Bliss (novel)

infobox Book |
name = Bliss
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption =
author = Peter Carey
cover_artist =
country = Australia
language = English
series =
genre = Novel
publisher = Faber and Faber
release_date = 1981
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pages = 336 pp (first edition, hardback)
isbn = ISBN 0-571-11769-4 (first edition, hardback)
preceded_by =
followed_by = Illywhacker

"Bliss" is a novel by Australian writer Peter Carey. Published in 1981, the book won that year's Miles Franklin Award.

Written as a dark, comic fable, the story concerns an advertising executive, Harry Joy, who briefly 'dies' of a heart attack. On being resuscitated, he realizes that the life he has previously drifted aimiably through is in fact Hell - literally so to Harry. His wife is unfaithful with his partner. His son is selling drugs, and his daughter is a communist selling herself to buy them. In one of the novel's more shocking scenes, glimpsed through a window, incest occurs.

Redemption comes in the form of Honey Barbara - pantheist, healer, whore. In the words of the book's blurb "Honey is to Harry as Isis is to Osiris. Together they conquer Hell and retire to the forest where their children inherit the legend of paradise regained." But Harry must die for a second time to be truly saved.

In 1985 "Bliss" was adapted into a film, "Bliss", directed by Ray Lawrence and starring Barry Otto. [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088821/ Film adaptation of the novel] ]

External sources

* [http://nla.gov.au/anbd.aut-an35962732 Find "Bliss" in Libraries Australia] - click on the name 'Heading' to find all related works in 800+ Australian library collections

References