I have a very hit and miss relationship with David Malouf. Having just read 'Remembering Babylon' and loved it, I came to 'An Imaginary Life' with high hopes - which were promptly dashed!

I could really see the logic of Ovid, creator of the Metamorphoses, developing a relationship with a child raised by animals: the overlap is obvious. Unfortunately, from the beginning, I was irritated by the fictional Ovid's philosophical musings and didn't warm to him as a character.

IWhen the Child was introduced, I was disappointed with his portrayal and was utterly unconvinced. When I read the Afterword, I was quite shocked to find Malouf had used Itard's account of Victor of Aveyron as a base for his story. Perhaps this simply emphasises how Jill Dawson, as the mother of an autistic child, was able to create a far more human child in her recent interpretation of the same story, 'Wild Boy'.

If you're interested in the subject of feral children, Another good fictionalised account is 'The Knowledge of Angels' by Jill Paton Walsh, although this account seems closer in spirit to Amala and Kamala, the wolf-children than Victor of Aveyron.

On way to SwissToni as part of Secret Summer Solstice Santa... (hope you enjoy it more than I did!)

thanks - again, not an author I am familiar with, but I'm always on the lookout for something new.
a very generous gift.