"A Wildly Distorted Account".( psyche of Carey,). Review on 30 Days in Sydney - Peter Carey

30 Days in Sydney is a book written by Australian novelist Peter Carey. It was published in 2001 and is subtitled "A Wildly Distorted Account".Superficially a piece of travel writing, 30 Days in Sydney is perhaps more of a view into the psyche of Carey, an Australian returning home after a seventeen-year absence, his motley crew of friends, and Sydneysiders in general.

Plot overview

The book takes the form of an impressionistic, possibly somewhat fictionalised, account of Carey's brief stay, and of his attempts to gather his required material. During his time in Sydney, around the 2000 Olympic Games, he badgered his friends with a battered tape recorder, in order to get them to give their own stories and impressions of the city. Carey wishes to structure the book around the elements of earth, wind, fire and water, and his friends, sometimes reluctantly, oblige.

And the story begin.