Sunday, March 21, 2021

"Circe" by Madeline Miller

Circe would appeal to anyone interested in Greek mythology and reimagining or giving a story to some of lesser known characters. Circe was the witch that turned Odysseus' crew into pigs and kept him on her island for a year. That is pretty much all we learn about her from Homer. Miller masterfully creates the story that is Circe' own. Not only does she give her a voice, she skillfully shows how stories written by men traditionally marginalize or vilify strong female characters. One thing that struck me in this book was how horrible all the gods (even minor ones) are. You sort of get that impression from reading myths, but in this book it was particularly jarring. I guess being immortal and having powers does terrible things to one's personality and erodes the ability to empathize or care about anything but oneself.

Even though I really liked the story, the writing style did not work very well for me. It took me longer than usual to read this book, and some portions were extremely slow. This might be just my personal impression as I know plenty of people who flew through this novel and had no issues with the pacing or the style. Overall, I gave this book 3 out of 5 stars, and will definitely read the author's other books.

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