Posted: Jan 28, 2023 8:07 pm
1. A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens.
2. Im Westen Nichts Neues, Erich Maria Remarque
3. The Silence of the Girls, Pat Barker
That was a good recommendation, Blip, thank you for that. (That is, it was your report on the sequel that I read: was this one on a previous list of yours? I didn't see it if it was.)
Thinking back to what I said late last year (in the previous thread) about the Iliad: this is indeed more like it. In this version of the story, a woman is actually a person, imagine that. And this is indeed what it would probably have been like for her, if the events of the legend had actually happened.
At first I assumed that this would be a realistic re-telling; but in fact it turns out that we're supposed to accept that the mythical elements of the story are real. Though, on the other hand, not many of them actually figure in the book, compared to Homer. Am I making sense? Most of the supernatural elements in Homer's version are left out here, but those that are not left out, we are evidently supposed to take seriously. I first realised that when divine Thetis actually arrives in person, in the flesh, out of the sea to visit her son, Achilles. I could have realised sooner, when the plague actually happens in apparent response to the prayer of Chryses, but I assumed this was mere coincidence.
So that was a bit unexpected, but you get used to it, settle down and enjoy the story; and I was rather gripped by it. At some point I'll read the next instalment.
2. Im Westen Nichts Neues, Erich Maria Remarque
3. The Silence of the Girls, Pat Barker
That was a good recommendation, Blip, thank you for that. (That is, it was your report on the sequel that I read: was this one on a previous list of yours? I didn't see it if it was.)
Thinking back to what I said late last year (in the previous thread) about the Iliad: this is indeed more like it. In this version of the story, a woman is actually a person, imagine that. And this is indeed what it would probably have been like for her, if the events of the legend had actually happened.
At first I assumed that this would be a realistic re-telling; but in fact it turns out that we're supposed to accept that the mythical elements of the story are real. Though, on the other hand, not many of them actually figure in the book, compared to Homer. Am I making sense? Most of the supernatural elements in Homer's version are left out here, but those that are not left out, we are evidently supposed to take seriously. I first realised that when divine Thetis actually arrives in person, in the flesh, out of the sea to visit her son, Achilles. I could have realised sooner, when the plague actually happens in apparent response to the prayer of Chryses, but I assumed this was mere coincidence.
So that was a bit unexpected, but you get used to it, settle down and enjoy the story; and I was rather gripped by it. At some point I'll read the next instalment.