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Soon our hero, who himself has a lot to hide, finds himself threatened by a dodgy type whose loss he has adjusted way down and embroiled with the beautiful married actress Flavia Malinverno. "People who've lost something, they call on you to adjust it, make the loss less hard to bear? As if their lives are broken in some way and they call on you to fix it," Flavia dippily wonders. Lorimer also has his car torched and instantly goes from an object of affection to one of deep suspicion at the Fort. Then there is another case, the small matter of the rock star who may or may not be faking the Devil he says is sitting on his left shoulder.
Needless to say, Lorimer is "becoming fed up with this role of fall guy for other people's woes." Boyd adds a deep layer of psychological heft and a lighter level of humor to this thinking-person's thriller by exploring Lorimer's manifold personal and social fears. This is a man who desperately collects ancient helmets even though he knows they offer only "the illusion of protection." Another of Armadillo's many pleasures: its dose of delicious argot. Should Lorimer "oil" the apparent perpetrator of the Fedora Palace arson before he's oiled himself? Or perhaps he just needs to "put the frighteners" on him. Boyd definitely puts the frighteners on his readers more than once in this cinematically seedy and dazzling literary display. --Kerry Fried
From Publishers Weekly
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
boyd's best,
By John Mason (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Armadillo: A Novel (Paperback)
I spent a year of my life working the 2AM shift flipping burgers, and Boyd brought that world back to me. I don't know anyone who has ever written so well about sleep, nosleep, and the inner world of the solitary working stiff
5.0 out of 5 stars
MY OUTSTANDING READ FOR THE YEAR 2001,
By Goodbye "Mr P" (Rural England) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Armadillo: A Novel (Paperback)
Lorimer Black is a loss adjuster working in the City of London. Unwittingly he becomes a pawn in a darker world and a side of business life, where corruption, greed and snobbery prevail.From the outset this book had a hold on me. It was fascinating immediately, and very funny. I recognised the characters in people I know and laughed outloud so many times that I became a real pain to those within earshot. I very rarely find literature funny, only Spike Milligan in fact. The writing is crisp and flows beautifully. The bad type of British male: slobby, uncouth, aggressive and misogynist was supremely portrayed in Torquil Helvoir - Jayne. I have seen these guys so many times in real life. William Boyd makes the point that despite his name and connections Torquil is no different to other pig ignorant individuals who happen to be below him in the class order. William Boyd has a fine reporter's eye and can build characters that are believable and a wonder to behold. There are a number of important themes in this book but the main one is the struggle to be someone other than ourselves. A British trait I am afraid, a response to the class bias where we are judged as soon as we open our mouths, in our accents, the way we speak and dress. Like so many others in Britain poor Lorimer fell for it hook, line and sinker. There is a great play in names: Milo Blocj becomes Lorimer Black, David Watts the clapped out rock star had also changed his name. Pretence and more pretence. The book says that underneath it all we are all the same insecure and fragile individuals. Eventually the unreality catches up and drags us down. We wear armour that eventually proves to be too heavy, to be discarded so that real life can enter. Hence the armadillo - the little armed man. The layers are slowly stripped away. And the final piece - the helmet is cut away. Despite Lorimer's adherence to style and clambering up the English greasy pole of class snobbery, in the end he reverts back to himself - Milo the European ethnic. That's when he starts to live life and find true happiness. It is a great book and one of my best reads for the year 2001. I can't wait to read some more William Boyd.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not his best,
By "ithuriel" (Mexico) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Armadillo: A Novel (Paperback)
Armadillo is an entertaining well written novel, that's clear. However, I think it's little more than that. It lacks the streght of other novels by Boyd like Braazeville Beach for example. Lorimer Black, the main character, is not consistent: sometimes he is brilliant and then he seems stupid. The explanation of why he is so insecure is found in his past by the reading his diary, but I think it is not convincig.The other characters, like Flavia Malinverno are steal weaker. When I read the novel my conclusion was somethig like: ok I had good fun reading it but what else?
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