Bliss [Paperback]

Peter Carey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 30, 1996

For thirty-nine years Harry Joy has been the quintessential good guy. But one morning Harry has a heart attack on his suburban front lawn, and, for the space of nine minutes, he becomes a dead guy. And although he is resuscitated, he will never be the same. For, as Peter Carey makes abundantly clear in this darkly funny novel, death is sometimes a necessary prelude to real life.
   Part The Wizard of Oz, part Dante's Inferno, and part Australian Book of the Dead, Bliss is a triumph of uninhibited storytelling from a writer of extravagan gifts. 

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Harry Joy is 39, an ad-man in an unnamed Australian city, who while mowing his lawn one day has a heart attack and dies. Then, nine seconds later, his heart re-catches and he's again alive. But in the meantime, temporarily dead, he's learned a few things. One, that there are such distinct and immutable qualities as Good and Evil; two, that the principalities of Heaven and Hell ("worlds in the afterlife like layer after layer of file pastry") do actually exist. And, in fact, it seems to Harry that he hasn't in fact come back to life but that he has indeed entered Hell. How else to account for frustrated wife Bettina's affair with Harry's partner? Or his daughter Lucy being a Communist? Or his son David being a rapacious money-hungerer with dreams of being a drug-dealer? All these people, Harry figures, must be "Captives" of Hell themselves, "Actors" who've accommodated themselves to do and be dirty in order to please "Those In Charge." And when he returns to the ad agency and proceeds to dismantle it, purging the evil (dropping oil company clients, first off), these same family Captives promptly have him committed to a mental hospital: "Sometimes he saw, the doors had signs such as 'Social Workers' instead of 'Station Master' or 'Waiting Room' but there was, amongst the people he saw, the same melancholy one finds amongst passengers who have just missed the train to the city and know they will be marooned here for the next four hours." But Harry stays minimally afloat - thanks to the presence of a hippie and part-time whore named Honey Barbara. And when they're both released, she and Harry decide to go home to Harry's house - to brood and try to change Hell from within. Carey (The Fat Man In History) handles the impressive and unsettling situation here - the ethical reversals - with deft, cool talent, especially in a raft of very funny (rageful) family scenes. Yet underlying the whole novel is a rather simpleminded message: an ecological cautionary tale in which the villains - advertising, cities, cars - are knocked down stylishly but with little cumulative effect. The first half, then, with its sheen and style, may remind you of Walker Percy and/or Thomas Berger, while the second half drags and repeats. But, even if erratic, this is strong work from a big, growing talent. (Kirkus Reviews)

Harry Joy is an all round Good Bloke, who has a heart attack and is dead for several minutes. When is revived, he thinks he has gone to Hell, when in fact he's seeing the world realistically for the first time ever. He battles the plagues of the Underworld, with some fairly eccentric performances that he wouldn't have dared if thought he was still alive. He finds an accomplice in Honey Barbara, and together they conquer Hell and regain Paradise. Carey's first published novel, this is a parable, a fable, a political commentary; it is a tear jerker, a laugh out loud comedy; brilliantly written it is a joy to read. (Kirkus UK) --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Peter Carey was born in 1943 in Australia and lives in New York. He is the author of the highly acclaimed selection of short stories, The Fat Man in History, seven novels, Bliss, Illywhacker (shortlisted for the 1985 Booker Prize), Oscar and Lucinda (winner of the 1988 Booker Prize), The Tax Inspector, The Unusual Life of Tristan Smith, Jack Maggs (winner of the 1998 Commonwealth Writers Prize) and True History of the Kelly Gang (winner of the 2001 Booker Prize), and a book for children, The Big Bazoohley. Oscar and Lucinda was made into a film starring Ralph Fiennes. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (January 30, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679767193
• ISBN-13: 978-0679767190
• Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 0.7 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #513,956 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant, October 15, 1999

By 

Steve Gold ([e-mail]) (Toronto) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bliss (Paperback)

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.

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I would have loved this book when published in 1981!, August 9, 2000

By 

Mary Whipple (New England) - See all my reviews
(COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Bliss (Paperback)

Bliss is a lively, entertaining, and thought-provoking seriocomic novel, and Peter Carey is a terrifically amusing writer with a great ear for dialogue, a wry humor, and a broad vision. He delights in poking fun of us and our foibles, while saving his barbs for corporations and institutions. Although I thoroughly enjoyed Bliss, I know I would have enjoyed it even more, and maybe even loved it, when it was published in 1981. I feel Bliss to be just a bit dated now--still well worth reading and lots of fun, with many extremely funny scenes--but less relevant with its environmental messages and its anti-Big Business needling than it must have been when these messages were fresh, new, and more importantly, uncommon. As it was, Carey's approach now feels a bit patronizing at times and the environmental message, just a bit didactic--and old.

The book opens with Harry Joy, an advertising executive, having an out-of-body experience as he "dies" from a heart attack. When he comes back to life, he is convinced that he is in Hell. Since his wife is having an affair with his business partner, his son is selling drugs, and his daughter is a sexually precocious junkie, it is easy to see why Harry is convinced that his life is Hell and why he feels a captive to it. As he seeks enlightenment, Harry recognizes that Krappe Chemicals, a client, is polluting the environment with cancer-causing fumes, sees a cancer map showing the rates of cancer near industrial polluters, and meets Honey Barbara, an environmentally conscious prostitute with a heart of green.

Carey's satire here also includes the vagaries of religious doctrine, the absurdities of police procedure, the abuses of the mental health "industry" and its institutions, the fear of Communist conspiracies, and even of the trustee selection process for the State Gallery, which draws from "the very inner circle of society." It is lots of fun to read, with some laugh-out-loud funny scenes, but its thematic punch seems to have dulled a bit over time.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Black comedy at its best!, November 9, 1998

By 

Margaret Fiore - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bliss (Paperback)

At the beginning of this quirky and original tale, Harry Joy thinks he has it all. He is proud of his children, has a successful career, is still in love with his beautiful and intelligent wife, is best friends with his boss. Then, he has a heart attack, and has one of those near-death out of body experiences where he approaches a zone of complete bliss, and a zone of complete horror. During his recovery, he becomes convinced that he truly is dead, and that he is in that zone of complete horror, indeed in hell. Suspecting this, he begins to find evidence that he is right! After one of the worst of the revelations, he has an interlude with a young woman who lives an alternate lifestyle in a much more remote area. He falls in love with Honey Barbara, and his life begins to change. And then Harry Joy begins a struggle to truly change his entire life and self, and finally attain complete bliss. This is a silly/sad/sweet story filled with surprises, human frailty, and poetic beauty. It is a story to become a lasting favorite. And, surprise of surprises, the movie matches the book