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The novel opens as Sarah, the reluctant tourist and editor of The Modern Review, is dragged by a foppish poet-friend, John Slater, to Kuala Lumpur. Sarah is intent on biding her time in her hotel, but a chance encounter with a scabrous reader of Rilke soon transforms Sarah's plans and, ultimately, her life. The reader, the Australian poet Christopher Chubb, is the disgraced initiator of a great literary hoax--the faked poems of the non-existent Bob McCorkle. The McCorkle hoax was Chubb's attempt to bring down a rising poetry editor, David Weiss. When the hoax was exposed, Weiss was believed to have committed suicide. But, living in exile, Chubb has hidden a secret for decades: Bob McCorkle had seemingly materialized in human form, killing Weiss and destroying Chubb's life. Sarah is tantalized by a fragment of supposed McCorkle poetry that Chubb has shared with her. Whether it is a fake or the work of a madman, Sarah believes it is genius. Her obsession, however, drives her and Chubb to the precipice of self-destruction.
The primary story--Chubb's pursuit of McCorkle--lives in the fictional past, and the plot occasionally becomes muddled in the nest of narrators recalling conversations second or third hand. In playing out the McCorkle affair, Carey’s denouement comes too quickly. If Sarah is transformed, Carey doesn't reveal enough of her in the text. He is mesmerized, as is the reader, by Chubb's horrific tale.
With its small shortcomings, the novel offers a sophisticated interrogation of authorship and fakery and the power of art. Carey avoids simplifying the McCorkle mystery, leaving the reader to puzzle out McCorkle's bizarre incarnation. While My Life as a Fake is frequently entertaining, the atmospheric mystery occasionally glimpses the profound. --Patrick O'Kelley
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Book Description Condition: New. Seller Inventory # 2298053-n
Book Description paperback. Condition: New. Language: ENG. Seller Inventory # 9780571216208
Book Description Paperback. Condition: Brand New. 288 pages. 7.76x5.00x0.71 inches. In Stock. Seller Inventory # __057121620X
Book Description Soft Cover. Condition: new. Seller Inventory # 9780571216208
Book Description Paperback / softback. Condition: New. New copy - Usually dispatched within 4 working days. Choosing as his target the most avant-garde of the literary magazines, he submits for publication the entire oeuvre of one Bob McCorkle, a working-class poet of raw power and sexual frankness, conveniently dead at twenty-four and entirely the product of Chubb's imagination. Seller Inventory # B9780571216208
Book Description Paperback. Condition: New. BRAND NEW ** SUPER FAST SHIPPING FROM UK WAREHOUSE ** 30 DAY MONEY BACK GUARANTEE. Seller Inventory # 9780571216208-GDR
Book Description Condition: New. 2004. Main - Re-issue. Paperback. Melbourne, the late 1940s. A young conservative Australian poet named Christopher Chubb decides to teach his country a lesson about pretension and authenticity. Choosing as his target the most avant-garde of the literary magazines, he submits for publication the entire oeuvre of one Bob McCorkle, a working-class poet. Num Pages: 288 pages. BIC Classification: FA. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 195 x 127 x 19. Weight in Grams: 210. . . . . . Seller Inventory # V9780571216208
Book Description Condition: New. 2004. Main - Re-issue. Paperback. Melbourne, the late 1940s. A young conservative Australian poet named Christopher Chubb decides to teach his country a lesson about pretension and authenticity. Choosing as his target the most avant-garde of the literary magazines, he submits for publication the entire oeuvre of one Bob McCorkle, a working-class poet. Num Pages: 288 pages. BIC Classification: FA. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 195 x 127 x 19. Weight in Grams: 210. . . . . . Books ship from the US and Ireland. Seller Inventory # V9780571216208
Book Description Condition: New. In. Seller Inventory # ria9780571216208_new
Book Description Condition: New. Seller Inventory # 2298053-n