Peter Carey’s collection of short stories, The Fat Man in History, 1974, University of Queensland Press, IBSN 0-7022-0900-7, operates on the same paradox as that of Shakespeare’s wise fool, the only character speaking the truth. To seek reality, the reader must depart from it. Opting for the absurd and the comical, the eerie coincidence and the flight of fancy, Carey carefully stages each element of the story in order to provide comment on modern society while also reflecting it’s elusive nature.
The Clarity of Distortion
The Fat Man in History incorporates the dream as much as the nightmare, yet it is through these deportations from reality – as is has come to be understood – that the truth of any given scene becomes evident, by sidestepping accepted reality, through allegory, mythology and fantasy, the reader can witness with a bright clarity the world surrounding them, its desires and machinations.
Character
The characters that populate Carey’s stories are of seemingly unremarkable nature, antiques dealers, pump attendants and unemployed overweight men, yet, through some strength of vision, Carey reveals them to be something much more. Beyond the careworn nameplates Carey sees the bare faced criminals, the aimless revolutionaries and innocent bystanders as they walk down the streets. In The Fat Man in History, they are sketched out for the reader, right down to the buttons on their shirts.
That, once sketched, these character often go on to prove that the pessimistic attitude and general visions of dystopia are not only valid reactions to the society during that era, but the only, true, reaction, speaks perhaps more clearly of the authors mindset than anything else. This, however, only begs the reader to ask the question, what else should a vision be expected to impart?
Strong Power of Delivery
Carey is adept at the staccato sentence, a short, decisive note which strikes the tight cords within the story, making a kind of melody:
‘May’s forehead is still scarred from the occasion when he battered it against the front door for three hours. There is still blood on the paintwork.’
These sharp notes are inserted in all the right places, delivering an appropriate twang that serves to reverberate throughout the story. In this way, it is clear that Carey is keenly aware of the power not only within content but also that strength unique to delivery.
The content of Carey’s stories range from a man’s desire to fly, in “Happy Story”, to a sardonic recollection of mass produced ‘shadows’ in “Report on the Shadow Industry” and an elucidation on the difficult relationship between art and life in “American Dreams”. That now, more than thirty years later, such subjects are still pertinent, speaks favorably of Carey’s sensitivity to the universal themes of life.
Peter Carey has published ten novels and four collections of short stories. Carey has won The Booker Prize twice and the Miles Franklin Prize three times.
