Circe

I never found this book a page turner, but I loved it from start to finish. Miller's writing is beautiful, and the character she turns Circe into is a wonderfully biting commentator on the affairs of gods and men alike. What she does with this story feels at once very true to the Homeric tradition--in that everything she adds is woven into the mesh of stories that previously existed--and a clearly intentional addressing of the most frustrating things about the old stories. She isn't kind to the macho man heroes of old, but does make them much more interesting, believable characters. In particular the "here's what happened after" she does to the Odyssey deals with everything I find frustrating about that story in a very effective way.

I really enjoyed this book.

I picked it up to read during a week holiday in Greece, I thought it would be fun to learn about some Greek mythology while I was there.

It was - but this book was fun so far beyond just learning about ancient mythology, this was a well-drawn portrait of a deep and complex evolving character.

This book doesn't just tell us about Circe, it takes us along with her on her journey.

It was generally good, although not as great as I expected it to be. It tended to drone on a bit in places.

But good for those who want a quick overview of some parts of Greek mythology, especially about Odysseus.

3,5 estrellas. Si te gusta la mitología, encontrarás interesante está forma de volver a contar acontecimientos desde el punto de vista interno de Circe, un personaje femenino. Engancha, sobre todo la primera parte, pero luego pierde fuerza y se vuelve un poco aburrido para acabar con un buen final. PEEEERO: Ojo con las expectativas. No busques un replanteamiento feminista de los mitos griegos. Aunque probablemente sea la aproximación que más lo hace hasta la fecha, pero porque partimos de algo de una época con un sesgo completamente machista, y ya sólo que la prota sea una mujer cambia todo. Pero de ahí a situarlo como revisión feminista (he visto que hay gente que lo trata así)... creo que el problema puede ser el verse atada a lo ya contado (aunque no tengo yo mucha idea mitológica), porque la verdad creo que podría haber sido mucho más valiente despegándose del canon.

... but it was still really good! (obviously all ya standard trigger warnings for greek mythology that i probably should have considered before reading it but yk)

Heck yes!

After Song of Achilles, this one disappointed me. It felt like a collection of short stories and oh my, so many characters and names to remember.