In the Shape of a Boar [Hardcover]

Lawrence Norfolk (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 7, 2001

Lawrence Norfolk has been hailed in his native England as "just about ahead of everyone in his generation of novelists" (The Observer) and acclaimed as "Britain's brightest young writer" by The Guardian. His award-winning novels Lempriere's Dictionary and The Pope's Rhinoceros were best-sellers there, and have gone on to win acclaim throughout the world. Now he has written his most ambitious novel yet -- a story that sweeps from prehistory to the present day in addressing the meeting point of truth and lies: In the Shape of a Boar. The story begins in the ancient Greece of myth, where King Meleager of Kalydon has assembled the sixty greatest hunters -- and one huntress, Atalanta -- to rid his realm of the supernatural boar sent by the vengeful goddess Artemis to lay waste to his lands. But as the hunters bear down upon their prey a darker tale unfolds, of treachery and destructive love. It is a tale that will reverberate in those same hills across the millennia in the final chaotic months of the Second World War, as a band of Greek partisans pursues an S.S. officer. Solomon Memel, a young Jewish Romanian refugee who was rescued by resistance fighters and subsequently joined them in their chase, will be inspired by the experience to write a poem, titled Die Keilerjagd, or The Boar Hunt, which mixes the elements of the mythical hunt with the historical pursuit of S.S. field commandant Heinrich Eberhardt. The partisans, from the charismatic leader Xanthos to the dangerous beauty Theyella, will themselves become part of modern mythos, as the poem becomes an international sensation. But the truth of what happened in the hills of Kalydon in 1945 is more complicated than it seems, and as the older Sol reunites with his childhood love, Ruth, in 1970s Paris to make a film version of the poem, the dark memories and horrors of those days emerge anew. Epic in scope and staggering in its mastery of language and character, In the Shape of a Boar is a tour de force.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this novel, which begins in myth-shrouded ancient Greece and ends on a Paris film set, the boar of the title takes many shapes: first it is a savage animal, then an SS colonel during WWII, then the symbol of competitiveness between writers, then history itself. A complex vision binds the threads of the novel together and simultaneously defines each metaphorical strain. The book's first half takes place in ancient Greece, where a band of hunters chase after a mythical boar, their quest complicated by internal romantic and psychological struggles. Footnotes are sprinkled liberally throughout this section, detailing the location of relics or giving textual references, and occasionally tediously crowding out the actual text. The book then jumps to the contemporary story of poet Solomon Memel, a German Jew who was imprisoned in a Nazi labor camp during WWII, switching between tales of Solomon's life before the war, descriptions of his wartime torture and interrogation, vignettes from the his postwar literary career, and stories from the making of a film. The film's subject is the hunt for the boar described in the first section of the novel, which in turn is revealed to be Solomon's first published book, an allegory based on his wartime experiences. The footnotes in the first section, it turns out, are the responses of a fictional scholar to the work, designed to prove it historically inaccurate. Throughout, the book maintains a confidence and poetic cadence that pushes it forward, giving gravity to every event. Figures like Atalanta, a Greek huntress whose thirst for the Boar of Kalydon gives her unquestioned allure, or Solomon, perpetually persecuted and searching for a way to express himself, are timeless while also believably vulnerable. Norfolk's new work is a challenging and exhilarating read, matching his first two novels the critically acclaimed LempriŠre's Dictionary and The Pope's Rhinoceros in intellectual reach, and surpassing them in storytelling passion and intensity.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Declared Best Young British Novelist in 1993 and winner of the Somerset Maugham Prize for Lempriere's Dictionary, an international best seller, Norfolk would seem to have it made. His ambitious third novel ranges from ancient Greece, where mighty hunters track a wild boar, to a search by Greek partisans for an S.S. field commander, which has reverberations in 1970s Paris.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Grove Press; First American Edition edition (October 7, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802117015
• ISBN-13: 978-0802117014
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,718,466 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Erudite and intellectually exhausting., December 7, 2001

By 

Mary Whipple (New England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: In the Shape of a Boar (Hardcover)

This is a Very Serious Work, one that cannot be read (or summarized) quickly without doing it an injustice. A newly created, "classical" epic for the first hundred pages, it has larger than life heroes from Greek mythology fighting great, ancient battles in which the survival of a culture is at stake. King Meleager of Kalydon, the lone huntress Atalanta, her dog Aura, and her cousin Meilanion are, with sixty other hunters, trying to conquer a ferocious boar unleashed upon the country by the angry goddess Artemis. As the other hunters fall prey to jealousies, duplicities, and betrayals, these three alone face the final battle, the outcome of which is never clear.

The rest of the book tells parallel stories from three 20th century time frames, involving modern characters whose lives involve similar battles with "the boar" and what it represents. Solomon Memel, Ruth Lackner, and Jakob Feuerstein are teenage friends in Romania in 1938, when the Russians and, soon afterward, the Nazis, occupy the country, create ghettos, and bring the Holocaust. In 1952, Solomon publishes a poem, "Die Keilerjagd," in which he describes his World War II experiences with partisans in Greece, paralleling the boar hunt of the ancient heroes, as they chase a Nazi field commander through the same mountains in the war's waning days. Some years later, when Sol is 49 and a heroic icon to schoolchildren, Ruth, a successful theater figure, decides to make a film of his poem and experiences, and the accuracy of his poem and memory are challenged publicly. Sol's battles to fill the gaps in his memory and to recall uncertain events represent yet another battle with the boar.

Time is flexible here, filtered through the consciousness of Sol, as memories from all three time periods crowd his life in no particular order, and he recollects one event after another, perhaps imperfectly. Norfolk does not always dot all the I's and cross all the T's as Sol tells his story, requiring the reader to bring his/her own consciousness to the interpretation of events, and, like Sol, to keep an open mind to alternative interpretations. His concern with myths, both ancient and modern, how they are created, what they reveal about human needs, how they reflect reality, and why they are perpetuated give tremendous impact and broad scope to his several stories. The hypnotic, musical cadences and the elaborate, minutely detailed descriptions lend a weightiness appropriate to an epic. The action is intense, the themes are universal, and the scope of the author's vision seems almost limitless. This is a slow, but ultimately rewarding, reading experience, sometimes requiring the reader to fight his/her own battle with the boar. Mary Whipple

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The hunting of the boar, June 13, 2006

By 

dinadan26 "dinadan26" (Burwood, New South Wales Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In the Shape of a Boar (Paperback)

Wow. This is a book which I picked up pretty much on spec. The description on the back sounded intriguing and it was on sale. And then it sat on my bookshelf for a long time waiting to be read. And now that I have finished I am somewhat dazed, uncertain as to what exactly I have just read. But I have given this story five stars, why? Because it is so rare for a book to leave me thinking - what was that really about, what was I supposed to take from this story, I understand some of what the author was trying to convey but part of me thinks I missed something very important.

In the shape of the boar is essentially a story in two parts. The first a poetic retelling of the greek myth of the hunting of Kaldyon boar heavily footnoted and referenced to original sources, the second half being the tale of the a middle aged Jewish author in the seventies, observing an old friend turn his poem covering the hunting of said boar into a movie. As the author interacts with his childhood friend who has lived many years in America he remembers his youth in Romania, his fleeing the Nazi's overland to Greece, his time with a partisan unit and then his participation in the hunt of a senior Nazi officer which forms the basis of his poem. Or does it? Did the events that he describe really happen, or as another childhood friend would accuse years later, was the officer just a minor official who died elsewhere.

In the end I take this book to be a meditation on the urge to survive, the need for heroic myths in time of upheavals and the banality of evil in the lack of a true monster. If you are looking for something challenging and very intelligent I would recommend "In the shape of a Boar"

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Chicago Reader, July 10, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: In the Shape of a Boar (Hardcover)

This book kept me transfixed from the moment I picked it up. The first section's epic poem lays the framework for figuring out the rest of the story, which is riveting.

I can't wait for Norfolk's next one.