As the central figure of the novel, Group Portrait with Lady, Leni is presented as the essence of goodness, the self-sacrificing innocent juxtaposed against a misguided society infected by evil. Of interest to the reader and presumably the motivating factor initiating the investigation of her life is the fact that Leni is at once naively simplistic and immeasurably complex, an elusively private person assimilated within a communal state of bliss. Similar to the character of Hans in The Clown (1965) as well as other protagonists in Boll's fiction, Leni is an unnatural phenomenon possessing the enigmatic quality of naturalness. Consequently, with a combination of marked determination and voyeuristic pleasure, the narrator attempts to solve the mystery of Leni by putting her "in the right light." The various informants, representing a cross section of German society and comprising the "Group" of the novel's title, offer an assemblage of factual information...