Madeline Miller's Circe was recommended by my book group ladies, and I reserved it from the library on the spot. I ended up reading most of it in the Glen Waverley library, waiting for my husband's eye surgery to finish, and it transported me far, far away, in space and time, to the Ancient Greek Age of Heroes.
I knew Circe vaguely as the sorceress who turned Odysseus' sailors into swine, but Miller's novel does a magnificent job of filling out her back story and incorporating the other aspects of her legend: daughter of Helios, the Sun; magic worker; spurned lover, creator of her own craft and happiness; mother of potions and herbal magic. This novel is beautifully written, vivid, absorbing.
Circe is one of the most enjoyable adult novels I've read this year, and a perfect way to while away a five hour wait.
I loved Circe. Miller does such a good job of taking us into the head of this essentially alien being and making it convincing. It's by far the best of the current crop of Greek myth retellings, and is the only one that comes close to Mary Renault in my mind.
ReplyDeleteIt was really wonderful. I'm thinking of reading her other books on the strength of it, but not sure if anything else could measure up.
ReplyDeleteI read the one on Achilles and Patrokles, which was enjoyable, poetic in places, but not on the same level as Circe. I know some young people who absolutely adored it though, so I think it works exceptionally well as a YA romance.
DeleteThanks Ann, I might give it a go!
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