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Armadillo
Lorimer Black may suffer from a serious sleep disorder and an obsession with the labyrinths of the British class system, but Armadillo's peculiar protagonist is the star insurance adjuster of London's Fortress Sure PLC, unaffectionately known as the Fort. At the very start of William Boyd's noir-ish seventh novel, however, things take a decided swerve for the worse. On a bleak January morning one of his cases has apparently chosen to kill himself rather than talk: "Mr. Dupree was simultaneously the first dead person he had encountered in his life, his first suicide and his first hanged man and Lorimer found this congruence of firsts deceptively troubling."
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
384 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
158 people are currently reading
1200 people want to read
About the author
William Boyd
69 books2,490 followersNote: William^^Boyd
Of Scottish descent, Boyd was born in Accra, Ghana on 7th March, 1952 and spent much of his early life there and in Nigeria where his mother was a teacher and his father, a doctor. Boyd was in Nigeria during the Biafran War, the brutal secessionist conflict which ran from 1967 to 1970 and it had a profound effect on him.
At the age of nine years he attended Gordonstoun school, in Moray, Scotland and then Nice University (Diploma of French Studies) and Glasgow University (MA Hons in English and Philosophy), where he edited the Glasgow University Guardian. He then moved to Jesus College, Oxford in 1975 and completed a PhD thesis on Shelley. For a brief period he worked at the New Statesman magazine as a TV critic, then he returned to Oxford as an English lecturer teaching the contemporary novel at St Hilda's College (1980-83). It was while he was here that his first novel, A Good Man in Africa (1981), was published.
Boyd spent eight years in academia, during which time his first film, Good and Bad at Games, was made. When he was offered a college lecturership, which would mean spending more time teaching, he was forced to choose between teaching and writing.
Boyd was selected in 1983 as one of the 20 'Best of Young British Novelists' in a promotion run by Granta magazine and the Book Marketing Council. He also became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in the same year, and is also an Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He has been presented with honorary doctorates in literature from the universities of St. Andrews, Stirling and Glasgow. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2005.
Boyd has been with his wife Susan since they met as students at Glasgow University and all his books are dedicated to her. His wife is editor-at-large of Harper's Bazaar magazine, and they currently spend about thirty to forty days a year in the US. He and his wife have a house in Chelsea, West London but spend most of the year at their chateau in Bergerac in south west France, where Boyd produces award-winning wines.
Of Scottish descent, Boyd was born in Accra, Ghana on 7th March, 1952 and spent much of his early life there and in Nigeria where his mother was a teacher and his father, a doctor. Boyd was in Nigeria during the Biafran War, the brutal secessionist conflict which ran from 1967 to 1970 and it had a profound effect on him.
At the age of nine years he attended Gordonstoun school, in Moray, Scotland and then Nice University (Diploma of French Studies) and Glasgow University (MA Hons in English and Philosophy), where he edited the Glasgow University Guardian. He then moved to Jesus College, Oxford in 1975 and completed a PhD thesis on Shelley. For a brief period he worked at the New Statesman magazine as a TV critic, then he returned to Oxford as an English lecturer teaching the contemporary novel at St Hilda's College (1980-83). It was while he was here that his first novel, A Good Man in Africa (1981), was published.
Boyd spent eight years in academia, during which time his first film, Good and Bad at Games, was made. When he was offered a college lecturership, which would mean spending more time teaching, he was forced to choose between teaching and writing.
Boyd was selected in 1983 as one of the 20 'Best of Young British Novelists' in a promotion run by Granta magazine and the Book Marketing Council. He also became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in the same year, and is also an Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He has been presented with honorary doctorates in literature from the universities of St. Andrews, Stirling and Glasgow. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2005.
Boyd has been with his wife Susan since they met as students at Glasgow University and all his books are dedicated to her. His wife is editor-at-large of Harper's Bazaar magazine, and they currently spend about thirty to forty days a year in the US. He and his wife have a house in Chelsea, West London but spend most of the year at their chateau in Bergerac in south west France, where Boyd produces award-winning wines.
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October 10, 2016
Thinly Disguised Transnistrian Lad Lit
But for the last 50 pages or so, I would have concluded that this was just a piece of well-executed Lad Lit.
However, the last pages persuaded me that there was something more happening beneath the surface of this novel.
William Boyd shows us nicely judged glimpses of the life of an East European migrant trying to integrate into the English business and social world. The novel never takes itself too seriously and proceeds at an agreeable comic pace.
Serendipity or Zemblanity
I decided to read the novel, when I was reading Nabokov's "Pale Fire". It came up when I found an antonym of the word "serendipity", while searching for the meaning of Zembla. In "Armadillo", William Boyd writes:
"Serendipity, the faculty of making happy and unexpected discoveries by accident. So what is the opposite of Serendip, a southern land of spice and warmth, lush greenery and hummingbirds, seawashed, sunbasted? Think of another world in the far north, barren, icebound, cold, a world of flint and stone. Call it Zembla. Ergo: zemblanity, the opposite of serendipity, the faculty of making unhappy, unlucky and expected discoveries by design. Serendipity and zemblanity: the twin poles of the axis around which we revolve."
So Boyd is responsible for coining the word "zemblanity", named after a fictitious country in "Pale Fire".
"Disturb All Anticipations"
The protagonist, Lorimer Black (an Anglicisation of his original Transnistrian name, Milomre Blocj), is a loss adjuster in the insurance industry. Boyd provides enough detail about how the industry works to convince us that he knows what he's writing about. However, what impresses most is how, by the end of the novel, he has used insurance as a credible metaphor for life:
"Insurance exists to substitute reasonable foresight and confidence in a world dominated by apprehension and blind chance."
"To our Savage Precursors, all life was a lottery. All his endeavours were hazardous in the extreme. His life was literally one big continuous gamble...But times have changed, civilisation has arrived and society has developed, and as society develops and civilisation marches forward this element of chance, of hazard, is steadily eliminated from the human condition...
"However much we seem to have it under control, to have every eventuality covered, all risks taken into account, life will come up with something that, as the good book says, 'disturbs all anticipations'.
"And this is what we, the loss adjustors embody. This is our vocation, our métier, our calling: we exist for one reason alone - to 'disturb all anticipations'."
"[Loss adjustors were] the people who reminded all the others that nothing in this world is truly certain, we were the rogue element, the unstable factor in the ostensibly stable world of insurance...When we do our adjustments of loss, we frustrate and negate all the bland promises of insurance. We act out in our small way one of the great unbending principles of life: nothing is sure, nothing is certain, nothing is risk-free, nothing is fully covered, nothing is forever."
"I do not mind contradictions, paradoxes, puzzles and ambiguities. What is the point of 'minding' something as inevitable and entrenched in our nature as our digestive system is in our body? Of course we can be rational and sensible but often so much of what defines us is the opposite - irrational and nonsensical."
"Adrift in Uncertainty and Chaos"
This plunge into the irrational and the nonsensical describes the dramatic arc of the novel:
"From a position of steady normality - steady job, steady prospects, steady girlfriend - he now found himself adrift in uncertainty and chaos: no job, no car, no girlfriend, insolvent, fatherless, sleepless, loveless..."
The Removal of the Integument
Just as some people seek insurance cover, we arm ourselves with armour to keep ourselves safe from spears, arrows and bullets, both real and metaphorical. This is the source of the title of the book (in Spanish, an armadillo is literally a little armed man):
"Every living organism is separated from its environment by a covering, or integument, that delimits its body. It seems to me that the process of adding an extra integument is unique to our species and easily understandable - we all want extra protection for our soft and vulnerable bodies. But is it unique to our species? What other creature exhibits this same sense of precaution and seeks out this kind of protective armour? Molluscs, barnacles, mussels, oysters, tortoises, hedgehogs, armadillos, porcupines, rhinos all grow their own. Only the hermit crab, as far as I can recall, searches for empty shells...to serve as shelter and protection of the body."
Only when Lorimer removes his treasured Greek helmet, abandons his armour, and takes a romantic risk does he become a rogue element (plot-wise) and his life escape its bounds to become a genuine adventure. You could say the same thing about the novel itself. For much of it, it's too controlled and almost formulaic (if never less than competent). Only towards the end does William Boyd rev up the zemblanity and unleash the beast that is within Lorimer, even if he doesn't destabilise our anticipations. In other words, he honours the compact with the reader and more or less gives us a happy ending.
But for the last 50 pages or so, I would have concluded that this was just a piece of well-executed Lad Lit.
However, the last pages persuaded me that there was something more happening beneath the surface of this novel.
William Boyd shows us nicely judged glimpses of the life of an East European migrant trying to integrate into the English business and social world. The novel never takes itself too seriously and proceeds at an agreeable comic pace.
Serendipity or Zemblanity
I decided to read the novel, when I was reading Nabokov's "Pale Fire". It came up when I found an antonym of the word "serendipity", while searching for the meaning of Zembla. In "Armadillo", William Boyd writes:
"Serendipity, the faculty of making happy and unexpected discoveries by accident. So what is the opposite of Serendip, a southern land of spice and warmth, lush greenery and hummingbirds, seawashed, sunbasted? Think of another world in the far north, barren, icebound, cold, a world of flint and stone. Call it Zembla. Ergo: zemblanity, the opposite of serendipity, the faculty of making unhappy, unlucky and expected discoveries by design. Serendipity and zemblanity: the twin poles of the axis around which we revolve."
So Boyd is responsible for coining the word "zemblanity", named after a fictitious country in "Pale Fire".
"Disturb All Anticipations"
The protagonist, Lorimer Black (an Anglicisation of his original Transnistrian name, Milomre Blocj), is a loss adjuster in the insurance industry. Boyd provides enough detail about how the industry works to convince us that he knows what he's writing about. However, what impresses most is how, by the end of the novel, he has used insurance as a credible metaphor for life:
"Insurance exists to substitute reasonable foresight and confidence in a world dominated by apprehension and blind chance."
"To our Savage Precursors, all life was a lottery. All his endeavours were hazardous in the extreme. His life was literally one big continuous gamble...But times have changed, civilisation has arrived and society has developed, and as society develops and civilisation marches forward this element of chance, of hazard, is steadily eliminated from the human condition...
"However much we seem to have it under control, to have every eventuality covered, all risks taken into account, life will come up with something that, as the good book says, 'disturbs all anticipations'.
"And this is what we, the loss adjustors embody. This is our vocation, our métier, our calling: we exist for one reason alone - to 'disturb all anticipations'."
"[Loss adjustors were] the people who reminded all the others that nothing in this world is truly certain, we were the rogue element, the unstable factor in the ostensibly stable world of insurance...When we do our adjustments of loss, we frustrate and negate all the bland promises of insurance. We act out in our small way one of the great unbending principles of life: nothing is sure, nothing is certain, nothing is risk-free, nothing is fully covered, nothing is forever."
"I do not mind contradictions, paradoxes, puzzles and ambiguities. What is the point of 'minding' something as inevitable and entrenched in our nature as our digestive system is in our body? Of course we can be rational and sensible but often so much of what defines us is the opposite - irrational and nonsensical."
"Adrift in Uncertainty and Chaos"
This plunge into the irrational and the nonsensical describes the dramatic arc of the novel:
"From a position of steady normality - steady job, steady prospects, steady girlfriend - he now found himself adrift in uncertainty and chaos: no job, no car, no girlfriend, insolvent, fatherless, sleepless, loveless..."
The Removal of the Integument
Just as some people seek insurance cover, we arm ourselves with armour to keep ourselves safe from spears, arrows and bullets, both real and metaphorical. This is the source of the title of the book (in Spanish, an armadillo is literally a little armed man):
"Every living organism is separated from its environment by a covering, or integument, that delimits its body. It seems to me that the process of adding an extra integument is unique to our species and easily understandable - we all want extra protection for our soft and vulnerable bodies. But is it unique to our species? What other creature exhibits this same sense of precaution and seeks out this kind of protective armour? Molluscs, barnacles, mussels, oysters, tortoises, hedgehogs, armadillos, porcupines, rhinos all grow their own. Only the hermit crab, as far as I can recall, searches for empty shells...to serve as shelter and protection of the body."
Only when Lorimer removes his treasured Greek helmet, abandons his armour, and takes a romantic risk does he become a rogue element (plot-wise) and his life escape its bounds to become a genuine adventure. You could say the same thing about the novel itself. For much of it, it's too controlled and almost formulaic (if never less than competent). Only towards the end does William Boyd rev up the zemblanity and unleash the beast that is within Lorimer, even if he doesn't destabilise our anticipations. In other words, he honours the compact with the reader and more or less gives us a happy ending.
May 31, 2019
Last week I read a blog post that articulates my response to ‘Armadillo’ better than I can. I’m just so angry and tired. The only possible way to enjoy this book is to overlook the fact that every male character is an arsehole who treats women like shit and every female character (barring one) is a sexy body with no personality who exists to please men. The one female exception is an elderly lady who says practically nothing other than that she’s ready to die, presumably because she is no longer sexually attractive to men and therefore has no reason to exist in the world. Whenever a woman appears in the narrative, not just her general attractiveness but specifically her breasts must be judged. This is by no means every example, just those I found with a quick flick through:
Page 14.
Page 110.
Page 151.
Page 177.
Even when breasts aren’t the focus, there’s this garbage (page 189):
The main character, Lorimer Black, could possibly have been interesting if I hadn’t viscerally hated him for his constant cruelty, disdain, and objectification of women. He cheats on his girlfriend and leers at her teenage daughter. He treats every girl and woman he meets as a sexual object. He claims to fall in love with a woman he glimpses in a taxi, then proceeds to stalk her in a profoundly creepy way. He uses work contacts to find her phone number, drops in unannounced at her place of work, lies to her, lurks around outside her home, follows her around, ignores her saying that she's not interested & married, and generally acts like a predator. Choice quote: “You do know, you must be aware, that I’m passionately in love with you. I’ll never take no for an answer.” That is not fucking acceptable! What is worse, and I’m spoiling the ending for your own good, this profoundly wrong and indeed illegal behaviour is rewarded by the object of Lorimer's affections leaving her husband, turning up naked in his bed, and inviting him to run away with her. Given that earlier in the book she does briefly call what he's doing stalking, I can only hope in vain that the final scene is a prelude to her having him arrested. Or perhaps murdered. Every other male character is portrayed as even worse towards women than Lorimer, seemingly to make him seem sympathetic by comparison. It doesn't work, but naturally I hated all of them too. It was exhausting.
This review is intended mainly as a warning. I cannot assess the merits of the plot, setting, and writing of ‘Armadillo’ as I couldn’t get past how profoundly, unremittingly, relentlessly sexist it was. This is some Hemingway-level shit. The idea that male novelists might actually think women are this far from being people absolutely horrifies me. My initial hopes of satirical intent were crushed long before I got through all 370 pages. For fuck’s sake, men, stop it.
Page 14.
Dymphna’s breasts were momentarily visible as she stooped to stub out her cigarette. Small with pale pointy nipples, he noticed. She really shouldn’t wear such low-
Page 110.
She was an ungainly girl, made more lumpy by pubescence, with dark hair and a sly, pointy face. Her small, sharp breasts caused her huge embarrassment.
Page 151.
A cheerful-looking matronly young woman bounced out of the French windows that gave onto the croquet lawn. She had a big shapeless bosom beneath a baggy bright jumper…
Page 177.
Finally she removed her jacket and scarf and finally he was able to look, guardedly this time, at her breasts. From the pleasing convexities and concavities of her vermilion polo-neck he calculated they were of perfectly average size but flattish, more grapefruit-halves than anything particularly conic.
Even when breasts aren’t the focus, there’s this garbage (page 189):
There was something grubbily attractive about the sullen girl who opened the door to him at DW Management Ltd in Charlotte Street, Lorimer had to admit. Perhaps it was her extreme youth - eighteen or nineteen - perhaps it was the deliberately botched peroxide job on her short hair, or the tightness of the leopard print t-shirt she was wearing, or the three brass rings piercing her left eyebrow, or the fact that she was simultaneously smoking and chewing gum?
The main character, Lorimer Black, could possibly have been interesting if I hadn’t viscerally hated him for his constant cruelty, disdain, and objectification of women. He cheats on his girlfriend and leers at her teenage daughter. He treats every girl and woman he meets as a sexual object. He claims to fall in love with a woman he glimpses in a taxi, then proceeds to stalk her in a profoundly creepy way. He uses work contacts to find her phone number, drops in unannounced at her place of work, lies to her, lurks around outside her home, follows her around, ignores her saying that she's not interested & married, and generally acts like a predator. Choice quote: “You do know, you must be aware, that I’m passionately in love with you. I’ll never take no for an answer.” That is not fucking acceptable! What is worse, and I’m spoiling the ending for your own good, this profoundly wrong and indeed illegal behaviour is rewarded by the object of Lorimer's affections leaving her husband, turning up naked in his bed, and inviting him to run away with her. Given that earlier in the book she does briefly call what he's doing stalking, I can only hope in vain that the final scene is a prelude to her having him arrested. Or perhaps murdered. Every other male character is portrayed as even worse towards women than Lorimer, seemingly to make him seem sympathetic by comparison. It doesn't work, but naturally I hated all of them too. It was exhausting.
This review is intended mainly as a warning. I cannot assess the merits of the plot, setting, and writing of ‘Armadillo’ as I couldn’t get past how profoundly, unremittingly, relentlessly sexist it was. This is some Hemingway-level shit. The idea that male novelists might actually think women are this far from being people absolutely horrifies me. My initial hopes of satirical intent were crushed long before I got through all 370 pages. For fuck’s sake, men, stop it.
February 15, 2025
Armadillo; meaning ‘little armed man’
After an exciting page one, I was INCREDIBLY bored 😑 However, for some strange, and unexplainable reason, I felt compelled to keep reading. Something in the writing was drawing me in…
The storyline follows one POV - Lorimer Black. He was a young, 31 year old, insurance adjuster. Oh, and he has a strange hobby of collecting antique helmets 🪖
One winter’s morning, he is up and out early, headed to an ordinary business meeting, when he finds the man, Mr Dupree, hanged. Following this is a series of rather unexciting events, which do however provide a strong background to Lorimer’s, or should I say - Milomre, background. There are some key elements at play throughout this story. Many of which I found mundane, despite their apparent importance.
However, The one element of this story I did enjoy was the relationship Lorimer developed with Flavia. The ups and downs. The secrets and dangers. The passion and fate, at play. The rational and irrational. In one of Lorimer’s many journal notes he considers: ‘I am as myself irrational and I am rational. If this is true for me, then it must be true for Flavia. Perhaps we are all equally irrational as we blunder onwards. Perhaps in the end this is what really distinguishes us from complex, powerful and all capable machines… this is what makes us human.’ - I liked this very much.
This was not Boyd’s finest work. But, there was something enticing about the writing that held my attention and made me want to keep reading. Am I glad to have read it? Yes. Would I recommend it? No, probably not. Boyd has written so much other fantastic novels and this one just didn’t quite hit the mark.
🌟🌟🌟 (a generous 3 stars 😕)
After an exciting page one, I was INCREDIBLY bored 😑 However, for some strange, and unexplainable reason, I felt compelled to keep reading. Something in the writing was drawing me in…
The storyline follows one POV - Lorimer Black. He was a young, 31 year old, insurance adjuster. Oh, and he has a strange hobby of collecting antique helmets 🪖
One winter’s morning, he is up and out early, headed to an ordinary business meeting, when he finds the man, Mr Dupree, hanged. Following this is a series of rather unexciting events, which do however provide a strong background to Lorimer’s, or should I say - Milomre, background. There are some key elements at play throughout this story. Many of which I found mundane, despite their apparent importance.
However, The one element of this story I did enjoy was the relationship Lorimer developed with Flavia. The ups and downs. The secrets and dangers. The passion and fate, at play. The rational and irrational. In one of Lorimer’s many journal notes he considers: ‘I am as myself irrational and I am rational. If this is true for me, then it must be true for Flavia. Perhaps we are all equally irrational as we blunder onwards. Perhaps in the end this is what really distinguishes us from complex, powerful and all capable machines… this is what makes us human.’ - I liked this very much.
This was not Boyd’s finest work. But, there was something enticing about the writing that held my attention and made me want to keep reading. Am I glad to have read it? Yes. Would I recommend it? No, probably not. Boyd has written so much other fantastic novels and this one just didn’t quite hit the mark.
🌟🌟🌟 (a generous 3 stars 😕)
March 23, 2021
Not long after this book was published, the financial services company I was working for brought it out in a branded paperback as one of a series of books that had insurance as the theme. Whoever decided that this book was suitable for the series clearly hadn't read it, as Lorimer Black, its hero, is involved in the business of 'special loss adjusting' which is the claims equivalent of protection racketeering.
This is a solid novel in the William Boyd oeuvre without having the ambition of later tomes like Any Human Heart or Sweet Caress. This one is plot- rather than character-driven. Which is not to say that the characters are one-dimensional, far from it. However, it's mainly the complicated story of one company's fire insurance claim that propels the narrative and towards the end it comes off the rails a bit because the twists and turns of the scam make it difficult to stay on track.
It's worthwhile for the time spent in Lorimer's company and I so wanted him to end up happy and victorious.
This is a solid novel in the William Boyd oeuvre without having the ambition of later tomes like Any Human Heart or Sweet Caress. This one is plot- rather than character-driven. Which is not to say that the characters are one-dimensional, far from it. However, it's mainly the complicated story of one company's fire insurance claim that propels the narrative and towards the end it comes off the rails a bit because the twists and turns of the scam make it difficult to stay on track.
It's worthwhile for the time spent in Lorimer's company and I so wanted him to end up happy and victorious.
August 5, 2021
To his colleagues Lorimer Black is a young, good-looking and successful insurance loss adjuster who seems to be in control of his life.But when one morning he goes on a perfectly routine business appointment only to find a hanged man. Not a great way to start any day. Whilst this experience was upsetting when his next assignment, to investigate a fire in a hotel under construction, he finds his life buffeted by forces over which will turn his life upside down.
Nothing is quite as it seems in this book including Lorimer Black's name, he was born Milomre Blocj, the youngest son of a large family of immigrants from Eastern Europe. Lorimer wants to blend in to English society and distance himself from his true identity. He is still close to his family and helps to support them but is trying to furnish himself with some added protective armour by collecting antique helmets.
Lorimer excels at his job, he is able to recognize when people are lying and have inflated their insurance claim but when one for 27 million pound claim is successfully reduced to 10 million pound payout his professional life begins to unravel.
His personal life is no less confused. He has trouble sleeping and spends nights studied and analysed at the 'Institute of Lucid Dreams'. He is having a casual affair with one of his former clients but becomes obsessed with an actress whom he tracks down and tries to win over.
The plot is meandering and whilst Lorimer isn't completely hapless he isn't a superhero either. 'Armadillo' is loosely a thriller but Boyd only allows Lorimer to see glimpses of the bigger picture. This vagueness is quite deliberate as Boyd tries to show that there are few easy answers here just as there are none in life.
There are touches of humour sprinkled throughout this book (Boyd certainly seemed to take pleasure in some of his characters' names). It is also a book with a message, you can never truly escape your past and mud rarely sticks to the wealthy, it's only the little men who get trod underfoot. But whilst I always enjoy his writing style (this is the fourth of his works that I've read) I can't help thinking that in this particular case he overplayed his hand. It ended up reading rather laddish and, for that reason alone, missed its mark.
Nothing is quite as it seems in this book including Lorimer Black's name, he was born Milomre Blocj, the youngest son of a large family of immigrants from Eastern Europe. Lorimer wants to blend in to English society and distance himself from his true identity. He is still close to his family and helps to support them but is trying to furnish himself with some added protective armour by collecting antique helmets.
Lorimer excels at his job, he is able to recognize when people are lying and have inflated their insurance claim but when one for 27 million pound claim is successfully reduced to 10 million pound payout his professional life begins to unravel.
His personal life is no less confused. He has trouble sleeping and spends nights studied and analysed at the 'Institute of Lucid Dreams'. He is having a casual affair with one of his former clients but becomes obsessed with an actress whom he tracks down and tries to win over.
The plot is meandering and whilst Lorimer isn't completely hapless he isn't a superhero either. 'Armadillo' is loosely a thriller but Boyd only allows Lorimer to see glimpses of the bigger picture. This vagueness is quite deliberate as Boyd tries to show that there are few easy answers here just as there are none in life.
There are touches of humour sprinkled throughout this book (Boyd certainly seemed to take pleasure in some of his characters' names). It is also a book with a message, you can never truly escape your past and mud rarely sticks to the wealthy, it's only the little men who get trod underfoot. But whilst I always enjoy his writing style (this is the fourth of his works that I've read) I can't help thinking that in this particular case he overplayed his hand. It ended up reading rather laddish and, for that reason alone, missed its mark.
August 5, 2019
Boyd wanders into Amis territory, the geography and the sociology are the same, but the comedy is not as dark. A well executed narrative carries you through an ultimately unconvincing plot.
December 30, 2025
Lorimeer Black an insurance loss adjuster is trying to make something of his life. He sees a woman for a fleeting minute called Flavia and becomes infatuated. The story is misogynistic and Lorimeer is not a likable character although he does like dogs.
He becomes involved unwittingly for a fire claim for a building and the story essentially says the richer you are the more corrupt and how you will not be caught. Flavia the woman he falls for is married and unhappy. However, their relationship is built on looks and Black is a shallow man. He suffers insomnia is ashamed of his family and has a weird relationship with them.
The story is intriguing and it kept my attention with its humor and Black’s infatuation and trying to do the right thing in his mind.
He becomes involved unwittingly for a fire claim for a building and the story essentially says the richer you are the more corrupt and how you will not be caught. Flavia the woman he falls for is married and unhappy. However, their relationship is built on looks and Black is a shallow man. He suffers insomnia is ashamed of his family and has a weird relationship with them.
The story is intriguing and it kept my attention with its humor and Black’s infatuation and trying to do the right thing in his mind.
August 16, 2011
Armadillo is the story of Lorimer a.k.a. Milo, an insomniac loss adjuster with a personality crisis and an obsession with collecting antique helmets who simultaneously falls in love with an actress glimpsed briefly in a taxi and becomes inadvertently embroiled in an elaborate fraud perpetrated by his own company. There's a straightforward narrative and a parallel set of excerpts from Lorimer's journal which provide a commentary on the action.
I chose to read this book after reading two of Boyd's later works and enjoying them because they seemed unpretentious and entertaining while still achieving a depth of field that made them qualify as bona fide literary thrillers.
Unpretentious Armadillo is not. One Amazon reviewer described it as 'the literary equivalent of bad Jazz. Incredibly self indulgent and so cloaked in over wordy description without hint of any story.' Another reviewer wrote, 'Every supporting character felt fake, one-dimensional, a function of the need to construct a filmable narrative.' I couldn't agree more, though I should point out that many more Amazon reviewers thought it was wonderful.
In my opinion the writing is monstrous, the characters totally unsympathetic, the milieu implausible and the whole thing reads like a study in egoism. I struggled to get to the end of it and I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.
I chose to read this book after reading two of Boyd's later works and enjoying them because they seemed unpretentious and entertaining while still achieving a depth of field that made them qualify as bona fide literary thrillers.
Unpretentious Armadillo is not. One Amazon reviewer described it as 'the literary equivalent of bad Jazz. Incredibly self indulgent and so cloaked in over wordy description without hint of any story.' Another reviewer wrote, 'Every supporting character felt fake, one-dimensional, a function of the need to construct a filmable narrative.' I couldn't agree more, though I should point out that many more Amazon reviewers thought it was wonderful.
In my opinion the writing is monstrous, the characters totally unsympathetic, the milieu implausible and the whole thing reads like a study in egoism. I struggled to get to the end of it and I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.
May 7, 2015
I love William Boyd. This book was quirky, I liked it.
December 15, 2024
Straight from the opening page this was a delight to read. This was a great story and moved at a great pace but still managed to remain clever, witty and rich in detail as we whipped along through the back lanes and dark side of late 90s London streets. All that arch humour, great characters and wonderful description. This genuinely thrilling plot makes for a belter of a read!...albeit with a bit of a crappy ending?...
January 15, 2023
Moderately funny.
January 10, 2013
Originally published on my blog here in December 2001.
The world of insurance is not really a very exciting one, but Boyd has managed to make it so in his novel about fraud and pretence. It concentrates on the profession which clearly has the greatest propensity for drama within the field, the insurance adjuster (who checks whether big claims that worry insurance companies are valid - leading here to suicides, death threats and assaults).
The central character is Lorimer Black, who starts the novel by discovering the body of a hanged man, driven to suicide by an insurance company's unwillingness to pay, is perhaps the most honest character in the novel, and he has created an entire new background for himself, disassociating himself from his Romanian origins. The plot is very complicated, but not too much so for enjoyment - the novel has made it to TV in a virtually unsimplified form without being impossible to follow.
Armadillo is a very well written, darkly funny novel, hopefully typical of Boyd, who is now going on my list of authors to read more from.
The world of insurance is not really a very exciting one, but Boyd has managed to make it so in his novel about fraud and pretence. It concentrates on the profession which clearly has the greatest propensity for drama within the field, the insurance adjuster (who checks whether big claims that worry insurance companies are valid - leading here to suicides, death threats and assaults).
The central character is Lorimer Black, who starts the novel by discovering the body of a hanged man, driven to suicide by an insurance company's unwillingness to pay, is perhaps the most honest character in the novel, and he has created an entire new background for himself, disassociating himself from his Romanian origins. The plot is very complicated, but not too much so for enjoyment - the novel has made it to TV in a virtually unsimplified form without being impossible to follow.
Armadillo is a very well written, darkly funny novel, hopefully typical of Boyd, who is now going on my list of authors to read more from.
February 26, 2009
Just discovered a group of fabulous British authors. This book is so well written with a Vonnegust-esque sense of humor but more action. A great read!
June 15, 2020
I seem to recall that when this book was originally published, just over twenty years ago, it drew slightly less critical acclaim than is normally lavished over William Boyd’s books. As a huge admirer of William Boyd, I clearly bought it very soon after its publication (my copy is a hardback from the first edition), but I have actually no recollection of having read it previously.
I have to say I enjoyed it. To be honest, it doesn’t match up to Restless or Any Human Heart, but then very few novels do. It marked a slight departure from his previous works as this was William Boyd’s first novel wholly set in Britain.
The central figure is known as Lorimer Black, and works for a firm acting as loss adjusters for a major insurance company. ‘Known as’ because we subsequently learn that Lorimer’s family are of Transnistrian descent, and his real name in Milomre Bloḉj. Lorimer remains close to his family, but not as close as they all are – his three elders sisters still live with their parents, while their brother lives just around the corner. Having taken to loss adjusting, Lorimer now lives in an elegant flat in Pimlico, although he has just bought a house in Silvertown, in east London.
We first encounter Lorimer as he arrives to attend an appointment with a recent claimant, whose factory had recently burned down. Harbouring suspicions about the fire, the insurance company had referred the application for loss adjustment consideration, and it had fallen to Lorimer. Turning up feeling nonchalant, and expecting a fairly straightforward opening discussion, Lorimer is aghast to find that the owner has hanged himself.
The police attend, and Lorimer, reeling from the shock, gives as much information as possible, before walking back to his car with a view to returning to the office. Just as he is about to pull out, a taxi comes hurtling by, blaring its horn. As Lorimer looks up his eyes fleetingly lock with those of the startlingly beautiful female passenger sitting in the back of the cab.
As if Lorimer doesn’t already have enough on his mind, he has been suffering from insomnia and is participating in a research study being overseen by one of his neighbours. This entails him spending several nights at a sleep laboraotory in Greenwich where he is fitted with electrodes so that his pulse and mental activities can be recorded while he sleeps (or at least tries to)
Tension builds right from the start, on as Lorimer has to negotiate the relentless foul temper of his boss, George Hogg, and a series of unexpected reorganisations within his firm. Shortly afterwards his car is vandalised, and he is mugged on the street.
Boyd relates all of this with his customary clarity of prose. The story is interleaved with extracts from ‘The Book of Transfiguration’, a journal kept by Lorimer, primarily to record his dreams, although it expands to include reflections on a wide range of aspects of life, including his observations on the great British café, and memories of some of his deeper student excesses.
I have to say I enjoyed it. To be honest, it doesn’t match up to Restless or Any Human Heart, but then very few novels do. It marked a slight departure from his previous works as this was William Boyd’s first novel wholly set in Britain.
The central figure is known as Lorimer Black, and works for a firm acting as loss adjusters for a major insurance company. ‘Known as’ because we subsequently learn that Lorimer’s family are of Transnistrian descent, and his real name in Milomre Bloḉj. Lorimer remains close to his family, but not as close as they all are – his three elders sisters still live with their parents, while their brother lives just around the corner. Having taken to loss adjusting, Lorimer now lives in an elegant flat in Pimlico, although he has just bought a house in Silvertown, in east London.
We first encounter Lorimer as he arrives to attend an appointment with a recent claimant, whose factory had recently burned down. Harbouring suspicions about the fire, the insurance company had referred the application for loss adjustment consideration, and it had fallen to Lorimer. Turning up feeling nonchalant, and expecting a fairly straightforward opening discussion, Lorimer is aghast to find that the owner has hanged himself.
The police attend, and Lorimer, reeling from the shock, gives as much information as possible, before walking back to his car with a view to returning to the office. Just as he is about to pull out, a taxi comes hurtling by, blaring its horn. As Lorimer looks up his eyes fleetingly lock with those of the startlingly beautiful female passenger sitting in the back of the cab.
As if Lorimer doesn’t already have enough on his mind, he has been suffering from insomnia and is participating in a research study being overseen by one of his neighbours. This entails him spending several nights at a sleep laboraotory in Greenwich where he is fitted with electrodes so that his pulse and mental activities can be recorded while he sleeps (or at least tries to)
Tension builds right from the start, on as Lorimer has to negotiate the relentless foul temper of his boss, George Hogg, and a series of unexpected reorganisations within his firm. Shortly afterwards his car is vandalised, and he is mugged on the street.
Boyd relates all of this with his customary clarity of prose. The story is interleaved with extracts from ‘The Book of Transfiguration’, a journal kept by Lorimer, primarily to record his dreams, although it expands to include reflections on a wide range of aspects of life, including his observations on the great British café, and memories of some of his deeper student excesses.
June 29, 2023
chuckle material
April 5, 2020
Only William Boyd could write a story about Insurance and Loss Adjusting, and make it interesting! An unusual theme, with some memorable characters.
July 3, 2018
Armadillo is a superb novel about a young man making his way through London and modern life, starting with his origins in a displaced "Transnistrian" family living in Fulham, going through his higher education in Inverness (as far away from his family as he could go and stay in the U.K.), and then working his way into the misadventures of a "loss adjuster" for an insurance company always looking for ways to pay less than the face value of its policies.
Lorimer Black, not his original name, has no great pretensions in life except to collect ancient pieces of armor, be kind to others, defend himself from others, and deal with his susceptibility to romantic attraction, notably to an actress he glimpses, at first, in a passing car, Flavia Malinverno.
Boyd weaves the weather, household nuisances, bullying bosses, pissed-off insurance claimants, and secret passions together in a story that leaps genially forward in lively, agreeable prose. This is a novel that suggests, in gentler terms, Martin Amis. There's a hint of Jim Crace here, too, but these are affinities, not questions of influence--Boyd is his own writer, to be sure.
The major insurance scam at the center of the story doesn't overwhelm it in procedural manner, which is good. It's also amusing that Boyd finds a way to engage in a detective story summing up/explanation without the tedium of a full recapitulation. And then the loose thread, Flavia, is pulled in with a light deft touch that embraces, rather than quashes, its fundamental ambiguity.
We know why Lorimer pursues her, but we don't know why she lets herself be caught, or if, as it seems, that she really is caught, or how long she will remain caught.
Lorimer Black, not his original name, has no great pretensions in life except to collect ancient pieces of armor, be kind to others, defend himself from others, and deal with his susceptibility to romantic attraction, notably to an actress he glimpses, at first, in a passing car, Flavia Malinverno.
Boyd weaves the weather, household nuisances, bullying bosses, pissed-off insurance claimants, and secret passions together in a story that leaps genially forward in lively, agreeable prose. This is a novel that suggests, in gentler terms, Martin Amis. There's a hint of Jim Crace here, too, but these are affinities, not questions of influence--Boyd is his own writer, to be sure.
The major insurance scam at the center of the story doesn't overwhelm it in procedural manner, which is good. It's also amusing that Boyd finds a way to engage in a detective story summing up/explanation without the tedium of a full recapitulation. And then the loose thread, Flavia, is pulled in with a light deft touch that embraces, rather than quashes, its fundamental ambiguity.
We know why Lorimer pursues her, but we don't know why she lets herself be caught, or if, as it seems, that she really is caught, or how long she will remain caught.
January 10, 2016
I really enjoyed this book.
If you told me that I would enjoy a book about a London loss-adjuster quite so much, then I would have laughed at you. It was excellent. The young man in question, Lorimer Black, recently morphed from someone called, less conveniently, Milomre Blocj, is both savvy and likable. He has good taste in clothes and a particular passion for a 3,000 year old Greek helmet.
It is the plethora of little facts that make this novel, lots of little things happening, small insignificant everyday things being pointed out all over the place that makes it work for me.
William Boyd catches the feel of London, the host of oddball characters it contains, and that period of time when everything from the East of the city was on the up.
There are some wonderful pieces of description among the strange events of Lorimer's life. Here is one I liked
"He lay in his bed listening to the growing quiet of the night, always approaching silence but never achieving it, it's progression halted by a lorry's grinding gears, a siren or a car alarm, a taxi's ticking diesel, until, in the small hours, the first jumbos begin to cruise in from the Far East - from Singapore and Delhi, Tokyo and Bangkok - the bass roar of their engines like a slowly breaking wave high above, as they wheeled and banked in over the city on their final approach to Heathrow."
Lorimer is a bad sleeper - never able to get more than an hours or two, and I loved the way this sentence picked up that lack of quiet in the city as it almost reaches silence but never quite makes it. All the things that the poor sleeper would notice.
Have a read, enjoy the richness and the variety of the characters and puzzle your way through the changing fortunes of Lorimer Black.
If you told me that I would enjoy a book about a London loss-adjuster quite so much, then I would have laughed at you. It was excellent. The young man in question, Lorimer Black, recently morphed from someone called, less conveniently, Milomre Blocj, is both savvy and likable. He has good taste in clothes and a particular passion for a 3,000 year old Greek helmet.
It is the plethora of little facts that make this novel, lots of little things happening, small insignificant everyday things being pointed out all over the place that makes it work for me.
William Boyd catches the feel of London, the host of oddball characters it contains, and that period of time when everything from the East of the city was on the up.
There are some wonderful pieces of description among the strange events of Lorimer's life. Here is one I liked
"He lay in his bed listening to the growing quiet of the night, always approaching silence but never achieving it, it's progression halted by a lorry's grinding gears, a siren or a car alarm, a taxi's ticking diesel, until, in the small hours, the first jumbos begin to cruise in from the Far East - from Singapore and Delhi, Tokyo and Bangkok - the bass roar of their engines like a slowly breaking wave high above, as they wheeled and banked in over the city on their final approach to Heathrow."
Lorimer is a bad sleeper - never able to get more than an hours or two, and I loved the way this sentence picked up that lack of quiet in the city as it almost reaches silence but never quite makes it. All the things that the poor sleeper would notice.
Have a read, enjoy the richness and the variety of the characters and puzzle your way through the changing fortunes of Lorimer Black.
February 6, 2012
Not at all sure about this.... if it wasnt boyd, I think I would have either given up or perhaps not continued to seek him out.
Unlike the other two that I have read, this failed to engage me properly and I struggled to find its meaning and definitely failed to find the humour that was so promised by the words on the back.
It tells the story of Lorimer Black, who works in insurance as a loss adjuster. On the start of one of his days, he finds one of his claimee hung. A job of a loss adjuster is making sure that insurance firms dont pay out.
From then on, we find out more about Lorimer. He is a refugee from eastern eurpoe with an extended family over here. He is being setup in his job by a fairly horrid boss. There is another claim for a hotel fire that looks suspicious that he gets involved in.
He falls in love with an actress who makes a commercial for his film and pursues her, and through most of the book simply accepts the shit that everyone is throwing at him without complaint.
Not really sure where the book was trying to go. There was just enough for me to keep going but this was mainly because of past reputation rather than what I was getting out of this in particular.
Unlike the other two that I have read, this failed to engage me properly and I struggled to find its meaning and definitely failed to find the humour that was so promised by the words on the back.
It tells the story of Lorimer Black, who works in insurance as a loss adjuster. On the start of one of his days, he finds one of his claimee hung. A job of a loss adjuster is making sure that insurance firms dont pay out.
From then on, we find out more about Lorimer. He is a refugee from eastern eurpoe with an extended family over here. He is being setup in his job by a fairly horrid boss. There is another claim for a hotel fire that looks suspicious that he gets involved in.
He falls in love with an actress who makes a commercial for his film and pursues her, and through most of the book simply accepts the shit that everyone is throwing at him without complaint.
Not really sure where the book was trying to go. There was just enough for me to keep going but this was mainly because of past reputation rather than what I was getting out of this in particular.
March 30, 2018
I really enjoyed this book, as I do most books by William Boyd, one of my favourite writers. In this, his talent for comic writing, first seen in "A Good Man in Africa", entertains, with brilliant character evocations as well as some truly funny scenes. The story itself is not a comedy though. Sort of a coming of age novel in someone who is already mid-30's - perhaps more of an awakening. The main character, Lorimer Black, lives a somewhat boring, conventional life as an insurance 'value-adjuster'. He comes from an Eastern European family (he has changed his name in an effort to flee his old life) and always struggles to fit in. His world is slowly turned upside down by a series of events including an infatuation with an actress, the death of a client, and the unwanted friendship of a colleague. Amusing, and, at times, poignant, this is highly recommended. Only real downside was the lack of a really cohesive ending, but this is likely a fault in my reading taste (I do like a nicely wrapped up satisfying end to a book). 4 stars 8/10
August 25, 2020
I enjoyed this. Our Lorimer is a bit of a lad but the story romps along at a good lick. I'd criticised one of William Boyd's later novels for being lazy but you can't complain when he demonstrates expertise on armorial helmets and Japanese luck gods as well as sleep disorders and, of course, insurance. I particularly liked the occasional diary / journal entries, some contemporary, some back in his past; I thought these were beautifully written as well as being a good way to tell the story. Everything goes wrong for Lorimer, as the frontispiece tells us, but we are left with the question of whether hope has escaped from Pandora's box in the shape of a job offer or, even more importantly, a future with the beautiful but dangerous Flavia. I liked Lorimer enough to hope it did!
October 19, 2007
A loss adjuster with an insurance company, who goes by Lorimer Black but whoes birth name is Milomre Blocj, discovers his world is coming apart and he is not quite sure why. His car is torched, his job is threatened, his father dies, he is saddled with a horrible house guest, he can't sleep and the woman who he falls in love with (and who is being abused by her husband) insists that she is not interested in him and demands that he leave her alone. He collects ancient Greek helments (I think this is supposed to be our link to the name of the book). The book is amusing - but even after things are all wrapped up I am still unsure what happened and why.
July 9, 2009
Any book that makes me imagine Daniel Craig as the protagonist has to be good. Our hero is a loss adjuster for the insurance industry but still dapper, gorgeous, mysterious, tidy -- and heterosexual! He has a secret past and a double life AND a sleep disorder. While the nonstop action is what really drives the plot, this book is strangely moving (despite the subject matter). Lots of British detail and slice-of-life info.
December 10, 2023
Enjoyable if you don't mind women being written as two-dimensional non humans who seem only to exist as something for men to fuck. I genuinely enjoyed the pace, the characterization of the main character, and the ideas about assimilation and creating a new self, but the women aspect got tiresome pretty early on. I think William Boyd has what might be called a 'writing women problem'.
March 7, 2016
My first time reading a novel by William Boyd. It starts slow but hang on...it's worth the time and read. I won this book in a giveaway and will be looking for other's by the author. This one keeps you interested right to the end. I don't like to giveaway plots in reviews. Read it for yourself!
March 8, 2013
From BBC Radio 4 Extra:
Contemporary London satire read by Stephen Critchlow.
Contemporary London satire read by Stephen Critchlow.
May 20, 2021
Lorimer Black's life revolves around protection. He works in insurance as a loss adjuster, an unpleasant job he is extremely successful at. His name and the persona that he has created are a cloak for his real identity, Milomre Blocj, a Gipsy of Eastern European heritage. He dresses to manipulate people's views of him. He collects helmets. He even has a second appartment nobody knows about where he can go and hide. He does however suffer from insomnia and has strange dreams, which he tries to get under control at the "Institute for Lucid Dreaming". All the carefully constructed layers he has accumulated around himself will be torn off as the book progresses. It starts with Lorimer discovering that the man he has an appointment with has hung himself. He then catches a glimpse of a beautiful woman that he becomes unhealthily obsessed with and starts pursuing her. One of his most successful cases inexplicably sours his relationship with his boss.
This is a very funny book. I found it impossible to lay down. I often laughed out loud at Lorimer's unsuccessful attempts to keep things under control, and even more at the actions of the outrageous supporting characters, most of them impossibly boorish. The flip side of course is that none of this is particularly believable, including the psychology of the characters. I highly recommend it to people who like to laugh at life's absurdity and to people who are easily offended, one of the 21st century's fastest growing demographics. These pages contain enough nuggets to keep you entertained or outraged for at least a couple of weeks, don't miss out on this opportunity!
This is a very funny book. I found it impossible to lay down. I often laughed out loud at Lorimer's unsuccessful attempts to keep things under control, and even more at the actions of the outrageous supporting characters, most of them impossibly boorish. The flip side of course is that none of this is particularly believable, including the psychology of the characters. I highly recommend it to people who like to laugh at life's absurdity and to people who are easily offended, one of the 21st century's fastest growing demographics. These pages contain enough nuggets to keep you entertained or outraged for at least a couple of weeks, don't miss out on this opportunity!
May 28, 2017
(First read February 1999)
Entertaining and engaging, but doesn't quite leave the impression on me that it did first time around. Times have changed, and so have I, I suppose. Lorimer/Milo's character feels more much more flimsy second time around. Also, the farcical elements of the fiction seem more forced. (As does, come to think of it, the whole mask conceit.) On the other hand, Boyd describes London's essential soullessness presciently. Plot wise, the book now feels like a more mature, restrained counterpart to London Fields-era Amis. Which isn't a bad thing in itself, but since one read 90s era Amis for his hyperbole...
Anyway, back to the shelf. Not sure I'll come back to this again.
Entertaining and engaging, but doesn't quite leave the impression on me that it did first time around. Times have changed, and so have I, I suppose. Lorimer/Milo's character feels more much more flimsy second time around. Also, the farcical elements of the fiction seem more forced. (As does, come to think of it, the whole mask conceit.) On the other hand, Boyd describes London's essential soullessness presciently. Plot wise, the book now feels like a more mature, restrained counterpart to London Fields-era Amis. Which isn't a bad thing in itself, but since one read 90s era Amis for his hyperbole...
Anyway, back to the shelf. Not sure I'll come back to this again.
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