Another Good Read

It's been a long time since I've read anything by Peter Carey, perhaps since A True History of the Kelly Gang. Carey's newest novel, A Chemistry of Tears, is excellent. Catherine Gehrig, the horological curator at the Swinburne Museum in London, is grieving over the death of her lover, coming so close to the abyss that her boss decides to give her a special project involving a mechanical swan that eats, digests and excretes according to precise movements. Catherine's job is to make the swan, which was created in 1848, work again.

The book goes back and forth in time, from the present day to 1854 when an Englishman named Henry Brandling takes the mechanism to Germany to try to have it fixed. The texture of the story is immensely intricate and intriguing. You have to read the book quickly to keep the details straight, but that's not a problem. It's short, and compelling.

Reading this book made me want to read more Carey so I checked out Oscar and Lucinda from the Jeffersonville Library which has a large collection of his books. More on that when I finish it.