The New Lebanon Book Group will discuss Parrot and Olivier in America by Peter Carey on Sunday, February 6, at 11 am at the New Lebanon Library.
In this vivid and visceral work of historical fiction, two-time Booker Prize winner Peter Carey imagines the experiences of Alexis de Tocqueville, the great French political philosopher and author. Carey brings de Tocqueville to life through the fictionalized character of Olivier de Garmont, a coddled and conceited French aristocrat. Olivier can only begin to grasp how the other half lives when forced to travel to the New World with John “Parrot” Larrit, a jaded survivor of lifelong hardship who can’t stand his young master who he is expected to spy on for the overprotective Maman Garmont back in Paris. Parrot and Olivier are a mid-nineteenth century Oscar and Felix who represent the highest and lowest social registers of the Old World, yet find themselves unexpectedly pushed together in the New World.
For further information on this free event, please call the Library at 518-794-8844. The library is located at 550 State Route 20, ¼ mile north of the yellow blinking light at the intersection of Routes 20/22.