Three reasons for me choosing Circe; as with the whole world, Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey has triggered interest in Greek myth. It had received a fabulous review on The Book Club podcast. And my wife loved it, and she has excellent taste.
And I loved it also. Lyrical, charming, deceptively simple, the prose is a joy to read. A retelling of famous myths, but from the feminine perspective of Circe, daughter of the sun god Helios.
For somebody with just a passing interest in Greek mythology it’s packed full of familiar names… Zeus, Helios, Odysseus, Icarus, Hermes, and monsters such as the Minotaur, and Syclla. How cleverly Miller weaves all these together from the original stories into a single narrative with Circe at the centre is perhaps lost on me, but everything flows in a seamlessly interconnected way.
The dialogue is lovely mix of ancient structure with modern phrases, creating a whole world of its own.
I’ll definitely look for a copy of her Song of Achilles which my sources tell me is as good if not better.
