pickThe Voyage Home (Women of Troy 3), by Pat Barker (2024) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Premise: A Trojan nurse accompanies the doomed prophetess Cassandra to her fate as Agamemnon‘s entourage returns home.
Review: In a landscape overstuffed with retellings, once again this effort from Pat Barker elevates the genre to its full potential. It was jarring not to have Briseis as our point-of-view character in this third book. Cont.
pickJune‘s book club choice is a Greek mythology retelling from the perspective of Briseis, a Queen in Troy taken as a prize for Achilles towards the end of the Trojan war. I enjoyed learning about the war and time period and I think it‘ll make a fun discussion next week. This is the first of a trilogy so I may pick up the audio for the rest of the series.
pickThe Women of Troy (Women of Troy 2), by Pat Barker (2021)
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Premise: As the victorious Greek armies are stranded by impossible winds and tensions rise in the camps, the enslaved women of Troy ponder what comes.
Review: I was blown away by the first book in this series, and the sequel did not disappoint. Cont.
pickI found this haunting. There is something about the authors use of language that mimics the ‘for the ages‘ style of the original works whilst bringing fresh perspectives and an almost practical infuse telling. In this one our narrator is slave to Cassandra sailing home with Agamemnon who is mostly secondary to the story of his waiting wife and family. The horror of their home, ghosts of slaughtered and canabilised children adds tension .& horror.
pickIn the third book in Barker‘s Women of Troy series, we are given the story of Agamemnon‘s return to Mycenae. We know what will happen, but Barker provides us with an excellent retelling, setting up a story of revenge that picks up speed as we read. Baker writes beautifully, but I did take exception to her decision to use modern idioms and phrases. What she might gain in attracting younger readers, costs her a feeling of power in an ancient tale.
pickDelightful!
pickJust finished the second in this Pat Barker trilogy ! And looking forward to the third - great books especially when I‘m reading them in Greece .
Bookish Pair: For a fun recent novel that uses Euripides‘s take on this saga as a backdrop, Ferdia Lennon‘s Glorious Exploits (2024). 3d