A few people have asked me who I am. It is not a question that I find easy to respond to. It’s not that I’m trying to be overly evasive. The simple fact is that I really don’t know who I am.
But I was looking at some stuff from a Peter Carey book and ..
You might have read Peter Carey’s ‘Bliss’. If not I would highly commend it to you. Peter Carey is a very talented Australian writer and ‘Bliss’ is his first and (in my opinion) best novel. After he wrote ‘Bliss’ everyone started to tell him how clever he was and, soon enough, he started to believe it – a fact that shows more clearly with every word he writes.
Anyway …. Bliss is a wonderful book and I would commend it, as I say, to you all. The book was made into a movie by Ray Lawrence. I commend that too. Though those who have read the book may be disappointed with the character of ‘Honey-Barbara’ within the film. Or maybe not. Please let me know.
I mention it now because the hero of the book (and movie), Harry Joy, is a lot like me. He is described as ‘not very intelligent, and not very original, but a good bloke.’
That’s me.
Oddly enough I ran into Barry Otto (who plays Harry Joy in the movie) some years ago because of his interest in cricket. It scared the shit out of me.
Richmond Road 