Three Dollars

Ever feel , the blurb on the back blurbeth, like the only thing trickling down is sewage Oh Yes, I do Verily I do Any body who has felt the small, grey ordinary feeling which lies in ambush some mornings and tries to keep you from getting out of bed will enjoy Three Dollars Why yes, I ve felt it, every morning in fact, and not just because London is foggy and grey in winter Too true, uh hum Dolour is never far away and Perlman s rage, rancour, even, is unmistakeable Well hallelujah, this be the [...]

Terribly mundane I m a sucker for personal struggle, or a an occasional plot twist at the very least This protagonist is completely uninteresting There was a brief nostalgic tug on my heartstrings when Eddie recounts the beginning of his relationship with high school sweetheart Tanya, as anyone could relate for a few sweet moments until reality pukes in their mouth a little Forgive me, is that harsh If I had any interest in following the lives on higher education intellectuals who have delusions [...]

I read this book almost 10 years ago in its original Australian edition, which won The Age Book of the Year award It s the type of book that leaves a lasting impression, and it remains one of my favourite books The following synopsis from the Pan Macmillan Australia Picador website is a good introduction to Three Dollars At once humorous and dramatic, Three Dollars is about Eddie, an honest, compassionate man who finds himself, at the age of 38, with a wife, a child and three dollars Three Dolla [...]

Catching up on reading and will catch up on reviews soon I promise

I discovered Elliot Perlman s Three Dollars through Lisa from ANZ Lit Lovers who recommended it and other books by Perlman highly I hadn t heard of Perlman before and so was quite excited to discover a new to me author I read the book over the last week and finished it yesterday Here is what I think.The story told in Three Dollars is narrated by Eddie Eddie meets Amanda every nine and a half years She was his childhood friend and they studied in the same school together After Amanda and her fami [...]

Three dollars doesn t sound like much, but Elliot Perlman s new novel is priceless Already a bestseller in his native Australia, this is Perlman s first book, and with an initial public offering like this, it looks like the beginning of a considerable literary fortune.Eddie Harnovey, the ironic narrator of this charming story, has a keen eye for patterns in his life personal and economic and most of them aren t good Every nine and a half years I see Amanda, he begins Most recently was today I ha [...]

Remarkably well written Literary A catchy pop song Forgive me if this sounds elitist, but when Time Out and Marie Claire say your novel is literary or well written, but the NYTBR says it s a pop song, you ve been middlebrowed And so this novel is fabulous escapism if you already think that neo classical economics is a bad idea and that self reliance is a smoke screen behind which a few million people get rich while wages stagnate Now, I do think these things, and the novel is nice escapism But l [...]

Ugh UGH I tried Really But if you spend most of your time rolling your eyes while reading, something is wrong.For example Using the term moistened the inside of her neck instead of just saying swallowed.This is what did me in, though After this line, my brain turned off Usually I watched her flicker on the wall, remembering her from university, imagining that young woman screaming in horror at the absence of exhilaration in her mid thirties self It was too simple and therefore inaccurate to say [...]

This book didn t flow as nicely as I d hoped or even imagined One user had mentioned they needed a dictionary every few words While I do not feel the same way, I do feel the author was very condescending to the reader.This is a story where a main character, as sarcastic yet funny as he was, failed to capture my imagination He was too intellectual and his wife I never truly liked I found her to be overbearing The use of one character I found to be kind of pointless to be honest as they play such [...]

This book read in much the same way as The Seven Types of Ambiguity It is intelligent, thoughtful, but very liberal and those of a conservative bent will find no love in here Therefore, I liked it It was extremely depressing and post modern Therefore, I liked it Put in context with the greater work of Seven Types, it is an interesting juxtaposition of post modern thought before Perlman decides to be anti post modern thought Overall, intelligent and engaging The conceit of the three dollars in th [...]

Very engaging novel about trying to make your life work and somehow remain human in the increasingly dehumanizing world of corporate greed and disenfranchisement Although it is than ten years old and set in Australia, if anything it is even on point for 2012 USA The protagonist is an amazingly likable and honest soul and you cringe for every humiliating experience he is forced to suffer It leaves one feeling hopeful if not for his immediate financial prospects which seem grim , but at least fo [...]

Perlamn uses so many words to get his point across that at times it is almost easier to read him aloud to yourself Being a verbal person myself, I was cool with it.I was really enjoying the book, the descriptions, the character interactionsd then about 3 4 of the way through I got horribly depressed I waded through the depression and then WHAM the book was over Just like that Things are worse and worse until they are suddenly better and the curtain is coming down Deus ex machina anyone

I can hardly believe I m abandoning this book After reading The Street Sweeper I couldn t wait to read of Perlman s work But this felt so trivial in comparison, and a little glib The voice got on my nerves I couldn t connect Sorry

Not as good as 7 types, but still excellent Have owned this for maybe 10 years Funny, I started it, but didn t finish it then I suppose there is times in your life for reading certain books, because I loved it this time.

This is the best book I have read in ages It s so good, I may have a book crush on Mr Perlman What is it about men that make women lonely He then proceeds to dissect, both as a surgeon and an artist, the exact how s and whys This book is plain Plain and sturdy, fragile and tender, pragmatic and dreamy He has given us a lovely gift This story is a wondrous gaze into a hand mirror It s is both reflection and voyeurism He gives us all the human bits we take for granted and polishes them up, shiny a [...]

There s a correct number of times that vis vis can appear in a novel, and the answer is not twice However, once you move past the author s irritating pretension, there are some hidden gems of social commentary buried in between the pages.

The events in this book portray a couple of my generation 10 years older than me, but this is negligent , living in Melbourne, both university graduates, the wife an academic in the area of literature, working on her PhD thesis, while her husband being also the narrator protagonist working as a chemical engineer The story leads us gradually but surely into the economic recession of the early 1990s, where many people lost their jobs rate of unemployment was close to 11%.The book itself is quite p [...]

Tre stelle perch Perlman un notevole narratore Per questo non mi ha sempre convinta e mi lascia un po perplessa Il finale, invece, fa stare bene.

This book pretty much sums up the 90s I didn t realize things were so much the same in Australia as they were are in the US Except there apparently banks just change the interest rates on your home mortgage at whim This is a story about the many betrayals the educated classes have fallen prey to in the last decade or so, when it seemed that if you were a qualified professional and worked decently hard you ought to be able to count on certain securities A job, a house, a family All of these are c [...]

J ai trouv ce livre superbe Et la fin est v ritablement bouleversante Je ne demande qu une chose, c est ENCORE

This is one of the best novels I ve read in a long time, possibly one of the best I ve read Pearlman s Eddie Harnovey is a decent man living in increasingly bankrupt times i.e now He and his wife Tanya are young, aspiring professionals who find their truth seeking inclinations stymied by the corporatist, deregulating world around them The seismic shift of priorities that Western governments, particularly English speaking ones, embraced in the 80s in the name of imparting personal responsibility [...]

I m pretty sure this is the first novel I have read that has been set almost entirely in Melbourne Australia which is where i live This was kinda cool, cause I knew exactly what everything looked like and I could at times relate to what he was talking about when he described a place or a feeling This book is set mostly around the recession during the early 90 s, The recession that Australia had to have It focuses around Eddie, who, at various times throughout his life, finds himself either with [...]

This was the third book of Elliot Perlman s books I read What always stood out to me, even as I think of it now, was how much I identified with the protagonist I still do.That said, I didn t have as much of an emotional attachment to this work as I do other books of Elliot Perlman s After a few re reads over the years, I gave it to a used bookshop.I always got the feeling as a reader that the protagonist would ultimately not suffer very much, except from his own likely anxiety disorder The story [...]

This was a great book to read, mostly Good style, fun cultural references of Australia in the 1980s, and an easy going narrator But I admit I was hoping for a different ending It was too much of a letdown for me maybe it was meant to be realism art imitating life and all but I just found it pointless I like putting a book down feeling like it was worth going on the journey with the main character s In this one I was very happy hanging out with Eddie till he was kind of left stranded by the autho [...]

First published in 1998 I ve been wanting to read it since then but still so relevant to world economic events even now Eddie, his wife Tanya and baby daughter Abby, their friends Kate Paul, work colleagues and the enigmatic Amanda, show what can happen to the ordinary person, caught in the stranglehold of the reality of economic systems A startling adult book fresh, and with a humour that is subtle at times, laugh out loud funny at other times, and always deliciously ironic I read the ending in [...]

Three Dollars is the best novel I have read in a long time and quite possibly the finest work of Australian literature I ve come across to date Yes, this is literature, in the sense that it s a work of art that moved me and at turns made me feel sad, angry, elated, heartbroken and excited Perlman writes with an empathy for his characters that becomes infectious to the reader I really cared about these people and I could relate to their circumstances It s tempting to portray Three Dollars as an a [...]

I ve got to admit that while I did enjoy the story it was a depressing read and took me quite a while to finish.Edward reminds me of many men I know, scratching away for the sake of their family, unsure what would happen if the boat capsized I wasn t a fan of Tanya at all a know all pain in the arse, hired by the university straight after graduation with no idea how the world works and unwilling to listen to anyone who disagrees with her ideals So, again, a very believable character and her incl [...]

This book definitlely disappointed me After reading Seven Types of Ambiguity I went out and ordered two of Rerlman s books Three Dollars The Reasons I Wont be Coming hopefully Reasons will be better Ok, the story plot line was depressing and way too drawn out I thought the book was going to be good for the Intro and the first 2 chapters, then it became repetitive And the Perlman uses like 40 words in one sentence that could be said in 15 it seemed.I just was majorlly dissapointed especially aft [...]

4.5 stars Never read a book that consists of lyrical prose that is underpinned with true humanitarianism, exploring politics, ideology and sociology Was wondering why this had a five star rating and, yet not quite half way through, this is SO much than a narrative it comments on Australian society our apathy and paradoxically our commitment to causes a brilliant book that exemplifies so many themes Only problem I found was that it slowed down a little just when Paul s wife came to stay.

I am ambivalent about whether to assign a rating to this book I don t think it would reflect any sort of equilibrium of reasons It contains some great writing, including a few particularly fine bons mots There s a couple of interesting and articulate characters perhaps too articulate, at times , a story I could readily relate to, and the right attitude to neoliberalism But I half wish I hadn t bothered Maybe I didn t get it Maybe it seems dated Maybe I just didn t like the ending Or maybe it s f [...]