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Circe

Madeline Miller

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Nov 29, 2017 Louise rated it it was amazing

Shelves: based-on, favorites, special-interest, female-authors, movie-tv-tie-in

What a blissful, rewarding read this was as I journeyed recently through the Australian Outback a place, like Aiaia, steeped in tales of spirits and stories of confrontations - white against black, man against nature, old ways against new.

I adored the novel’s illumination of the tales of mythical creatures and the mortal personalities of the Homeric legend. Circe built soundly and beautifully upon what I had learned of such beings in Miller’s first novel, The Song of Achilles.

I do not imagine th What a blissful, rewarding read this was as I journeyed recently through the Australian Outback a place, like Aiaia, steeped in tales of spirits and stories of confrontations - white against black, man against nature, old ways against new.

I adored the novel’s illumination of the tales of mythical creatures and the mortal personalities of the Homeric legend. Circe built soundly and beautifully upon what I had learned of such beings in Miller’s first novel, The Song of Achilles.

I do not imagine that the decidedly feminist vibe which Miller brings to Circe featured in the corresponding section of Homer’s Odyssey but the voice of Circe ensures that it is a significant element in this modern day retelling of this episode from the ancient classic. Circe’s voice, so strong and vengeful in her dealings with those men in the story desirous of belittling, isolating or violating her is yet fragile, yielding and protective of the men she loves – her son Telegonus and the flawed ‘hero’ Odysseus. Circe unleashes her most wicked, witchly acts upon the evil men she encounters and she delights in the pain her magic inflicts. On turning her would-be rapists into swine, “Their backs bent, forcing them onto hands and knees, faces bloating like drowned corpses. They thrashed and the benches turned over, wine splattered the floor. Their screams broke into squeals. I am certain it hurt.” (p 171)

I was captivated by the language of the novel and have revelled in hearing parts of the story read out loud by a companion. Miller's appraisal of mortals distils the essence of them thus … “No matter how vivid they were in life, no matter how brilliant, no matter the wonders they made, they came to dust and smoke. Meanwhile, every petty and useless god would go on sucking down the bright air until the stars went dark.” (p 138). Miller’s summation of environmental change is no less observant and pertinent… “Three hundred years and more had passed since I had come. The oak that creaked over my head I had known as a sapling. The beach ebbed and flowed, its curves changing with every winter season. Even the cliffs were different, carved by the rain and wind, by the claws of countless scrabbling lizards, by the seeds that stuck and sprouted in their cracks. Everything was united by the steady rise and fall of nature’s breath. Everything except for me.”
(p 250).

I could go on about the marvels of this novel but my endorsement of it was sealed when, in the last two pages of the book, Circe’s Fate is revealed–spine-tingling stuff indeed! In case you hadn't guessed, I highly recommend this amusing, serious, romantic, informative, relevant-to-today novel - it is magnificent! ...more

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Oct 17, 2023 Ellen marked it as to-read

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