Book Rec: MISTRESS OF ROME
Hi! I'm not dead! Just recovering from (a) eking out a first draft of a book in far less time than I ought to have reserved for it, (b) a whirlwind trip to NYC and (c) a head cold that refuses to give way, despite today's generous applications of medicine/humidifier/oranges/"Downton Abbey." But I am poking my swollen stuffy head up to talk about this thing I love.
As those of you who frequent alias500 know, I love me some Roman melodrama. Those of you who love it too should now snap up Kate Quinn's MISTRESS OF ROME. The setting is the reign of Domitian; the principals are melancholy, intelligent slave girl Thea, spoiled nouveau-riche senator's wife Lepida Pollia, tormented slave gladiator Arius, uncertain young nobleman Paulinus, and any number of other well-drawn characters from all walks of life, from a dwarf comedian at the Colosseum to Emperor Domitian himself. It contains: political intrigues, all-knowing astrologers, dinner menus for imperial banquets, orgies, battle sequences, forbidden love, Vestal Virgins, sadistic torture, wisecracking kids, whorehouse scenes and a beloved dog. You could not make me love this book more if you dipped it in chocolate.
(Mind you, it's not without flaws: Quinn plays fast and loose with the historical details of even her most fundamental plot points, and her use of totally modernized language is sometimes a bit jarring. And the head-hopping! You may be in first or third person, limited or omniscient, from page to page. But I have to tell you, I could not have cared less about any of this.)
I already have one of my 2011 yuletide picks! Has anyone else read this, to gush with me about it in comments? If not, why not pick up a copy and keep me company? :D
As those of you who frequent alias500 know, I love me some Roman melodrama. Those of you who love it too should now snap up Kate Quinn's MISTRESS OF ROME. The setting is the reign of Domitian; the principals are melancholy, intelligent slave girl Thea, spoiled nouveau-riche senator's wife Lepida Pollia, tormented slave gladiator Arius, uncertain young nobleman Paulinus, and any number of other well-drawn characters from all walks of life, from a dwarf comedian at the Colosseum to Emperor Domitian himself. It contains: political intrigues, all-knowing astrologers, dinner menus for imperial banquets, orgies, battle sequences, forbidden love, Vestal Virgins, sadistic torture, wisecracking kids, whorehouse scenes and a beloved dog. You could not make me love this book more if you dipped it in chocolate.
(Mind you, it's not without flaws: Quinn plays fast and loose with the historical details of even her most fundamental plot points, and her use of totally modernized language is sometimes a bit jarring. And the head-hopping! You may be in first or third person, limited or omniscient, from page to page. But I have to tell you, I could not have cared less about any of this.)
I already have one of my 2011 yuletide picks! Has anyone else read this, to gush with me about it in comments? If not, why not pick up a copy and keep me company? :D