Bliss

Rating:
Summary: Dark satire at its best
Review: Harry Joy is much like someone we all probably know. A regular guy, a successful businessman, husband, and father. But after suffering a heart attack he transforms into someone much more interesting. He is rescusitated, but convinced he is in hell.
Don't read this and think you know where this story is going, there isn't anything that can prepare you for the rest of this brilliant, quirky, dark, hilarious story. Harry is surrounded by a cast of characters who are not necessarily likeable, but complex and interesting. We get to know his wife, his children, his business partner, and some new friends as well as Harry gets to know people as they really are, and not as he thought they were. This is a funny story, told in a serious way. Pay attention and you will laugh out loud. Highly recommended, Peter Carey is a brilliant writer.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: It's hard to surprise anyone who has read extensively -- the plot is usually predictable, the outcome clear, and the path hackneyed.

This Carey guy has renewed my faith in the English language. I thought before starting that Harry Joy would have a heartattack, decide he was in Hell, then wander around for 300 pages before finally saying, "Oops, I was wrong."

I had no idea where this book was going until it got there, and on the way it was funny, insightful, vivid, with likeable and hateable characters populating an insane but real world.

It's too bad he's so unknown, this guy can write.

Rating:
Summary: Five + Stars
Review: My favourite work of fiction, this dark comical look at a man trying to understand the meaning of life has helped me rethink my own.

Harry Joy is an advertising executive who's heart attack/near death experience allows him to see that his profession is leading him to hell.

But first Harry must decide if he's not already there.

If you can find the video I'd recommend it too, as it follows the book very closely.