I've intended to read this for a while now, having been unsure about whether I'd read it before (turns out that I hadn't), and it was worth the anticipation. The cliche about feeling oneself in safe hands from the beginning rings true here - Carey's prose has a casually elegant storyteller's rhythm and tone from the first page; the tone is sustained throughout and it, along with the shortish chapterlets in which Oscar and Lucinda is written, does much to send one flying through what is a very readable novel...really, though, much more of its success stems from the story it tells, and its two memorable central characters.
I didn't particularly identify with either Oscar or Lucinda, but I was definitely rooting for both of them. They're sympathetic - intensely, poignantly so - by virtue of the access to their inner lives which we have (a similar trick is worked with several of the other characters) but at the same time they're painted in a way that makes it clear how each becomes and is so thoroughly unsuited to the society in which they find themselves. As a character study, it's rich; as a historical fiction, immersive; as a love story, unorthodox and believable; as a novel, at times earthy but filled with unaffectedly lyrical writing and glittering images for the mind's eye, it's wonderful.
