![]() Will this be a country whose glory blossoms briefly, then ends in George W. The question for the modern reader is, of course, implicit. Parrot is somewhat more optimistic, seeing the chance for a fresh beginning for himself. ![]() "What if they blindly follow what their newspapers tell them and elect some rube for President?" he asks. For Olivier, it's a barbaric, uncultured society, driven mainly by a desire for profit. Both are outsiders to America, seeing different things in it. Thus we get Olivier, a haughty, melancholy young French aristocrat still haunted by the ghosts of his country's revolution, and his counterpoint, Parrot, a hard-traveled Englishman who acts as Olivier's not-entirely-willing manservant. It seems, though, that Carey didn't intend to retread an already-written account of a young nation, but to write a character study. I've never read the work of Alexis de Tocqueville, the 18th century French writer upon whom Carey based the character Olivier, so I can't really comment on this book from that angle. Laudable writing, story could be more involving ![]()
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