SOURCE: "Principia Efica," in London Review of Books, Vol. 16, No. 18, September 22, 1994, p. 5.

Coe is an English journalist, novelist, nonfiction writer, and critic. In the following review, he discusses The Unusual Life of Tristan Smith, praising the novel as a successful investigation of cultural imperialism and national character.

Like his near-namesake, Tristram Shandy, the unlikely hero of Peter Carey's new novel [The Unusual Life of Tristan Smith] begins the story of his life at the very beginning. While he doesn't go into quite as much detail about the moment of his conception, he appears to have a very clear memory of the minutes leading up to his delivery. As his mother leaves her theatre (where she has been rehearsing the Scottish Play) and sets out for the hospital,

things started happening faster than she had expected. Oxytocin entered her bloodstream like a ten-ton truck and all the pretty soft...