the bag to keep to read or not before sending on to froggirlwendy.

ADDIT 29/4/10:
Been thinking about this book for a little while, trying to decide what I really thought of it. Generally I find Peter Carey's books a little hard to read, the writing is usually so dense and I tend to ave to re-read pages to fully grasp what he is saying or describing! This book seemed almost the complete opposite to his usual style to me. I enjoyed it a lot, especially the Queensland descriptions, but there were a few sections where it got bogged down and I felt that that sitory was lost a little bit. Thanks for this bookring freelunch, I don't know that I would have otherwise picked up this book to read; I'm glad I did! Will be posting to froggirlwendy tomorrow.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Sent along to froggirlwendy.

Arrived safe & sound - I had forgotten about this bookring also but no complaints. Will read ASAP :o)

I am the worst bookringer EVER. I had packed this bag away so as not to mix it with my other TBR's and have completely forgotten about it. A million apologies to all participants. It is now on its way to amberC. Please enjoy.

This arrived today. It has taken a while to get here. I have another owed book to read before I get to this, but it shouldn't be too long.

This book has it all. It's original, compelling, has wonderful descriptive writing, a unique plot, and characters that are distinctive and memorable... but it is still missing something.
Perhaps why. Why did Anna do what she did? It never really made sense to me.

PM'ing livrecache.

Arrived today with a well-packed lot of books. I look forward to starting it tonight. Thanks freelunch, amberc and everyone else in between.

I found this book to be one of Carey's most accessible. The sense of defamiliarisation as Dial and Che adjust to the strange landscape and its odd inhabitants is one of the novel's achievements.

I like his exploration of questions of cultural difference, as he did in Wrong About Japan. In His Illegal Self, which is written in an unobtrusively Americanised idiom, the quiet sense of dislocation provides impetus to the book's deep emotional undertow.

While I thought the story totally implausible, I don't think that was the point. In a strange way, it reminded me of some of Tim Winton's work – partially because of the power both authors have in describing the Australian landscape.

received home after three years on the road, thanks to all who participated in this ring :)

I'm slow enough getting through my unread books, no time to revisit anything so it's time this one moved on..