Customer Reviews

The Lion of Boaz-Jachin and Jachin-Boaz

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An early novel from the supremely talented Russell Hoban, this is a well-crafted slice of magic realism set in an unnamed country somewhere bordering the Black Sea in that part of the world so fascinating to outsiders, that is neither entirely European, Asian nor Arabic.

This is a novel about about fathers and sons. Jachin-Boaz makes maps in a small town: all kinds of maps, from the mundane to the more bizarre; for example, a map for voyeurs. He creates the ultimate map for his son, Boaz-Jachin, which will enable him to find everything, but Boaz-Jachin, the dreamer, rejects it because will not help him locate the long-extinct lions. Depressed and disatisfied, Jachin-Boaz leaves his wife and son for the city and makes a new life for himself.

Boaz-Jachin meanwhile conjures up a lion, neither entirely real nor entirely metaphysical, from ancient carvings, which stalks his father in the city. He also leaves his home and searches for his father, with only the map, a guitar and his good looks to keep him on track. But, not knowing where to start, he heads off into the unknown, and experiences a picaresque series of surreal encounters and events along the way.

The book is is full of humour as well as being quite a serious meditation on love, family relationships, and on what life lacks without mystery. It is also beautifully written, economical in style, concludes well and does not outstay its welcome. Read it, and you'll find yourself wanting to seek out Hoban's other novels too.

I purchased this book after reading his "Riddley Walker" masterpiece. I subsequently lost the book to a 'borrower' as so often happens. The book is short, but unforgettable - Hoban has a mythic imagination and is quite at home with metaphysics and storytelling. This reads like a New Age personal transformation book to the simple reader, but it is much more literary in it's contstruction than that genre. I hope that by reading this, others will be encouraged to track this book down and try it - with Hoban, perseverance to his style has a huge reward.

an almost but not quite fantasy about the relationships between a man, his son and his father and a lion that may or may not eat them. The kind of book that you think about for a long time afterwards. quite magical