Casati's study of the infamous mythological character of Clytemnestra is new, fresh, and wonderfully insightful. I loved how Clytemnestra is not watered down for a modern audience on the pages of this book - she is terrifying, ruthless, and utterly brutal AS SHE SHOULD BE. Though yes, she is a mother who loses a child and an audience can draw great sympathy for her from this incident, it is important to remember that although we can reason with her in one realm, in another the Mycenaean queen is completely alien to us. This complex duality of her character - her wrongs, rights, and murky middle ground behaviours we love yet also frown upon - is perfectly portrayed in Casati's novel.
More than that, what I appreciated most about this book was how different this story of Clytemnestra is compared to others on the market today. I really liked seeing Clytemnestra in new environments with characters like her brothers, father, and even palace workers. Seeing her interact with these people shows that Casati not only has a deep understanding of this character but also a deeper understanding of mythology. I adored all the episodes with brothers Castor and Polydeuces as they are often forgotten in this story, as well as watching the relationship between Clytemnestra and her father Tyndareus unfold over time. These are just some of the touches I thought made this book really stand out.
Now yes, I gave this book 5 stars due to all the reasons stated above. However, I do have two complaints: one is the character of Agamemnon, and the other is Diomedes. Let's begin with the latter because that's a tiny point. I adore Diomedes from the Iliad (he is literally my favourite character), and so watching him become a rude brute around the other famous greek heroes wasn't my favourite thing. This is mainly because he's not presented as rude in the mythology and is actually a man of very, very few words. I understand that Casati used Diomedes in this way because he was a bigger name than a lot of the other heroes dealt with in the novel (and many are mentioned, by the way, which was great), but I do wish another man was thrown under the bus. Someone we don't care about. Someone like Thersites. But again, I understand that you can't do that when the vast majority of people don't know who Thersites is, so despite everything I just said, I didn't allow this to phase my overall reaction to the book.
My second complaint is dealing with Agamemnon. Again, I want to preface this by saying that I understand in the modern art of storytelling, we love a good guy and a bad guy. Those characters need to be made very clear in order for a story to work nowadays, but this distinction didn't exist in ancient times meaning that all of our mythological characters are terribly complex. In this novel, Agamemnon's complexity is taken away from him in favour of him being the big bad wolf. I would love to see the next retelling of Clytemnestra's story be one which explores how Agamemnon came to be who he is and how there is no point of return for him. Was he always this horrible? Was he always aware of his family's curse or did he come to learn of it later in life? When does he start losing faith in the gods considering they continuously punish him? In one version, was he ever trying to free his brother and himself from this disastrous life they were trapped into but he failed? Yes, Casati mentions the cursed house the sons of Atreus are from, but the trauma of this curse is only explored with Aegisthus rather than with Agamemnon. Neither Clytemnestra nor Agamemnon are saints, and I like that Clytemnestra is given the space to be explored in more depth in modern times ... I just wish we could have both characters laid out in these retellings rather than one. But again, I get that this is a product of modern storytelling art rather than a pointed finger at Casati's work, which is why this also did not deter my rating.
All in all, this book is great. It will surprise you every which way even if you have read all the recent Clytemnestra retellings. Absolutely recommend it to anyone and everyone.
Grab The Book Here Using My Affiliate Link- https://amzn.to/40wUoAu
Check out our online article here: www.moaninc.co.uk/books
Follow me on -
Facebook: / moaninc
Instagram: / moaninc
Twitter: / moaninc
Donate Here: https://ko-fi.com/moaninc
#bookreview #greekmythology
Информация по комментариям в разработке