Ithaca

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It also puts into stark relief the oppressive chauvinism of Ancient Greece and its Lost Generation, those men who came of age during and following the Trojan War, too young to fight and die as heroes on foreign shores and without leaders, kings, fathers to guide them, or surviving a long and seemingly pointless war to be confronted with the limited fruits of victory.

The relationship between Penelope and Elektra is a very interesting one and it added a lot to my ever-growing knowledge of Greek mythology, so I definitely think that it’s a book worth reading if you have an interest in these stories. One line you have Hera telling you about someone, and right there appear a slave, a secondary character. The Silence of the Girls and A Thousand Ships offered a feminist perspective, but Ithaca gives Penelope and the women of Ithaca real agency, even as they weaponize their veils and mourning customs, steal every advantage of silence, sex, gossip, and the appearance of meekness, and get away with, well, murder because men can't actually wrap their heads around women as capable and intelligent beings.The pen name of British author Catherine Webb, Claire North is best known for her genre-defying novels that merge science fiction with contemporary themes, including The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, The End of the Day and 84K.

Penelope was hard to get a read on initially, and I felt like I had to push through some of the introduction to get to the good stuff. Having Hera as our narrator brings in the other God’s and she shows just how fickle and unworthy of worship they truly are. North employs the device of having the story narrated by Hera, mother of the gods, allowing her to be all seeing and all-knowing, and see into the hearts and minds of many characters. actually yeah I am sick and tired of “feminist” “retellings” of ancient classics, because I’m tired of the “feminist” label being slapped on otherwise mediocre books as a marketing ploy to make them seem somehow more important than they are in reality, which is: not that fucking much! Her anguish as a mother at watching her son grow into a man and begin to realise that he must distance himself from her should have been a heartbreaking thing to watch, but it felt almost scientific at times.If the kings of Greece find out that you are thinking of raising an army – women – and army of women! Everyone says that Odysseus is surely dead and that Penelope must choose a new husband to become king, but Penelope is faithful and wants to wait. I don't know how much of this was already mentioned briefly in the tales of old, and how much is from Claire North's imagination, but it feels completely seamless – as if this is how the story was meant to be told all along. Many thanks to Redhook Books and NetGalley for granting access to a digital review copy of this novel. Claire North aims to reinvent the Penelopiad, with a feminist slant that captures the quiet, hidden power of Penelope, the maids of Ithaca, and the goddesses of Mount Olympus.

You don't connect with the characters, there are too many of them that have their time in the sun for one second, some appearing just in a line, a couple of dialogue exchanges, a fleeting run by the place. And through the prism of Jason's energetic first-person narrative - that's bursting with black humour, tenderness, and emotion in equal measure - the socially deprived world he is growing up in comes into focus with absolute clarity . So yes, it's about war, too, and what war does to the women left behind, stuck in a culture that tells them they can do nothing even when there is no one else left to do it. Ithaca is a story that focuses on the forgotten women, namely Penelope, wife of Odysseus, and tells the story of how she kept the Kingdom of Ithaca safe and whole while her husband was away.The Oresteia, which covers the lives and deaths of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon and their children, Orestes and Elektra, was also an integral part of this story. so i think if youve never read anything about penelope, this will be a new and interesting story for you. Because she's a goddess, she's able to comment on Penelope's thoughts and actions, as well as those around her.