An Imaginary Life [ペーパーバック]

Most of the events this book relates are, of course, imagined. We know that Ovid was exiled and we know to where, but about what happened during that exile, we know nothing, not even the date or exact place of Ovid's death.

Malouf has used this absence of known facts regrding Ovid's exile to weave a gorgeously ephemeral portrait of a man and a boy who, together, find the wellspring of both humanity and love, something neither could have done alone, despite Ovid's reputation in Rome.

While the storyline of "An Imaginary Life" isn't particularly mesmerizing on its own, Malouf's lush, poetic prose makes it so. This is a short book, really more of a novella than a novel and I can't imagine anyone not reading it in one sitting. One sentence simply flows into the next and I was riveted from the first page to the last.

Highly recommended to anyone.

In his work, "An Imaginary Life", the Author takes you to an Ovid in exile. His Emperor has sent him away to a place he knows nothing of, amongst a people as different from he as perhaps can be imagined, and without the ability to communicate at all. Time facilitates the learning of language, and the differences that first are so extreme between Ovid and his fellow inhabitants moderate if they do not disappear.

The catalyst for much of the effort to learn is a "creature" that also is present among Ovid and his neighbors. This is what I believe to be the "shape transformde" in Mr. Malouf's tale. Many are changed when the story is complete, perhaps most importantly Ovid. Mr. Malouf makes many points about nature, the definition of what it is to be human, and human relations. However for me this was not the most fascinating event while reading.

The Author places Ovid in the midst of a situation where everything is unknown to him. Perhaps the most dramatic unknown is a young child that lives among the Deer that he is said to have grown up amongst. When Ovid becomes aware of the child, he desires to capture the boy. His experiences with his plan, his preconceptions, and the very different views of those he hunts the Child with, are fascinating, and wonderfully original. Some may argue that since this work flows as a result of the writings of one of History's great poets the work by definition cannot be unique, only derivative. And such a point is well taken.

But to label this work derivative is to do the Author an injustice. He has taken a man who has greatly influenced literature, and in a manner of speaking dropped Ovid into an environment where Ovid is no longer the creator, the narrator, he is the subject. He is the subject not only of his ideas, and preconceptions, he is subject to them as well. Mr. Malouf places Ovid in an environment and with players that contain what Ovid so often wrote of. In this book he being subjected to the experience, not creating it, and Mr. Malouf pays tribute to the man by the quality of what he has created.

Again the more of Ovid you bring with you, the deeper you will be able to involve yourself in the Author's purpose. I was forced to go back and refresh my memory, and because I did, I do not believe I experienced all the Author intended. If you read this after Ovid's own work, I believe the experience will be even better.