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The Elephant Keepers' Children (2012)

by Peter Høeg(Favorite Author)

3.38 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

1590514904 (ISBN13: 9781590514900)

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

Other Press

review 1: The trick to understanding Peter Høeg’s writing is to pay attention from the first page, in this case, the cover. Note the apostrophe in the title after “keepers”. This means there is more than one elephant keeper. The title refers to ideas or problems or ideas that are so elephantine that they subconsciously force you, like an elephant’s keeper, into uncontrolled behaviours. “Mother and Father’s elephants are not the Indian variety that can be taught to sit on your lap and do the crossword puzzle and stand on their front legs and wag their tails. Mother’s and Father’s elephants are the African species that wander great distances without warning and that you can be on reasonable terms with but never be certain of. “ (p. 487). The main characters in th... moreis story, teenagers Tilte and her brother Peter, the narrator, have parents who are brilliant but prone to being dominated by their elephants. As Tilte observes: “They’re elephant keepers. That’s Mother’s and Father’s problem, they’re elephant keepers without knowing it.” (p. 148) Peter and Tilte’s parents want to know what God really is, they want to meet God, and in trying to do this they fake some miracles and get involved in an extremist plot to blow up a multi-faith convention (with some old-fashioned self-enrichment thrown in for good measure.)Like in his other book written from the viewpoint of precocious, intelligent children who outsmart adults, Borderliners, Peter and Tilte (especially Tilte) often speak, reason, plan and plot like adults, and do not show any of the limited reasoning typical of developing children. Rather than children, they are, I suspect, representations of adults seeking to find their place in the world - perhaps like the notoriously publicity-shy author was in his youth.The plot is clever and engaging - on the surface the novel is clearly a mystery though just one corpse from a natural death is involved. But Høeg is, again, frankly critical of the Danish welfare system and its treatment of children with problems. A frequent theme in children’s literature is the threat is of children being abandoned, losing their parents and being forced into care. That is the dark thread woven through the story. The names of the characters are strange, punnish (on purpose - Martin Aitken did an excellent job of the translation into English, I thought) and clearly an indication of their natures. Leonora Ticklepalate, who is a Buddhist and runs a business advising people on how to spice up their love-lives; Rickardt Three Lions (a reference to Richard the Lionheart?) a crazy, impoverished member of the nobility; Albert Winehappy, a morose, over-sized secret agent and gourmand, and so on. Often, the plot is similarly slapstick, with corpses and coffins appearing and disappearing, and people popping out of hampers, leaping about in shock and going off on wild goose chases. For instance, when the children want to get away, Tilte just bellows “Honor killing!” and all the people in the public square jump on the children’s pursuers. Is that black humour, or what?But underneath the humour lie profound observations on the nature of faith, loneliness and hope. Loneliness for instance, showing the isolation and idiosyncrasy of the little island of Finø reflected both in Peter’s name and character:“That’s what happens now, all by itself. I shift my attention. From the blackness of the night to the light of the stars…My attention is turned one way, toward loneliness, and I go the other. From the feeling of loneliness to what surrounds it. From being trapped within myself, inside the joys and sorrows that make up Peter Finø and that reside like tiny, floating islands adrift within us all, I shift my attention to what those islands are adrift upon. That’s all I do. It’s something anyone can do. I change nothing. I don’t try to make the loneliness go away. I just let go of it. It begins to remove itself. She begins to remove herself. And then she is gone. What remains in a way is me. But in another way, it’s just a very deep feeling of happiness.” (pp. 494-495)So, If you want to see one way of managing your elephants - loneliness and failing faith included, read this. It is thought-provoking and very clever.
review 2: Эта рецензия спонсирована тем, что мне лень тянуться после пробежки. Спасибо) Теперь к тексту.Хёг написал очень странную книгу - для меня он навеки останется автором "Смиллы", которая совершенно чарующая и совершенно ледяная. Здорово смотреть на снег и на лед, только замерзнуть насмерть очень легко, пугающее совершенство текста и всех малейших связок - и четкий кристалл. "Дети смотрителей слонов", с одной стороны, плотно связаны с детством и веткой северной литературы о детях, с другой - это очень ладно скроенный детектив, уходящий корнями в жестокость и холодность, и это Хегу приходится как-то увязывать между собой. Увязки не всегда проходят гладко, зачастую просто натыкаешься на эту связку и медленно-медленно преодолеваешь страницу, которая меняет направление повествования. Меня бы устроил любой более четкий текст, но писала не я, а автору, как известно, видней.Книгу, впрочем, невозможно не полюбить за несколько страниц про любовь, одиночество и о том, как выбраться из своей собственной тюрьмы (и про слонов тоже отлично). less

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Reviews (see all)

JAY

This had some potential, but I feel Hoeg didn't quite achieve it. This is a comedic parody poking at such things as the smart adult behaving kids as sleuths genre in film & books, the G7 or G20, eccentric village inhabitant genre - think Proulx' The Shipping News, and contemporary Copenhagen.There are certainly some wonderful one liners scattered through the book, but I found it a little heavy at times and too long. I hit the halfway point (200 pages) & really only wanted to read another 50 pages to get to the end. I persevered but it was painful. For me, the stupid slapstick and 1960s clunky comedy film gags fell flat. There's even a cake throwing scene which was just plain unnecessary. There was much more, but I think you get the drift.This is not Hoeg's better work & sadly, the parodies had so much scope, but were let down with the plot and the weak comedy.

jona

Peter Høeg constructs a story of three children on the fictional Danish island of Finø. The two brothers and sister one day find that their parents have disappeared and strike out to track them down while navigating through a collection of odd inhabitants of the island. In classic Peter Høeg fashion, the story is often just a framework for digressions on life, relationships, and philosophy. For readers willing to travel slowly through the story, savoring the atmosphere and imagery, this book is a treat.

john

Persistently dreamy, riding the edge of magical realism in a very Danish way.

natpoo12

I think this could have been very clever but I really didn't enjoy it.

hefkolhhbe

Excellent book!

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