(no subject)
I've always sided with the Trojans in the Trojan War. That's an absurd thing to say, of course, but it's true. Maybe I have a thing for underdogs. Or, more likely, it's because I read Virgil before I read Homer. By the time I got to The Iliad, the Greeks were already the enemy. So I was surprised, when I read David Malouf's novel Ransom, to find myself more strongly drawn to Achilles, the hardened hero of the Greeks, than to Priam, the elderly king of Troy.
Ransom is a contemporary retelling of one small episode from the vast and teeming Iliad. Malouf picks up the story after Priam's son Hector, the greatest warrior among the Trojans, has been slain and his body defiled by Achilles; the main action of the book is Priam's journey into the Greek camp to ransom his son's body so he may be brought home for a proper burial. As with all Greek and Roman stories, there is interference from the gods--Iris appears to Priam and spurs him into action, and Hermes protects him as he moves among the Greeks--but Malouf minimizes the divine presence to concentrate on the human elements of the story. He gives us Priam's desperation as king of a besieged city, a lovely image of the intimacy between Priam and his wife Hecuba, and a convincing portrayal of the difficulty of change in a society bound by tradition.
Malouf's depiction of Priam is skillful, but I found his portrait of Achilles even more powerful. Ransom opens with beautifully written 40-page section devoted to Achilles in which we see him hollowed by grief for Patroclus, compulsively dragging Hector's body behind his chariot day after day, simulating the rage he believes he should feel in order to hide the blank, dead feeling he actually carries inside. Malouf writes this section as a series of short scenes full of language so beautiful I felt compelled to read it out loud. It is pitch perfect, moving, and gorgeous. Although the remainder of the book is certainly worth reading, none of it is quite as wonderful as those first 40 pages.
It would be helpful to have some knowledge of the story of the Trojan War, it's not necessary to be an expert in order to appreciate this book. Malouf does a good job of blending in back story without allowing it to feel clunky, and he's excellent at balancing the abstractions of epic with the specificity and detail that are necessary to the novel. His descriptive writing is a delight, especially when he's writing about nature.
Way back in 1999, I read Malouf's An Imaginery Life, a novel based on Ovid's last years. I think it may be worth revisiting.
Ransom is a contemporary retelling of one small episode from the vast and teeming Iliad. Malouf picks up the story after Priam's son Hector, the greatest warrior among the Trojans, has been slain and his body defiled by Achilles; the main action of the book is Priam's journey into the Greek camp to ransom his son's body so he may be brought home for a proper burial. As with all Greek and Roman stories, there is interference from the gods--Iris appears to Priam and spurs him into action, and Hermes protects him as he moves among the Greeks--but Malouf minimizes the divine presence to concentrate on the human elements of the story. He gives us Priam's desperation as king of a besieged city, a lovely image of the intimacy between Priam and his wife Hecuba, and a convincing portrayal of the difficulty of change in a society bound by tradition.
Malouf's depiction of Priam is skillful, but I found his portrait of Achilles even more powerful. Ransom opens with beautifully written 40-page section devoted to Achilles in which we see him hollowed by grief for Patroclus, compulsively dragging Hector's body behind his chariot day after day, simulating the rage he believes he should feel in order to hide the blank, dead feeling he actually carries inside. Malouf writes this section as a series of short scenes full of language so beautiful I felt compelled to read it out loud. It is pitch perfect, moving, and gorgeous. Although the remainder of the book is certainly worth reading, none of it is quite as wonderful as those first 40 pages.
It would be helpful to have some knowledge of the story of the Trojan War, it's not necessary to be an expert in order to appreciate this book. Malouf does a good job of blending in back story without allowing it to feel clunky, and he's excellent at balancing the abstractions of epic with the specificity and detail that are necessary to the novel. His descriptive writing is a delight, especially when he's writing about nature.
Way back in 1999, I read Malouf's An Imaginery Life, a novel based on Ovid's last years. I think it may be worth revisiting.