It's been a long time since I've found such delight in a story's every sentence.

The telling is all fine wordsmithing and sharp phrase-turning and frank soul-searching, neither sentimental nor cynical nor pretentious, and thoroughly engaging.The story is also satisfying and among the best I've read, and it's not the only Peter Carey work to earn that status with me.

It's told in first person, primarily by two narrators, each nearing 30 and introduced as neighbors in small-town Bacchus Marsh. The woman, Irene Bobs, is married to car aficionado and would-be Ford dealer Titch Bobs, and they're raising two children. The man, Willie Bachhuber, is a school teacher and quiz-show whiz, who left his wife and child over a misunderstanding about the child's parentage. The latter leads to much of the story's depths and surprises, and takes the reader into the thick of Australia's troubled racial landscape. The narrators wind up in a car called a Holden (Ford's Aussie competitor) in Australia's 1954 Redex Trial, a cross-continent auto race over much grueling outback.

Irene is my favorite narrator, but I've grown very fond of both voices. Irene, who considers herself little more than a pretty decent mum, turns out to be a bad-ass driver. Willie is her spot-on though occasionally delirious navigator. Their personal journeys progress apace with the race, eventually along separate but criss-crossing paths, never stereotypically and always with great heart.

Here's a taste of the telling, from Irene's perspective:

"The smell of a rally car, the stink, the whiff, the woo, you will never find the recipe for this pong in the Women's Weekly but ingredients include petrol, rubber, pollen, dust, orange peel, wrecked banana, armpit, socks, man's body. I drove into the night on the ratshit regulator. My headlights waxed and waned depending on the engine revs. Beneath us was bulldust, two feet thick. It was always smooth and soft-looking but the Holden banged and thudded like an aluminium dinghy hitting rock. It is a miracle our suspension didn't melt. Sometimes I saw the shock absorbers of a car in front, white hot, glowing like X-rays. Cattle loomed from the blackness and if I had rolled or hit a roo, if I killed us all, what then?"

What then, indeed. It is well worth the read to find out.

Hard to explain this. 

The wolf wants to end all humans by poisoning the tree of life. 

To stop that, Michael reluctantly work with Lucifer. Michael also has a daughter who wants to help.

Interesting but a bit bloody. Unnecessary so. 

When supernatural beings act humans, this is the story we got on how they could use and misuse their powers. 

One of the most imaginative story is for Lucifer to experiment with humans by creating another Eden and put two humans in it and asked them to worship no one.

Which started out great. Two heterosexual humans found pleasure and company with each other. While the woman is fine with this, the man was tempted by the talking snake that told him that desire is a bad thing. 

What's up with that? That's the Christian obsession with sex and contaminated it with guilt. Finally, the man suffered because he could not deal with his own internal conflict. 

Lucifer is not surprised but he would continue to experiment with this. 

Other story include the daughter of an angel and how she would like to meet Lucifer. 

Another one is about a group of demons imitating high society. 

Kind of fun to read. The graphic is good as well. 

A new image of Lucifer from the mind of Neil Gaiman. This is a continuation of the series Sandman. 

The story began when Lucifer is in the void with nothing except his wit. He got no weapon and has no cloth.

Then he found the Windowless castle that hold his wings. 

He wants it back.

In the world, Lux being the center of strange attention because of the gate to the void.

Then there are monster who wants death because she was cursed. 

The story is rich and the last one about the committee of Angels want to come down to LA and fight Lucifer.

Interesting. 

Angels are assholes. 

It is better to be logical and interact with humans, instead of treating them like toys. 

That what the Christian bible god did, playing with humans like toys. So careless.

The re imagination of Lucifer is fun.

5 stars read. 

Lucifer is went to the void through the gate to find his wings. 

He faced some wicked gods and need to find the way to fight them with only his wit, as he is naked and has no weapon.

Of course he did it. 

The story is interesting and the illustration is fine. Lucky to find this at all on sale.