Illywhacker
Herbert Badgery opens by announcing that he is a hundred and thirty-nine years old and a liar, then narrates the century of Australian history he claims to have passed through as barnstorming aviator, motor-car salesman, confidence man, prisoner and patriarch. Aircraft factories that build nothing, a Chinese teacher of tricks, a wife who takes to the air and a family business that ends up exhibiting its own countrymen. An illywhacker is Australian slang for a small-time swindler, and the book takes the nation's appetite for being sold a story as its real subject.
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Closest analogues
- 45% · 11 shared
- 45% · 11 shared
- 45% · 11 shared
- 45% · 11 shared
- 44% · 12 shared
- 44% · 12 shared