Sed de mar

by Esther Seligson

Yearning for the Sea picks up the story of Homer's Odyssey at the point of Ulysses' return to his wife Penelope, twenty years after the destruction of Troy. He has faced a long struggle to overcome the obstacles interposed by the gods against his return, while she has worked to hold off her obligation to remarry and provide Ithaca with a new ruler. What did this twenty-year separation mean to this man and this woman who, after having loved each other in the flower of their youth, are now re-encountering one another as strangers marked by the separation itself? That is the portal through which Esther Seligson enters into a confessional world of the senses, of sexual desire, of love and its absence, of loneliness, and of nostalgia for lost time and lost youth.

43 pages, Unknown Binding

Published January 1, 1987

Reviews

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Feminist retelling of the aftermath of the Odyssey from three viewpoints: Penelope, who has gone off on her own, the Nurse, and Ulysses, who it seems complains and tries to justifies his absence of so many years. In some places too philosophical and rambling. Although it was not even novella length, I could only read a few pp. at a time.

[Dani Fino · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me agüite

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I received an ARC via publisher as a result of the LIbrarything Early Review program.

One of the reasons why I prefer the Iliad to the Odysseus is because Penelope. It isn’t Penelope herself really. It is Penelope waiting patiently at home surrounded by men who want to marry her and steal her money while her husband is out banging every nymph he comes across as he “struggles” to get home. I think I always wanted Penelope to whack him upside the head. When I got older, it was also because Penelope would have been killed if she had, understandably, declared her husband was dead and remarried.

It sucks to be Penelope.

Seligson, a Mexican/Jewish author, tackles the question of what Penelope was thinking and even doing while she waited those years for her husband to return, even when bards would come to the palace and sing about Ulysses banging away on a nymph.
Seligson’s Penelope’s solution to the problem isn’t to take a battle axe to her husband’s head, though I would not blame her. Nor is to demonize the other women, which is something that we see other writers do. Circe is good so Penelope must not be good, and so on. This trend occurs in the most popular retellings, like redeeming a woman in a male centered story means making all women worse than the men. Seligson does not do this, and in it is so refreshing. There is a level of understanding between Penelope and Eurycleia that speaks at a deeper connect, two women in world where they are not deemed important. Sisterhood is not the right word; it is far truer than that.

The story is told through four voices, though Telemachus who starts the story has the shortest and briefest account. His letter serves little more than an introduction to the meat of the story. Penelope’s letters make the meat of the story but both Eurycleia and Ulysses have voices too. The voices do match the historic literary characters.

The novella is actually a version of Penelope that deserves far more attention.

[Mar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Si por lo menos te atrevieras a decirme con firmeza que me he equivocado, que no espere, que no llame, que amarte es inútil porque solo muevo en ti lejanía...

[Blue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful and intense, this reimagining of Odysseus's homecoming finds Penelope gone to retrace his journey that took him too long to traverse. She's left him a letter, which her son, by way of her nurse, delivers in chunks. Having given up waiting for him only after twenty years, just as he's arriving back, having concluded that he must have stopped loving her and he must have, mustn't he, enjoyed, even relished the distractions and barriers to his return, their re-encounter, Penelope laments the time she spent waiting for him, the lust and longing she buried for him, the time game she invented, and wonders whether she was more herself in his absence than before he left. Certainly a bit dense in certain passages, Esther Seligson's tale requires several re-reads and gets under the skin to linger there for a good while.

Thanks to the publisher and LibraryThing for a free copy. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

[Di con letras · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sed de mar es la reescritura del mito de Penélope de manera epistolar. La perspectiva de Penélope, después la carta de la nodriza a Ulises, la respuesta de Ulises a la nodriza y finalmente la carta de Penélope con un giro inesperado. Me gusta mucho la escritura de Esther Seligson porque da voz a las mujeres, aún a las mitológicas, y pone de manifiesto que la otra versión es igual de importante e interesante, ademas su prosa es maravillosa, cada frase está construida cuidadosamente y el lector siempre tiene que pensar, imaginar y analizar conforme va avanzando la lectura.

[Gina T · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this novel through a LibraryThing giveaway.

I enjoy retellings of classic tales so I entered this giveaway. I was expecting something along the lines of Circe. This is not Circe. It's a very slim novel telling Penelope's story from four viewpoints. Of course, Penelope's voice was the most compelling, raw, angry and emotional. I had an hour to kill one day and read it all in one sitting, fascinated by the author's approach and vision for the story. The Introduction and Translator's notes helped me appreciate the story more.

This story reminded me of my mid-life crisis several years ago, where my anger and resentment led me to take action that was puzzling to some people. The pain of staying exceeded the fear of leaving, so I left. This led to an uncomfortable but ultimately satisfying path. I wish Esther Seligson would have continued Penelope's story and I would read it.