As I mentioned in an earlier post, I read the second and third book of this trilogy first not realizing it was a trilogy until after I started the second one. Pat Barker won the Booker for another set of historical novels and this appears to be her preferred genre. Most stories about Achilles and the Trojan War focus on the viewpoint of the men fighting. This trilogy focuses on the women in and around Troy who have been captured by the Greeks and have become their slaves.
This novel’s voice is that of Briseis, who was once queen of one of Troy’s neighboring kingdoms before Achilles sacked it and murdered her husband and brothers. She is now Achilles’ slave, a battle prize. She realizes she must adapt in order to survive. She gets caught in a dispute between Agamemnon and Achilles’ with the former demanding to take her away from Achilles. Achilles refuses to fight, the Greeks start to lose, something has to be done or the Trojans will win.
Briseis is just one of thousands of women who are now the slaves of the Greeks. This is not only her story but that of all those other women who are now slaves, prostitutes, nurses, women who lay out the dead. This is their story as well as that of Achilles, Patroclus, and various other Greek men but from the viewpoint of Briseis.
Although my son had been here a couple of times previously, he had never been up Mt. Baldy so we decided to drive a way I had never gone before, the Glendora Mountain Highway. It begins in the mountains above the town of Glendora, CA, and goes approximately 22 miles east where it intersects the highway going up Mt. Baldy at the Mt. Baldy Village. This road is not for the faint of heart. Although in good condition and well paved and two lanes wide, it is narrow and windy and without guard rails. Unfortunately, we did not stop and I was so busy driving, I could not see all the views. Unlike most of the highways and roads up toward the mountains all of which have views to the south, this highway crosses over to the other side so that many of views reveal all the rugged mountains to the north. I will attempt this adventure again, but not alone. For most of the trip we saw no other cars, and there is no cell phone reception up this way so best to have someone along with you if you decide to drive this.
After we intersected the main road, we drove to the top but the very top is blocked off so we turned around and parked to hike to Angel Falls. The following photos were taken on this hike. Most of it is paved, but the very last part up to the falls is steep and gravel and necessitates crossing the stream below the falls. We decided to hike farther up a gravel road that climbs up the mountain where the paved part stops. Angel Falls can be heard long before you can see it. This is a relatively easy hike. Even on a Monday, there were quite a few people headed to the Falls so if you do not want crowds, go on a weekday.
My son was visiting from Ohio and we decided to go on an adventure. Highway 39 used to go up through the mountains north of Azusa and connect with Highway 2. However, due to rockslides the last 4 or so miles, those 4 miles of the highway have been closed for years. We decided to drive as far as we could. You can go around the barrier and continue by hiking farther up over a sort of pass. Although my son did go partway, we did not hike to the top. These are photos along the way where you pass two reservoirs that are now used only for flood control. It is not a difficult drive and a fun activity going up into Los Angeles National Forest–an easy day adventure.
This award winning author has a writing style all his own–both serious and very funny. How anyone can make serious topics so entertainingly funny is a unique gift. The setting of the first is the island of Lesbos when masses of Syrian and other refugees are landing and many NGOs go there to help the refugees. Mina Simpson is a Lebanese American doctor who goes on a two week trip there to help a friend who works for an NGO. Mina is a trans woman who has been rejected by all her Lebanese family except one brother with whom she is very close. He goes there to meet her. This is also the story of a refugee family, the mother of whom is dying from cancer, her small children, her husband, and the NGO people and others who do everything to help this family.
The second is his most recent novel and tells the life story of a philosophy teacher in Beirut. It starts in Beirut in 2023 then goes back to the Covid pandemic and the banking collapse in Lebanon from 2001 to 2021. Then it skips back to his childhood in 1960 to 1975, the Lebanese Civil War in 1975, and later to the port explosion that destroyed much of Beirut. This novel is Lebanese history from the viewpoint of this main character. We learn all about his mother, her best friend who seems to be some kind on international criminal gang leader, some of his students, classmates, and others. While much of it relates horrors of living in dire circumstances, it is also very funny. I found myself frequently laughing.
Note: I enjoyed these two books so much that I intend to read other novels by this author.
The title of this non-fiction book explains what this book is about. The author is emeritus professor of biological science at Southeastern Oklahoma State University and of Cherokee heritage. He cites all the historical findings and current research regarding how natives used fire to control forests and grasslands, the numerous large native cities found both in US and Latin America using lidar technology, and how the colonists were totally mistaken when they thought they had found a land that lacked the influence of humans regarding forestry, farming, orchard keeping, etc.
He notes that the way the indigenous people in the US farmed and maintained orchards was not like those of the Europeans so they thought no one was doing anything and they were incorrect. He also goes into a lot of the history about how European diseases especially brought about the demise (genocide) of millions of native peoples even often those who had not themselves seen Europeans. Many European diseases spread from domesticated animals to humans (he provides a long list) and natives had no immunity. He cites of only one Western Hemisphere disease (syphilis) that went from the Americas to Europe. He claims that there were so few native diseases in this hemisphere because there were no large animals to domesticate.
The way Native Americans farmed, maintained forests, established orchards, etc. was so different from the European way that Europeans thought no one was doing anything productive with the land. To the contrary, they were affecting the land greatly but in ways that were more sustainable. Currently, he notes in the US forest management people have begun to recognize Native American forestry expertise and use it in many places.
After getting started with the first one, I realized the other was a sequel. Later, I learned this is a trilogy but the library did not have the first book of it. This British author won the Booker Prize for another historical trilogy, “The Regeneration Trilogy.” These two books are obviously about the Trojan War. Although “The Women of Troy” begins with Achilles’ son stuck in the Trojan horse, young (16), scared and concerned about how he will live up to his father’s name, most of the book occurs after the Greeks have won the war, Troy is destroyed, most of the Trojan men and boys, including infants, have been killed and the Greeks have built a village below what is left of Troy because they cannot go home. The constant gale winds make it impossible for their fleet of ships to travel. They have been stuck there for years, have become restive, often violent, bored. The women of Troy, even the princesses and other noble women are now slaves to Greek leaders. Most of the book is told from the viewpoint of several women including, Briseis, who once belonged to Achilles and is pregnant with his child but now married to the leader Acinus. Cassandra, the murdered Trojan king’s daughter, has been forced to live with Agamemnon, She has vowed revenge and has prophesied than both of them will die once they reach his Greek kingdom. This novel centers on what life is like for these Trojan women who are the spoils of war, living as slaves in the Greek camp.
“The Voyage Home” centers on the trip from Troy back to Mycenae and the immediate aftermath of their arrival home. It is mostly told from the viewpoint of Ritsa, a healer who has been assigned to watch over Cassandra even though she belongs as a slave to another person, a doctor. Because of her assignment to Cassandra and healing abilities, she has higher status than many others. Part of the story is also told from the viewpoint of Clytemnestra, Agamemnon’s wife, the queen who has been in charge of Mycenae during his ten year absence. For readers who know many of the different myths surrounding her, this novel has a totally different take. It is from the viewpoint of a woman still devastated by the death of her daughter with Agamemnon whom he killed because he was told the gods would give him and his soldiers a good wind to get to Troy if he sacrificed her. He deceived Clytemnestra to achieve this sacrifice and she has never recovered from this loss.
If you enjoy Greek mythes and the different retellings of them and want to experience a different perspective, mostly told from the viewpoint of female characters, you will enjoy these books. I read both in just a few day; I became so interested.
I only acquired this book because the author of “Delights”, Ross Gay, recommended it as one of his favorite books. I almost quit reading it but kept going because I wondered why he loved this book. Perhaps if you watch a lot of movies (I am not a movie person), it would be better because Shields critiques a lot of movies, almost none of which I had ever even heard of. He also seems to prefer non-fiction and critiques a lot of non-fiction essay writers. To be honest even though I read hundreds of books, most of the books he mentions I have never read. His taste apparently differs greatly from mine. I have read Joan Didion, John Cheever, Gertrude Stein, Yeats, as he has and I do agree with him about the essay, “Killing an Elephant”. In this essay George Orwell describes a horrible event he experienced as a young man while working for the British in Burma (now Myanmar). I agree with Shields that this essay describes better the horrors of colonialism and racism better than most books written on those subjects.
What bothers me about this work by Shields is the relentless negativity. I consider myself to be a rather realistic person, often perhaps too blunt for my own good. Nevertheless, I do not view my life or that of others as nearly as hopeless and lonely as Shields seems to view it. Here is a quote from near the end of the book:
“I believe in art as pathology lab, landfill, recycling station, death sentence, aborted suicide note, lunge at redemption. Your art is most alive and dangerous when you use it against yourself. That’s why I pick at my scabs” and four pages later at the end: “I wanted literature to assuage human loneliness, but nothing can assuage human loneliness. Literature doesn’t lie about this–which is what makes it essential.” I know lots of folks talk about the plague of loneliness permeating society these days. He focuses on this relentlessly for 207 pages. Do most people feel this awful a lot of the time? Am I naive? How did I escape it?
These are the first two books of his long career as a writer. Although the cover calls them novels, they are short and what I would call novellas. The most fascinating thing in this publication of the two novels together is his introduction which he wrote in 2014 and where he explains how he unexpectedly became a writer. He begins by explaining that most people in Japanese society follow a certain path–“graduate from school, then find work, then, after sometime has passed, get married.” He did not follow that path: he married, then found work, and finally graduated. He did not want to work for a company; the idea turned him off completely so he decided to open a business, a coffee shop where people could come, hangout, drink coffee, and listen to jazz. He and his wife did not have much money but did manage to put enough together and opened a small coffee shop in 1974. He brought his old piano from his parents’ house to the coffee shop and convinced young jazz musicians to play there for small amounts of money. Some went on to become famous musicians. He and his wife came across some money lying in the street and instead of turning it in to the police used it to pay debts. He spent his twenties running this shop, listening to the music there, making sandwiches, mixing cocktails, typical small restaurant stuff.
He also liked baseball and often went to see his favorite team which he admits was usually not very good and rarely won. Just when the team had a turn of events and seemed to be winning, he suddenly had this thought rush through his mind: “I think I can write a novel.” He claims he still can recall that exact moment and sensation. After the end of the game, he took the train to a store and bought a “sheaf of writing paper and a fountain pen.” Each night after he arrived home from the coffee shop, he went to work writing. It took him six months and a lot of work to write “Hear the Wind Sing”. He admits he had no clue how to write a novel, especially since his favorite novels were 19th century Russian novels and US detective stories. He struggled and almost gave up. He decided to try a new tactic and wrote it in English then translated it into Japanese. He says his English was very simple so that is how he wrote. He decided to submit it to a literary journal, not expecting much. He was shocked when he received a call that his novel had been short-listed for a new writers’ prize. This was a year after his attendance at the baseball game and he had just turned thirty. He had almost forgotten about even submitting the novel. An incident with an injured bird suddenly caused him to think that he was going to win the prize and go on to become a novelist. He wrote “Pinball, 1973” as a sequel. Shortly after, he decided to become a full-time writer and sold the business.
Reading this introduction enlightened me about some of his other works and certain repeating themes and especially settings. In all his novels I have read, music and coffee shops play a role. His novels have characters who know a lot about music; now I know how and why.
writingontherim 