![]() ![]() Telling him they need him to research American prison reform, they ship Olivier to the States with Parrot, a gruff Englishman they've convinced to accompany, and spy on, their son. Olivier is an aristocrat his family came close to being killed in the French Revolution, and his parents, sensing more political trouble ahead, are anxious to get him as far away from France as possible. Genius, however, can find the humor in almost anything, and in Parrot and Olivier in America, Australian-born author Peter Carey manages to craft a funny, unlikely and slightly bizarre comic novel around the life of the influential political thinker.Ĭarey's novel follows Olivier de Garmont, a very thinly disguised version of Tocqueville, and his initially unwilling traveling companion "Parrot" Larrit from France to a still-young United States. The French historian is associated with many things - his classic two-volume book Democracy in America, for starters - but comedy is not generally one of them. Did you hear the one about Alexis de Tocqueville? ![]()
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