PositiveThe Cleveland Plain DealerParrot and Olivier detest each other from the start...Olivier finds Parrot's behavior appalling and sees him as a dangerous man who does not know his place. Parrot views Olivier as a pampered dandy. In short, the men represent for each other the worst of their respective classes … Carey...deftly uses this setting to shine a mirror of sorts on our current state, asking whether we have squandered both the country's enormous natural wealth and the nascent promise of its democracy. Near the end, Olivier says of America, ‘It is truly a lovely flower, a tiny tender fruit, but it will not ripen well.’
Michel Faber
RaveThe Cleveland Plain DealerHere's the overview of the novel: Peter, a Christian pastor, has been accepted to go on a mission to a planet in another galaxy, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to spread the Gospel to the – what should he call them? Creatures? Beings? – living there ... Faber, whose writing is never less than exact and compelling, excels at showing us Oasis and the Oasens through Peter's eyes ...being a wonderful adventure story, a quasi-science fiction tale and a probing examination of a marriage, The Book of Strange New Things is also a sharp look at the tenets of Christianity ...to his credit, doesn't attempt to answer these questions, nor does he allow them to weigh down the book's forward propulsion. But the questions are there for the musing, and they enrich a truly strange and wonderful novel.
