Started and dropped it. I didn't like it at all. He's writing about Ovid, but his voice sounds as if he's never read a line of Latin. Sounds like a fake....

Does it matter that the narrator of this short but not slight novel is based on one of the greatest Roman poets? No – not much is known about Ovid, but then he’s been dead for two millennia. So the nearly blank slate of his bio leaves David Malouf broad scope for invention. And to some extent, the subject seems like an excuse to explore a remote place and time through a lyrical meditation on the seasons of life and nature, and much more besides...

An ageing, cultured man in exile befriends (if that word can be used to refer to obsession, capture and efforts to train) a wild boy, and Malouf’s juxtaposition of intellect with instinct resonates psychologically, philosophically and politically. Both Ovid and the Child (capitalised like a god or an archetype?) are outsiders to Tomis, a small village by the Black Sea, far from Rome, and neither is ever truly accepted. When they escape ostracism together, leaving human society behind, the roles of mentor/protector and pupil/ward are reversed. Out on the steppes, the Child finds his power while Ovid, author of the deathless Metamorphoses, prepares for death by undergoing a metamorphosis in his perceptions.

Can the narrative be read as an analogy for the exiled colonial who seeks to impose his own values on the Indigenous inhabitants? Yes, apparently.

"My purpose was to make this glib fabulist of "the changes" live out in reality what had been, in his previous existence, merely the occasion for dazzling literary display." The novel has a fun premise and some lyric passages.

Felt underbaked but I also simply do not like books that strive too much to be philosophical. it’s funny bc it has that ambition but the actual handling of the setting and Romans vs Barbarians dynamic is so incredibly facile

No one knows what Ovid's last few years of life were like but we should all be quite happy for Malouf's work to be submitted as a factual historical account.

As an act of imagination this is absolutely masterful and Malouf's lyricism is worthy of the great poet himself.

I remember studying the case of Victor of Aveyron at university and it seems Malouf has taken that story and transposed it onto Ovid's later life.

The whole story reminded me of the start of Blood Meridian.

"All history present in that visage, the child the father of the man."

or the Wordsworth poem that the phrase first comes from

My Heart Leaps Up

My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!
The Child is father of the Man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.

I just love when you can reach into your life from a book, and discover in a therapeutic way the wonders of the world from it as well. Also this book made me cry so points for that as well lol.

I'd be the first to acknowledge that this is a well-written book, but I didn't really relate to it. I liked the idea. The novel is based on a historical event, when in 8 AD the poet Ovid was exiled from Rome to the small Black Sea port town of Tomis, just south of the Roman Empire's Danube frontier. We don't know much about what happened to Ovid in Tomis, and I liked the concept of the author creating "an imaginary life" for him. I also enjoyed the early stages of the novel, in which Ovid considers the untamed steppe beyond the Danube, the primitive conditions of Tomis, and the magnificence of Rome, and sees each as representative of a stage in human development. (The author has taken artistic licence to represent the Tomis of 8 AD as rather more primitive than it actually was). He then wonders what the future may hold for a human race that has already progressed so far. The theme is developed further when, on a hunting trip with his neighbours, Ovid encounters a Mowgli type feral child who lives with animals. It was after this that the novel started to lose me, as the storyline wandered off on a route that encompassed spirits, oneness with nature, destiny, and finding one's true self. If you enjoy these themes you will probably enjoy the novel more than I did. Three stars for the quality of writing, but this wasn't really for me.

"Now that spring is no longer to be recognised in blossoms or in new leaves on trees, I must look for it in myself. I feel the ice of myself cracking. I feel myself loosen and flow again, reflecting the world. This is what spring means."

A work of blinding, sublime beauty. I was overcome at every passage. David Malouf gives in and revels in the spirtual ecstasy of nature. A reflection on what it means to transform, create, become- a metamorphoses of both art and life as it meets and completes with the world.

The prose-poetry, because David Malouf's writing is one and both at the same time, is reminiscent of the mystical philosophy of old, but his writing is enriched with such deep, emotional love for life and language that I couldn't help but be moved. This story was purely an experience of aesthetic and emotion for me. I look forward to David Malouf being indicted into the hall of famed mystical philosopher-poets, because he is more than enough their equal.

The book was a part of my Masters' degree. Going down memorys' lane I recollect that we were only 2 students who wanted to study it. As such, we did not have an option but to discuss it with each other while reading, and what a joyous time it was. I believe I can read this book as many times as I want to. It's an amazing blend of the tales of the Roman Ovid with the idea of dislocation explicitly portrayed in every page. Also as a reader I felt a tremendous resemblance to Kiplings' The Jungle Book (Mogwli). I do not have the right sentences to write a review for this work but can say that even after reading it for the 3rd time, I felt peaceful and very happy.

An unusual story but still quite nice.

Fascinating and inventive.

In spirit, the exact thing I'm interested in. But the focus on poetics and the lightweight treatment of all left me unfulfilled, and not in a good way.