MH Thaung reviewed House of Odysseus by Claire North
A clever re-imagining
I haven’t previously read anything by this author. Although this is the second book in a trilogy, I didn’t have any problem starting here.
Overall, I enjoyed the read. I’m not generally a fan of first person, present tense, but it worked well. Perhaps it’s because the narrator is a goddess (Aphrodite), so she’s allowed to be distant from the immediate action as well as somewhat omniscient. She does use modern colloqualisms, which I found tolerable. The main linguistic item I got twitchy about was the frequent use of “barked”.
Be aware the story is (presumably) not intended to be true to canon. It’s best approached as a re-imagining or extra/interpolation inspired by sources such as The Iliad, The Odyssey and the Oresteia. I liked the intrigue. I especially enjoyed the awkward alliances between parties who you’d normally expect to be at odds with each other. There was a clear …
I haven’t previously read anything by this author. Although this is the second book in a trilogy, I didn’t have any problem starting here.
Overall, I enjoyed the read. I’m not generally a fan of first person, present tense, but it worked well. Perhaps it’s because the narrator is a goddess (Aphrodite), so she’s allowed to be distant from the immediate action as well as somewhat omniscient. She does use modern colloqualisms, which I found tolerable. The main linguistic item I got twitchy about was the frequent use of “barked”.
Be aware the story is (presumably) not intended to be true to canon. It’s best approached as a re-imagining or extra/interpolation inspired by sources such as The Iliad, The Odyssey and the Oresteia. I liked the intrigue. I especially enjoyed the awkward alliances between parties who you’d normally expect to be at odds with each other. There was a clear sense of Penelope having to make do with what she had.
The characters were distinctive, including ones who are usually overlooked in the canon texts. Through this re-imagining we got to see eg the maids and the suitors through quite a different lens from the conventional. Menelaos remains odious. Helen’s relationship with him and the other Spartans has interesting nuances. Even though the emphasis is on the women (sneaking around under the brutish, oblivious men’s noses), I found Laertes a hoot.