Parrot and Olivier in America by Peter Carey (2009)

In 1831 the French aristocrat Alexis de Tocqueville toured America and afterwards wrote the still-famous Democracy in America, a study of the young country and its experiment in a new form of government. According to the publisher of this novel, Carey used Tocqueville as the "inspiration" for the character Olivier. I had thus expected a fictionalized account centered on his experiences in the United States, but it soon became apparent that this is not the case -- Olivier doesn't even arrive in America until about a third of the way into the book, and the other character, Parrot, is entirely fictional. What emerges is more a character study of the two men, including how they are affected by their American travels.

Olivier is an aristocratic survivor of the French Revolution who still retains his attitudes about rank and privilege. When he travels to America, supposedly to prepare a report of the prison system, he is accompanied by a poor English man-of-many-trades, Parrot, who has been secretly hired by his mother to spy on him and keep him safe. The first third of the book is an account of the very different young years of the two men, so that when the two finally meet it comes as no surprise to the reader that each holds the other in disdain. As the narrative shifts between Olivier and Parrot and their adventures apart and together, a friendship begins to grow and attitudes begin to shift under the influence of American ideas.

Not very much information is actually included about specific American experiences. Instead, Carey lets the behaviors and dialogue of the American people reveal the character of the country. Supposedly, some of Olivier's comments are actually taken from Democracy in America, but I don't have the knowledge to say which ones or how many. I found Olivier's (Tocqueville's?) comments intriguing about "the awful tyranny of the majority" which he predicts will produce a mob so "confident and ignorant that the only books on their shelves will be instruction manuals, the only theater gaudy spectacles, the paintings made to please that vulgar class....The public squares will be occupied by an uneducated class who will not be able to quote a line of Shakespeare." That is uncomfortably too close to the truth.

This novel is well written, but it was only moderately interesting. Although it was long-listed for the Booker Prize and has favorable reviews, I would not personally recommend it.