Gods among us
Day 13 | A fictional book
I'm having an email conversation with a friend about authors, and we've gotten around to the inevitable top 10. I was finally unpacking my books after my move back in, uh, April, so I had a good chance to go back through everything to find my favorites. This one wouldn't make my top 10 list, but I remember really loving this novel at the time.
It's not too surprising that I'd like a novel so interwoven with mythology. The story of Theseus is one of my favorites, and I still remember being asked to relate his story in my MA reading list exam, giving a big sigh of relief since it was a story I knew the best. In this novel, Sherrill supposes that Theseus did not manage to kill the Minotaur in the palace at Cnossos, but the creature slumped off and survived for the next 3,000 years. When we catch up to him, he's working as a short order cook in rural North Carolina. It's a novel about love and longing, and though the Minotaur never speaks, I remember feeling and empathizing with him deeply. I haven't read it since grad school, and I'm sure it's a novel with many flaws, but for a debut novel, it was quite something. Neil Gaiman covers similar ground to many of the themes in this novel, especially in "American Gods." I really wish Gaiman would write something like that again, or even another follow-up in the vein of "Anansi Boys." I guess I'll have to content myself with children's novels for now...
I'm having an email conversation with a friend about authors, and we've gotten around to the inevitable top 10. I was finally unpacking my books after my move back in, uh, April, so I had a good chance to go back through everything to find my favorites. This one wouldn't make my top 10 list, but I remember really loving this novel at the time.
It's not too surprising that I'd like a novel so interwoven with mythology. The story of Theseus is one of my favorites, and I still remember being asked to relate his story in my MA reading list exam, giving a big sigh of relief since it was a story I knew the best. In this novel, Sherrill supposes that Theseus did not manage to kill the Minotaur in the palace at Cnossos, but the creature slumped off and survived for the next 3,000 years. When we catch up to him, he's working as a short order cook in rural North Carolina. It's a novel about love and longing, and though the Minotaur never speaks, I remember feeling and empathizing with him deeply. I haven't read it since grad school, and I'm sure it's a novel with many flaws, but for a debut novel, it was quite something. Neil Gaiman covers similar ground to many of the themes in this novel, especially in "American Gods." I really wish Gaiman would write something like that again, or even another follow-up in the vein of "Anansi Boys." I guess I'll have to content myself with children's novels for now...