Armadillo (novel)

Armadillo is 1998's seventh novel by William Boyd. The German translation by Chris Shepherd published in 1999.

Armadillo tells the story of a young insurance clerk Lorimer Black in London in the 1990s.

The novel comprises twenty chapters and a number of the inserted diary entries Blacks.

Content

Lorimer Black works as a claims adjuster of insurance, the case examines the occurrence of an insured loss on possible fraud out while trying with a lot of skill to convince the victim of being as they are entitled to settle for less money by having insinuated fraud. His payment amounts to an interest in the amount saved.

Blacks real name is Milomre Blocj, he has not quite perfect anagram, Lorimer Black changed '. He comes from a Romanian gypsy family, whose members operate a taxi company in Fulham and regularly pull his money out of his pocket. He collects antique helmets, listening to African music, aimed just a little house on the eastern edge of London one, has an affair with Stella Bull, the owner of a scaffolding company, and takes on a fellow physician at the " Institute for Lucid dreams " part in a research project about sleep disorders. His diary he calls " The Book of Transfiguration ".

When Black is given the task to investigate irregularities in a fire while the buildings on Fedora Palace, a high-rise hotel, many things happen simultaneously. He falls head over heels for him completely unknown young actress Flavia Malinverno, a paranoid rock star befriends with him, his father dies, he takes the dog of his neighbor in care and his colleague Torquil Helvoir - Jaynes - whose ineffable name in the original English text leads to constant puns - involves him in the intrigues of his love life, eventually moves in with him and then also working very successfully as a taxi driver for his family.

The high-rise fire however, attracting wide circles: Black encounters a series of irregularities; the operator of a construction company that is responsible for the fire, threaten Black physically and set fire to his car. Finally, the entire Fedora Palace - case turns out to be large-scale insurance fraud in which the insurance himself played a key role - Black has his insistent inquiries greatly exaggerated and cool it with the assertion of being able to re- take his old place in silence behavior after one year. Black, however, write a " report on certain abuses in connection with the insurance of the Fedora Palace Hotel " and sends him to the media and the police. At the end of the novel he travels Flavia afterwards to Vienna in an uncertain future.

Themes and motifs

Armadillo is both a novel about the distortions of Yuppietums 90s, the fixation on appearances, status, money, and the associated dreams, hopes, disappointments and permanent plans, but also on the still intact English class society with their arrogance, the private clubs and the corresponding class barriers that can be overcome only limited money, pure ambition and abilities, however, not at all.

Armadillo is also a literary portrait cities of London with the city as a network that requires an endless tailspin and driving through. Boyd has taken the subject in his later novel Simple thunderstorms again.

As in some of his other novels varies Boyd also the subject of identity and difference: several figures in Armadillo, new names have risen, some of the names are almost unpronounceable ( Helvoir - Jayne, Blojc, Dymphna or Sheriffmuir ) and beyond as a unique identification.

The motif of the armor pervades the novel, such as in the helmet collection of the protagonist, but also in the title, which refers to the Spanish and English names of the armadillo whose armor almost the entire body surface covered.

Filming

• 2002 Armadillo, television film England / USA ( Director: Howard Davies, starring Stephen Rea and James Frain )

Expenditure

• Original English edition: Armadillo; Publisher Hamish Hamilton, London 1998
• German -language edition: Armadillo, dt by Chris Shepherd; Hanser, Munich, 1999. ISBN 3-446-19644-7
• Paperback: Armadillo, same translation; Berlin -Verlag, Berlin, 2011. ISBN 3-833-30741-2